Page 109 - Winterling's Chasing the Wind

February, I drove to his potato farm where has was able to harvest a bumper crop when
neighboring farmers were just planting. He had the advantage getting a higher price for
his crop than the ones that were harvested three months later. I filmed the sorting and
packing process to share with our Channel 4 viewers. Thigpen talked with me about
agriculture and weather and invited my wife and me to their house where we enjoyed a
delicious home-cooked meal.

On one Saturday morning, I learned of tornado-like damage on Jacksonville’s Westside
A tropical low from the Gulf coast had passed over northeast Florida causing high
winds in the Normandy-Park Street section of Jacksonville. Damage exceeded
$300,000 as it downed WPDQ radio towers on Normandy Blvd. I surveyed the area
and filmed where large oak trees were uprooted near Cassatt Avenue and Park Street
since people in most parts of the city were not aware of the local event. On summer
afternoons, I frequently drove to film areas where thunderstorms flooded streets,
downed trees and produced brief isolated tornadoes. Those were the days before
Doppler radar and the Weather Bureau was not aware of those events. These were the
days when the newscasts seldom reported isolated local weather variations, but they
were a regular part of my weathercasts.

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