Hello,

I have always been fascinated by the weather. Actually, fascination might not be strong enough, obsessed might be more accurate. I actually remember when it started. I was five years old, living in rural Connecticut in a town called Tolland. It was early fall, and a heavy thunderstorm struck. It spawned a tornado that downed several trees in the neighborhood.

I had recently watched, and been totally freaked out by, The Wizard of Oz. When my mom mentioned that there was a tornado near by, I panicked, and had to be calmed down. I think this is the moment when it all started.

From that day forward, I was hooked. My interest in weather started with simply watching the weather man on TV. In those days (the '70's), TV weathermen simply drew on early versions of white boards, knows as "grease boards". There were no fancy computers, simply a guy that drew fronts on an erasable US map, and read the forecast for that night and the next day. No radar, no satellite... must have been quite a challenge keeping people interested enough to keep watching...

Later, I graduated to buying my first back yard rain gauge, and even building my own crude instruments, like my beer bottle barometer, and hair hygrometer (hair from my mom's hair brush, as it turns out, could be used to measure relative humidity... weird but true).

My parents nurtured my interest in science, and bought me a log so that I could record my observations. Each day I would record the high and low temperature, whether it rained or snowed, what direction the wind was blowing, the types of clouds I saw; it was basically like a diary, but just about my weather observations. Occasionally , I would make a prediction or two, and sometimes I got the forecast right.

Observing weather is becoming a lost art. Computers do it all for you now, and we move so quickly that we hardly look up at the sky long enough to notice what is going on up there. I think observing the weather is a great way to be "in the now" as my brother would say.

So, here is what happened at my house in Jacksonville FL today:

High:  Mid 70's
Low: around 60
Wind: NE at 15
Weather observed: Clear in the morning, followed by increasing clouds by after lunch. By 3pm, clouds thickened and lowered. Rain began to fall at 4pm, and continued on and off into the evening. I was caught off guard, and didnt bring an umbrella, and that's ok, since weather is meant to be experienced.

Since I dont own any weather instruments any more, my observations are just a guess. So, one of my first assignments will be to set up a real home weather station so that I can provide more accurate information. Until then, measurements will be approximate.

Thanks for reading. We actually have pretty interesting weather where I live, so check back often.