I became interested in Amateur radio through my interest in weather. I became a trained SKYWARN spotter in the Philadelphia area via training conducted by the Philadelphia National Weather Service in Mount Holly NJ at the Marple-Newtown Amateur Radio Club . From there, I determined that it would be a good idea to get a ham license to better participate during SKYWARN activation.
My interest in weather goes way back to first grade, when I experienced Hurricane Donna in Philadelphia. As of 1998, Hurricane Donna was rated the sixth most intense hurricane to hit the US this century, and it was the only hurricane to maintain hurricane strength while moving inland up most of the US eastern coast and was still a hurricane when its effects reached Philadelphia.
My college experience included work at the NWS in Silver Spring MD at the SSL (not the same as NSSL in Norman OK) where a team of meteorologists were developing severe storm forecast models. Severe storm forecasting has improved considerably since this work in the mid 1970's.
The background photo on this page shows some impressive mammatus clouds seen while I was on a storm chasing trip in June of 1998 with Cloud 9 Tours . Considering the scarcity of severe weather in the Plains this year, it was an impressive experience which included sightings of some weak tornados, including one that actually hit our vehicle (lucky it was weak ... almost certainly a F0) ... the first time I have ever seen a real tornado. Since then, I have taken another storm chasing trip and again experienced a small tornado, this time from a distance.
More recently, I have become very active in the local Skywarn organization. I am currently the chairman of the Mount Holly Skywarn Technical Committee which interfaces with the Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) and the Skywarn Spotters to keep the program running, and plans events such as the annual Special Event Station to kick of Hazardous Weather Awareness Week in Pennsylvania. With the expertise and assistance of Steve WX3FRD , Gwen NG3P , and Stephanie WX3K (to name a few), I have been working on a webcasting of our weekly Skywarn nets so that those either out of normal reception range or those spotters who are not licensed hams (not a requirement for spotters) can be more involved. I am also currently the Skywarn coordinator for Chester County in Pennsylvania, and am responsible for interfacing with Chester County Skywarn spotters in the event of severe weather. For further information on Mount Holly Skywarn, including upcoming events, check out WX2PHI Mount Holly Skywarn .
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since 14 February, 2001