The Impact of Extreme Weather Events: My Account

On Friday, my cowriter Jacob Wilkins wrote a piece about the impact that extreme weather events have on meteorologists and the biases they have towards other events. It was very well written, and captured the real struggle that some meteorologists face when writing forecasts and handling certain situations. I am here to tell my account of that.

I have always been interested in meteorology. As long as I can remember, the weather has fascinated me. I have always loved intense weather, and I have a very tough time coping with boring weather. I often wish for bad weather (never for the negative effects of it), and that is not necessarily a good thing. There is not one event that has defined my love for meteorology and bias for extreme weather, but there are two stretches of time that have really made it hard for me to appreciation 75ºF and partly cloudy: January 29th-March 8th, 2008 and April of 2011. Those two stretches changed my life completely, and have influenced my thought process within meteorology in a significant way.

The stretch from January 29th-March 8th, 2008 still amazes me. When have we had 3 significant weather events back to back to back like we had then? We had a significant squall line in late January, then we had one of the most significant severe weather outbreaks in years only one week later. Then, one month later, I was impacted by the most snowfall of my lifetime that I can remember.

January 29th was such an odd event, as much of that morning we received rainfall across the area. Typically, especially in January, rainfall will kill the marginal instability required for severe weather. However, there was a major air mass change behind the cold front, and this led to a major cold front forcing a strong line of storm to race across the state. This led to significant wind damage and a major drop in temps.

h/t spc.noaa.gov
The storm reports for the January 29th storms. h/t spc.noaa.gov

Only a week later, I remember being very excited about the potential for the severe weather outbreak on 2/5/2008. I have found that before significant outbreaks of severe weather, I can’t sleep before the event. And honestly, I was in 6th grade and didn’t know too much about forecasting or the incredible dynamics the atmosphere would feature that day. Nevertheless, I was so excited. People would ask me about the event and what I thought about it, and I just remember explaining how excited I was.

The SPC storm reports for 2/5/2008. h/t spc.noaa.gov
The SPC storm reports for 2/5/2008. h/t spc.noaa.gov

Knowing what I know now, and how bad that day was, that excitement was a bad thing. I woke up late that night to tornado warnings across the area, and my family was freaking out. I was like a kid in a candy store. The idea of a squall line coming through with stronger winds fascinated me so much, and though I didn’t want a tornado in the least bit, I really wanted to experience a significant squall line.

This was the squall line as it passed through my area on the night of 2/5/2008. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lmk/

Now, a more wintry system slammed us almost exactly a month later. A low pressure system developed in the western Gulf of Mexico, and then deepened as it moved into the southern United States. It took almost the ideal track, as it tracked up and through Atlanta, Georgia and then on up into Pennsylvania. The strength with which is depend and hit was amazing, and Kentucky saw some really cool aspects that are rarely seen across the area. We saw higher snowfall rates, and then we saw several reports of convective snowfall across the area.

Snowfall totals for the March 7th snowstorm. h/t http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lmk/
Snowfall totals for the March 7th snowstorm. h/t http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lmk/

This system spurned areas like Bowling Green, and Lexington, but gave Louisville its biggest snowfall in years with 14″. I received around 9″ of snowfall at my house, and it all melted by the next day. What joy.


There are so many things I can say about April 2011 and how it impacted me. It was the busiest tornado month on record by far and was also the deadliest month for tornadoes in years. This activity not only fascinated me then, it fascinates me to this day. We had 3 consecutive days of significant tornado activity across the southern US, and it was all capped off by the most hyper-active severe weather day that I can remember.

The SPC storm reports for 4/27/11. h/t spc.noaa.gov
The SPC storm reports for 4/27/11. h/t spc.noaa.gov

April 27th is a day that will always haunt me and fascinate me. It was a total blessing in disguise because we got rainfall in the afternoon, and that prevented instability from being too significant. It haunts me because that day is my favorite day to study meteorologically. I love understanding how unbelievably primed the atmosphere was to have 90% of its supercells produce tornadoes; yet, I hate that day. That day caused so much pain across the country, and yet it fascinates me. The little that we still know about that day makes me want to understand it even more.


So how has all of this impacted me? Significantly, to be quite honest. I have a hard time not looking for severe weather events in the long range or wanting severe weather events to occur. These events have created a fundamental bias towards the rush that is given from experiencing and forecasting for severe weather events. Young meteorologists are so easily swayed by bad weather, and no one seems to understand why. Just understand that even though we hate the destruction and pain that is often brought by severe weather events, their impact and our fascination with them is what drives us to be better meteorologists. These extreme events keep us striving to forecast better and get better. The only problem is, its hard not to want to experience these events.