Our trip to WeatherFest

(I did not take the above pic.) It was such a pleasure to have the opportunity to visit the first (of many, I'm sure) WeatherFest event, hosted by the National Weather Service in Tallahassee. Due to my other commitment, my wonderful gtb and I were only able to come for the last hour and a half of the event, but during that time we were able to see that Kelly Godsey and Mark Wool (two of the Tally mets) did a fantastic job coordinating this event. Upon arrival, I met up with Tim Barry (another Tally guy) to find out where my Cuckoo for CoCoRaHS friend, Melissa Griffin was having balloons thrown at her... yes, in freezing temps... got the cuckoo part right... I had never met her in person, but she recognized me immediately after having seen me on dewdropweather.com so much. We only spoke briefly because we were just in time for the last weather balloon launch of the event, so we wanted to race up to the roof for a first hand glance at (yet another) launch. Walking through the Weather Service office, my wonderful gtb noticed this sign... ... which we both chuckled at. We popped into the forecasting area and said hello to Kelly, who was under a certain level of stress, dealing with situations that arise when you host about 600-700 people in a place that usually only has about 4 or 5 people working at a time. He did marvelously. Check him out announcing the details of the upcoming launch.I can't imagine they have ever seen that many folks on the roof of the Weather Service. Of course, gtb was cracking geek jokes left and right and psyching them out by saying "Oh, there it is!" ...when of course, it wasn't. lol. Look how jam packed the roof was! What a turn out! Actually, at the 1pm launch, there were so many spectators that they actually sent a second balloon up without a radiosonde (they cost about $300 each). I captured the launch in typical Dew fashion.Then we raced down to participate in the NWS WEATHER CHALLENGE GAME, with our host, Bob Goree! My wonderful gtb and I teamed up in this Jeopardy-styled game about weather. Of course, we stomped our competition, big time. I think it's important to note that only Tornadoes separate Dewdrop's team from the "Dooms Day X-press". Yikes. We had great fun answering great questions relating to tropical weather. I think I would have done better at a severe weather version, but I think we did well... thank goodness Jeff wasn't there. lol In the end though, like I said, we stomped them.Was there any doubt???

After the game, Yolanda Amadeo, a WALB on-air meteorologist, walked into the room, and gtb and I got Bob to snap a shot of us with her. She was very nice, even though I don't call my storm reports into her. I only call the weather service, so far. After our celebrity shot, we met back up with Melissa and my wonderful gtb helped by loading up her car, while we chatted. She had a successful afternoon, recruiting many folks to CoCoRaHS. If you haven't already, follow the link in my sidebar. In celebration, we all went to eat at Olive Garden. Yum!

Anyways, that was our great experience at WeatherFest! We had a terrific time, and I am hopeful that next year, I will be able to participate more! I want to get up close to their mobile weather unit, a Doppler on Wheels.

Have a great Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!
~Dewdrop