Thanks for Another Great Year at the MDA Telethon

What a great day it was and before I go to bed tonight I wanted to make sure I thank you for all your support at the MDA Telethon. It has become a proud tradition at WLFI and I cannot believe I have taken part in this for almost 10 years. It certainly has become a wonderful part of my life and the great part is that each year we seem to have better news to share with you and it starts with all your contributions.

Kathryn Dolan, Seth Conley, Sue Scott, Gina Quattrocchi, and Jeff Smith did a stellar job and they certainly should be put up on our star board as some of this community's shining stars. Locally, over 319,000 dollars was raised which was about 40,000 dollars more than last year. What is raised locally, stays local which is even more rewarding. Nationally, close to 64 million dollars was raised compared to about 61 million dollars last year. The firefighters across our great country were the biggest contributors and here locally we can be very proud that our firefighters that raised well over 100,000 dollars. They are certainly our heroes in more ways than one. For those that gave much smaller contributions we thank you too! Every little bit does add up and help as we are certainly coming close to a cure for not just a few of the neuromuscular diseases, but all 40 of them.

I constantly rave about this very giving community we live in and today was a great example of why. You should have seen all the hard work put forth by the volunteers behind the scenes and I cannot thank Purdue enough for the first-class staff and facilities that helped make today possible. Tomorrow, I will make sure to share some pictures with you. Have a wonderful night. I certainly will sleep good thanks to all your support.

Spectacular Start to September Just in Time for the MDA Telethon & My Wedding Anniversary

Courtesy of Monty Sloan

Hello, I really missed checking in with you. I am officiallly off work the rest of the week spending good time with my family and getting ready to replace my kitchen floor. If you want to come over and help me, please let me know. I am not the handiest guy in the world, but I am going to give 110%. Help, please help! Okay, I will regain my composure.

This weekend will certainly be a special one for me. It is hard to believe I will be celebrating my 12th wedding anniversary. You see I put a romantic picture of the moon above just for Julie. Julie has been the best wife I could have ever imagined and without her I certainly would not have been able to do what I love every night on television. I met her at a television station in Jacksonville, Florida and she was by far the most talented and beautiful reporter I have ever met. She decided that one of us in this crazy business was enough. Well, she was right like she always is and I really could never thank her enough for all her support not just as a wife, but as my best friend. She also deserves an award for the best Mom of the year. While I am giving the weather she is basically in charge of running 3 girls around town to all their extra-cirricular activities. If there was ever a super woman it is Julie! Now I have to regain my composure again....

I picked a great time to take off work. The weather is not just quiet, it is boring which is very unusual in Indiana.This beautiful picture above of the moon at Wolf Park on Tuesday night was a good omen for a beautiful weather pattern shaping up as we get ready to head into September. Yes, the wolves were howling with the rest of us. But we really need boring weather so that we can get all of those important plans in this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, I am going to go pick up my tux today for the MDA Telethon which begins on Sunday night and runs through 6:30 p.m. Monday. It has become a proud tradition of ours here at TV-18 to not only celebrate having a holiday weekend with barbeques, apple pies, and family but more importantly spreading the news that we are getting closer each and every year to finding a cure for muscular dystrophy thanks to your help. It is amazing how far we have come and all the medical advances made over the years. It truly was a dream when the telethon started in the 1960's to somehow make a difference, but here in the 21st Century, the dream is now a reality. We are closer than ever to really finding a cure and giving plenty of hope for those with Muscular Dystrophy and in the meantime helping them live their life as normal as possible.

I had the pleasure to chat with Miriam Whitlock, her camp counselor Bridget, and most of her family. She was truly an inspiration to me and she has plenty of great camp stories to share with us over the weekend. Miriam is a seventh-grader at Wea Middle School. Her twin sisters Hannah and Faith you see in the picture are first graders at Mayflower Mill. They were absolute dolls and loved all the lights and of course the weather wall at the TV station. Hannah wants to be a TV Meteorologist and she certainly is well on her way. Jeff Smith, Gina Q, Sue Scott, Special K. Dolan, Seth Conley, and I are all really excited about this year. We are looking forward to a record-setting year. This could be the year that puts us over the top in our fight with Muscular Dystrophy. That is how close we are. Thanks in advance for all your support and have a wonderful weekend.

I also appreciate all your support throughout the year! Happy September and enjoy this refreshing weather while we have it. September will likely be another hotter than average month and we will dry back out with below average rainfall. October holds hope for more typical weather. I will have more on this here on the blog by Monday and be back to normal at work on Tuesday. Take care.

Picture Perfect for TV-18's Day of Caring & the Morning Eclipse

The Chavez Family thanking the Weatherman for a perfect day!

It was a memorable day and it is a good thing the weather cooperated! Today our television station took part in a Habitat for Humanity project. We were building a home for the Chavez family. This is a big year for them. Not only are they looking forward to their first home, but their first baby is due in December. Mr. Chavez told me this will be the best Christmas ever for him and his wife. I was very proud to be a part of this project and our station is involved with this project to show a small token of our appreciation. Without you the community we would not even exist. We are Lafayette proud and it is not just a slogan, but a way of life.


The blue shirts of WLFI hard at work!


Kappa Sigma assisted us and became the first Purdue organization to sponsor a Habitat home

Hopefully this becomes an annual event. I not only hammered away this morning with my co-workers, but helped to raise the dry wall! I still have all ten fingers and I have Sue Scott to thank for that. She was one of our best workers and even made sure I used galvenized nails when necessary. I made sure everybody had enough water and stayed hydrated when it started to heat up. But overall I will remember it as one of my best days ever since becoming a television meteorologist in 1995! This even beats being on the beach during a hurricane, by a long shot. I want to thank Doug Taylor, who is the executive director and all the volunteers. This was also a special home because it was the 150th home Habitat for Humanity has built in Lafayette and their goal is to build 85 more in the next 5 years! The future certainly is bright.

Nature certainly came through for our weather team today. It may have been close to 90 degrees, but the low humidity made it just right for building a home. This morning everybody is still talking about the lunar eclipse. In case you missed it, here are a few pictures you can enjoy!


Courtesy of Bill Snyder

Wow, what a sight! A total lunar eclipse only happens about twice a year and the next one will not take place until February. What you are looking at is the earth's atmosphere being projected on the moon. If you were on the moon you would notice the earth blocking most of the sunlight and you would be able to see all of the earth's sunrises and sunsets taking place at the same time! This gives the moon its special glow. The more storms on earth the darker the red-orange or coppery color.


Courtesy of Schven Bigosh of White County

Schven did a picture timelapse for us from when the lunar eclipse started to when it finished. It certainly looks like somebody took a big bite out of the moon!


It was amazing how fast the moon seemed to be disappearing.


The moon's just about eclipsed.


Eclipse completed!

This will be the last lunar eclipse of 2007, and for the next one in 2008 you will need a heavy coat because it takes place on February 21, 2007. Now we can focus on the upcoming holiday weekend! I think we willl have plenty to smile about like Mollly below. She was the winner of the biggest doggie smile contest at Columbian Park last week.

Tonight, I will give you plenty to smile about. See you soon and thanks for reading.

Full Moon & Total Lunar Eclipse Alert Tonight!

It was a great weekend. I will get to the lunar eclipse, but first things first. I had a wonderful time emceeing at the always exciting Little Miss-Little Mister & Miss Camden pageant. I cannot believe it was already my third year at one of my favorite events. Time does fly when you are having fun. Here are a few pictures from Saturday.


Garrett Tomson-Camden's Little Mister 2007


From left to right: Little Miss: Taylor Williams, Miss Camden:Denise Kendall, Little Mister Garrett Tomson, and Camden Golden Star Marge Seiber

I even found a new weather watcher for the town of Camden. I am always looking for more weather watchers outside of Tippecanoe County. So e-mail me at storm@wlfi.com if you are interested.

We really are in need of more weatherwatchers not only in Carroll County, but Cass County, Pulaski County, Warren County, Fountain County, and Montgomery County. The more eyes and ears I have out there, the safer we will all be. Welcome aboard Krista Tomson, our new weatherwatcher from Camden!



I also enjoyed visiting Dayton on Saturday so I could call off the rain and greet folks at the soggy Wabash River Cycle Century Ride. It did stop raining! I was amazed by the large turn-out. Andy Hersch and company tell me it rains almost every year so the cyclists are ready for it. I will have to make sure to remember this when forecasting next year.

My Saturday was highlighed by meeting Miriam and her family and friends to prepare for next weekends MDA telethon. You will find out more on Miriam. She has quite a story to tell that still has me fired up for this coming up MDA weekend! She certainly brought out the sunshine on a rainy Saturday morning. Speaking of sunshine, we will give Miriam all the credit for the weather clearing up for the second part of our weekend.

The weather was so great on Sunday it helped raise record amounts of money to help find a cure for Muscular Dystrophy. Special kudos and thanks go out to the Lafayette Fire Department for filling up their boots with close to 50,000 dollars. The Harley bike riders were there for Jerry's kids as always and raised over $100,000 dollars with their 100 mile bike trip, and today the weather looks just right for the Bear Raffle at 5:30 p.m. to help raise money to fight Muscular Dystrophy.

This is what makes this community special. Not only is it a special place to live, but we have the most giving community you will find anywhere. These intangibles are usually left out of all the "best places to live" surveys. If the really important things were taken into account, Lafayette would be in the top 10 in every single survey out there, without a doubt. We also have some of the best weather when it comes to change and variety. Tonight we will look to the sky for a total lunar eclipse. Check it out above! It will be first thing tomorrow morning and it will coincide with being a full moon. It should be breath-taking.

Contrary to all the rumors out there, there will not be two full moons in the sky tonight. Mars will not be as big and bright as the moon. This is called the Mars hoax that began in 2003. I will have more on this tonight. Mars will actually be closest to the earth in December and it will outshine all the other stars and planets, but certainly not the moon and it will be just a speck in the sky. Nature caught us up on rainfall in a hurry last week. That was certainly no hoax! I will also have more on this during the newscast tonight! Choose to make it a great day!

Nature's Double Whammy: First the Heat, Now the Big Thunderstorms

We have been very lucky so far this year in the Lafayette viewing area when it comes to severe weather. The graphic above tells it all. Severe weather in this case is defined as having wind gusts of 58 mph or greater and or nickel-size hail or larger and or having a tornado. The huge ridge of high pressure that allowed the drought to spread into the Midwest not only detoured most of our rain, but severe weather.

If you look back at our past history it is very rare to have both a quiet Spring and early Summer storm season and a quiet late Summer and autumn severe weather season. So yes we are long overdue for some rough weather in more ways than one. I hope I am wrong that this will all catch up to us.

We have been lucky because fronts from the north have not been able to break the huge heat ridge down. But now that we are in late August, some areas in Canada have lost about 6 hours of daylight. This has allowed cooler air masses to really build up. This creates more formidable fronts that willl bring better chances of rain and thunderstorms here in the Midwest. Case in point, you can see what happened last night. Much of the upper Midwest, including extreme northern Indiana was rattled with severe thunderstorms.




That is right some areas across northern Illinois had wind gusts registered near 100 mph or what you would typically see in a category 2 hurricane. Everywhere you see the flags above registered wind speeds of 60 mph or greater. Valparaiso had wind gusts of 80 mph, South Bend and Gary had wind gusts to 60 mph, and there was a tornado reported in Will County. I did a couple of cut-ins and tons of crawls. We did have a tornado warning for Newton County for the second consecutive night, but the good news was the rotation did not reach the ground. Amazingly, we had no storm damage once again here at home.

Today and tonight this could certainly change. This same nasty front that has a history of producing severe weather will move our way. Our weather team will watch it closely for you. Just make sure to have a Plan B, stay alert, and stay tuned to News Channel 18. We will do cut-ins as necessary again tonight. Hopefully the front will slow down and come through late tonight sparing our high school football games and limit our severe weather, but right now it looks like storms will be on the increase by late today and this evening. Here is a map showing the main threats.



We also cannot rule out localized flooding and isolated tornadoes. But right now it looks like lightning and damaging wind gusts will be our main trouble-makers. We will have a nice weekend to look forward to once we get through tonight, so just stay calm and stay positive. I will see you soon hopefully with better news, but either way we are now prepared.

Ring of Fire Pattern, May Fire Up Severe Weather for Us

I have been busy running errands, cutting my tall grass, cleaning the house, and finishing all those little things. I am preparing for possible severe weather in our viewing area that could basically pop anytime now between late today and Saturday. Make sure to tune in tonight for more details. I will also catch up on posting pictures I think you will enjoy here on the blog and yes your winter forecast which we talked a little bit about on the 11 p.m. news last night. Thanks for your patience. Now it is crunch time. See you soon.

Weather Goes to the Dogs Today & To the Snow Geese this Winter

It is a big day! It is Hike with your Hound Day at Columbian Park. You can see Tank above in his Superman costume last year. The pets will only briefly dress up because it will be so hot out today. We have got real dog day weather and this is a good reminder to make sure you have a cool place for your pet and that their water bowl is filled up. Dogs cannot cool themselves down as efficiently as humans. The Hike will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and the contests begin at 7:15 p.m. at Memorial Island. The contests include: Best Trick, Best Costume, Dog/Owner Look-a-Like, and Biggest "Doggie" Smile. The weather and this day is certainly all about the dogs.

Today, I have the biggest "doggie" smile you have ever seen. That is right I have started your winter forecast and for all those that really know me, you know that only means one thing. Check back to see what year this winter could resemble (smile grows even bigger). I think the snow geese will be happy and fed well. Snow geese is the affectionate term I use to all those that love snow like I do. Speaking of snow, here is another example of why so many are thankful for the big rain this week. So far this year we have had more snow than rain! Take a look!



We have had 31 inches of snow in 2007, compared to 24.6 inches of rain. This is incredible. But it gets even better. Thanks to the blizzard in February our actual total yearly precipitation is actually .08" above average. This is incredible, especially when you consider 62% of the state of Indiana was in drought conditions as of last week.

Peggy in Shadeland received a grand total of 4.75 inches of rain Sunday and Monday and it was the highest amount of rain in the entire state! The Wabash Valley effect strikes again. To answer yesterday's blog question....if this was snow how much would we have had? Would we have had more than the blizzard of 2007? Well, here in Indiana we usually have a snow ratio of 10 inches of snow for every inch of rain. New research has this number closer to 13 to 1. But we will use the 10 to 1 ratio for simplicity. So Peggy in Shadeland would have had 47.5 inches of snow if this week's rain had been snow! This would have almost tripled our 17 inches of snow we received during our snowiest blizzard on record! Here were the official snow totals from that great day that I will always remember.



Now I will leave you on edge with time to ponder if this winter could bring yet another blizzard. Is it really possible? Just remember the late 1970s when nature went back to back on us with the Blizzard of 1977 and the Blizzard of 1978. Could history repeat itself? What are your thoughts. I will have my thoughts later today with your first official sneak peak to your winter forecast. Let it snow, let is snow, let it snow....