Page 134 - Winterling's Chasing the Wind

In January 1984, I was given the Award for Outstanding Service by a Broadcast
Meteorologist by the American Meteorological Society. From Channel 4’s new tower
camera, I recorded time-lapse pictures of the sky with different kinds of weather. I
added appropriate music for each sequence and showed it at the national A.M.S.
Broadcasters meeting in Chicago.

In 1987, the AMS honored me by electing me Fellow of the American Meteorological
Society. Having been asked to research weather-related accidents for several attorneys
over the years, I applied for and passed the AMS Board requirements to be a Certified
Consulting Meteorologist in 1989. In 1990, Jacksonville University presented me with
their Distinguished Alumni Award.

CHAPTER 40 - Computers and TV Weather
In 1977, I met with AMS meteorologists Peter Leavitt (WSI), Mark Eubank (SLC) and
Elliott Abrams (Penn State) at the University of Wisconsin for a seminar on computers.
We learned of the McIdas computer and of the early stages of computer graphics. Terry
Kelly, a local broadcaster was in the process of developing Colorgraphics. I became
acquainted with the difference between software and hardware. This was very useful in
diagnosing problems when WJXT got our first computer in 1980. We received our
weather data (temperatures and satellite images) through a telephone modem. The
Colorgraphics software determined how the computer would transfer the signal to
images and weather data.

There were several surprises when we started using the computer live on TV.
Sometimes the data was faulty causing the computer to freeze. Our first computer only
had 15 or 16 different colors. There was not enough memory on the hard drive for many
images, so we used commands to enter the numbers on the map. A glitch in the phone
signal would occasionally cause some unrealistic temperatures. A command to fill a
certain polygon on the map with a color during the broadcast would find a broken
border of the polygon that caused the color to spill out, filling all open areas that had no
boundaries.

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