Page 129 - Winterling's Chasing the Wind

This was the El Nino year where a rainy winter produced a lot of vegetation that turned
very flammable in the spring drought. The first thunderstorms of the summer season
had ignited multiple wildfires.

The year of 1999 started with a New Year’s trip to Tempe, Arizona, and the Fiesta
Bowl. Although FSU lost to Tennessee, Virginia and I enjoyed taking our
granddaughter Sarah to the southern rim of the Grand Canyon, stopping near Flagstaff
where there was snow on the roadside to snap her picture. We had to wait six hours for
our return flight to arrive in Phoenix due to fog in California. Consequently, we were
too late to catch our connecting Delta flight in Dallas. After spending the night in
Dallas hotel, we returned to Jacksonville and Sarah missed a day of school.

CHAPTER 38 - Making Community Contacts
During my broadcasting career, I enjoyed getting to see weather from the perspective
of various users of the forecasts. In the 1970s, I got to go fishing in the Atlantic about 6
miles offshore with George Bull. He was fishing for tarpon, as were several other boats
at the time. Suddenly, we saw a few people in the water where their boat had sunk. As
they were soon rescued by other fishermen, we learned that they had started their
engine to go to another location, but forgot to raise their anchor. The line simply
yanked their boat underwater. A few hours later, a thunderstorm that was inland
crossed the coast and heavy rains fell like a dark curtain, soon drenched us while
churning the sea with waves up to five feet. I enjoyed the experience, confident that
Captain Bull would return us to Mayport safely.

In 1975 during one of my speaking engagements, I met Dr. Steve Browder, Head of the
Physics Department at Jacksonville University (JU). He informed me that the
Department had a meteorology class that was lacking a teacher. Upon learning that I
had a Bachelor of Science degree from Florida State University, he asked me to teach
the class at JU. I immediately accepted since I often thought of my profession as being
one informing and educating the public about the weather. I had the pleasure of
meeting hundreds of aspiring students for the next 17 years, sharing films, slides and
my experiences in the world of weather. Consequently, I crossed paths with dozens of
them in the community during the latter part of my broadcasting career.

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