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Counting down….
Decatur Celebration is here and this weekend looks really nice weather wise! It wouldn't be a celebration weekend if it wasn't hot and that's exactly the case on Sunday. Make sure you stay hydrated if you are going to head downtown. If you are headed to the parade on Saturday wave really big so I can wave back in the parade.
On another note I won't be here all next week as Ashley and I are headed to the Dominican Republic for vacation! We are going to be in Bavaro on the east coast of the Dominican. We are praying the weather will be nice so we can enjoy some time away.
Finally Ashley and I are going to be proud dog parents as we will be bringing home Wrigley! He is an 8 week old Golden Retriever puppy. Ill have to post pictures when we get him.
Have a great and safe weekend and I'm sure ill see some of you downtown at the celebration.
Sizzle Out
What a week it's been here in the CI. First it was the storms that blew across the area and now the heat. I did some research and found that last year we only had 12 days with highs at or above 90. Here is a break down per month and then lets compare to this year.
2009
May: 0
June: 12….we had 6 straight days from June 22 to 27
July: 0
August: 2
Total: 12
2010
May: 4
June: 9
July so far: 9
Total: 22 if the forecast hold true we could have 28 days so far this year and we haven't even made it to August yet.
As you can see this year has been a warm and wet summer and it doesn't look like its going to change anytime soon. I am also watch Tropical Storm Bonnie developing just to the east of south Florida. The track looks to bring it into the gulf which will hamper clean up efforts from the oil spill. Below is the map and shows the projected path of Bonnie. Here's to cooler temps and a great rest of the week!
These strong storms today started in our western counties and as they rolled in I received many great pictures of the Shelf Cloud. A shelf cloud is rising cloud motion often can be seen in the leading part of the shelf cloud, while the underside often appears turbulent and wind-torn. Cool, sinking air from a downdraft spreads out across the surface with the leading edge called a gust front. This outflow undercuts warm air being drawn into the storm's updraft. As the cool air lifts the warm moist air, water condenses creating a cloud. When this line hit the Sullivan and Findlay area it was starting to bow and when we see that on radar we can expect very gusty winds. The damage in these areas is very extensive. Luckly no one was injured by these storms. We wont know if there were any tornadoes officially until the National Weather Service team heads out to survey the damage left behind. If you have anymore pictures from these storms send them in and I can try and share them with you. The best place to look at the pictures are on my facebook @jcfultz.
Take Care
Sizzle Out!
Decatur Parks…
The city of Decatur has great parks and they should be treated this way. I was out with my wife the other day with our little brother from Big Brothers Big Sisters walking in Nelson Park. We really enjoy walking along the lake front and in the flower/rock garden in the park. As we were walking in that garden area there was a few people in there with a young child. This child fell with a cup full of water and they picked her up and looked at the cup and just walked off. This made me very mad because they could have picked up the cup and taken it to a trash can that was just down the walking path from there. Then just a little further down the path there was a water bottle just thrown out and left there. Why do people feel the need to just drop things and leave them there? Are we becoming so lazy that we feel everything is a trash can or that someone behind us will pick it up? I find this same problem in front of my house on the boulevard between the sidewalk and the road. Every time I head out to mow the yard I pick up all the trash. Let's try something, throw your trash away in a trash can and take some pride in where you live. If you keep things clean not only with bottles and trash but with graphite we could save tax payer dollars that get used to help clean up these things.
On another note the heat is on for tomorrow and Thursday. We could see highs in the lower 90's. We will see heat index values around 100 to 105. This number is a combination between the temperature and humidity. I'm not going to lecture you on what to do because we have the heat tips drilled into out heads.
These are just some thoughts about the parks. This I'm sure isn't the only community dealing with this problem. Send me your thoughts on what you think would solve this problem and if you have the same issue where you live.
Sizzle Out.
New Radar on the website,
We have a new tool here on wandtv.com!!! You may have noticed the interactive radar. This gives you the ability to zoom in on certain areas, tell what to expect in the storm, and the storm track. I was playing with this today for a little while and it's really cool. This will help during severe weather for you to track the storm with us while we are on camera or if we are in a break between storms you can stay up to the minute with what's happening.
I hope all of you had a great weekend. My wife and I enjoy traveling and this next weekend we will be in Charleston South Carolina! I have heard nothing but great things about the "Holy City" as it's referred to. This past weekend we headed to Mill Creek Lake in Marshall and boated all weekend. It's still in central Illinois but every time we go out on the lake it seems like a mini vacation. Stay cool this week it looks like temperatures will climb over the next couple of days.
Sizzle Out!
Cutting into Programming,
It's hard not to be upset when we break into a program especially when weather is happening somewhere else other than your house. I wish there was a way we could only break into certain areas over programming and not in others. If you could think of a way to do that I think you could make a lot of money! Working in a market that is hyphenated which is what we are in here in central Illinois is difficult. The Champaign-Decatur-Springfield market is one out of 210 television markets in the country. We sit at number 84 with over 380 thousand households viewing our stations. We cover from Warren county Indiana to Scott county Illinois which is along the Illinois River. Then we cover from Beaverville in Iroquois County to Effingham and many points in between. It is 150 miles from Decatur to our northern most community. The whole viewing area is roughly the size of the state of Rhode Island.
It could be bright and sunny or just a drop of rain in Decatur but we could have a tornado on the ground in Iroquois county and we have to break in. This brings many forecast challenges to me and the other meteorologist on staff especially trying to forecast the weather and in tracking storms. When it comes to severe weather everyone in the viewing area is important. Just because we are based in Decatur doesn't mean that we are only going to cover the weather impacting Macon County. We have 25 counties to cover and if we have a tornado warning or a storm that is causing damage to property or could cost someone their life I am going to break in to let people know. This is frustrating for people who are not living in the path of the storm but I pose this question. If you where being impacted by this storm would you want to know? But trust me we hear you and we are listening to your concerns I promise.
I was reading the paper the other day and read a letter to the editor talking about how weather people are taking power over television stations. I found this to be very interesting. I know that when we break into your favorite show it makes you upset but we are only following guidelines that have been set by as Greg like to call them "the Suits." Thank Greg for letting me use your term. When there is a tornado warning we are to cut into programming and stay with it as long as we deem necessary to keep people informed. Typically if we see a hook on radar and the storm looks like at any point it could produce a tornado we are going to stay with it. If the storm is loosing strength then we will cut back to programming no matter where the storm is located in the area we cover. A severe thunderstorm warning is issued we break in and stay with it for no longer then 5 minutes and then head back to programming unless we are receiving damage reports out of the warned area. I would love to break in and go over the warning quickly then tell you to turn to our local weather station for extended coverage but in some area people don't get the station on cable and no one who has satellite receives this channel . The only way certain places could get the channel is over the air and that has its own set of issues.
I think its great people are allowed to share their views in the paper and in all other forms of media. We need to have an open dialog so that we all can come up with a compromise. The part that gets to me is when you read things in the paper that are a little over blown. For example, someone commented about how the storms that I broke in for the other night and covered up America's got Talent was near Chicago but in fact was in central Ford and Iroquois County and was producing actual tornadoes at the time and eventually ended up in Vermilion County near Hoopeston just north of Danville. That is a long ways from here but its still in the viewing area and luckily no one was injured in that storm. It's tough to make these calls on when to stay with a storm or when to break away because of concern for peoples lives. Being in television you have to be able to take criticism and I have learned how to deal with comments left on voice mail and over email. They hurt still because first and for most I am human and have emotions but its my job to listen to the emails and voice message take the criticism and try and figure out a way to make the product better. This is one of the beauties about being in America we have the right to say what we feel. But before we jump too far and say something that is inaccurate that's when there are problems. I want to thank the people who expressed themselves for doing so because it takes a lot to do that and speak out and I mean that in a sincere way. Media is always changing and I have been trying to get more people information over the Internet lately on facebook and twitter so I don't have to break in as long as we used to. It's amazing how much information we can get over the Internet daily just by sitting at the computer for a matter of minutes. If you want to add me on facebook you can find me @jcfultz or type in my work email james.fultz@wandtv.com or hit me on twitter @jcfultz.
I want to hear your thoughts about what you like and don't like about our new weather equipment here at the station or how you feel about or local weather station (Doppler channel).
Take Care
Cold Air Funnel
Lakeshore Taylorville
I want to take this time and personally thank all those who have served and who are currently serving this great country we live in. Because of you we have the freedoms that we all enjoy. We shouldn't just think about these folks on holidays but thank them everyday. If you see a soldier stop and shake their hand and give them a big thanks because they are the real reason why we still have such a great country and so many right we all take for granted.
Thanks Vets and those Serving!!!!!!!!
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