Had the opportunity to head to Ft. Campbell Tuesday morning to visit with many of the kids at Marshall Elementary School. Many thanks to Michelle Bague for setting up the talk and gracefully postponing the date a few times due to my weather duties in Nashville. She also gave me a delicious bag of Puerto Rican coffee that won’t last long around this television station. Additional thanks to Administrative Officer Rudy Stone for giving me a tour of the impressive 105,000 acre facility. Pictures at the school after the jump.
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Had the privilege to visit Battle Ground Academy Elementary School last Monday, talked to all the 3rd graders there. What a great bunch! Smart! The discussion centered on the air pressure, the Coriolis Effect and latent heat. Always lots of laughs and learning (a good combination when you can find it). Special thanks to Julia Marshal for inviting me.

Just returned from a visit to one hundred first graders at Edmondson Elementary in Brentwood. Nine times out of ten a school visit is an opportunity for me to hit roads less-travelled and visit new towns in Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky. I always enjoy those trips but it’s also nice to hop in my car and drive down the road for five minutes and make my weather talk just in time! The kids had great questions (and knew the difference between a question and a story, which is always a bonus) and were very attentive listeners. We focused on spring weather such as thunderstorms, tornadoes and hail. Thanks to Nicole Smith for arranging the visit. Teachers and students, rejoice: only five or six days left in the school year!
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I spent Friday morning with a couple hundred of my third grade friends down in Lavergne at Roy Waldron Elementary. Good kids, good questions…and most importantly, great cookies! If you watched the morning show at 6:15am you know what I’m talking about. A few pictures to pass along:

After the presentation I spoke with a couple of kids who are new to Middle Tennessee, by way of Louisiana courtesy of Hurricane Katrina. We don’t hear about it too often in the daily news cycle, so it’s easy for many of us to forget that lives are still being impacted nearly three months later.

Just back from a visit to Wilson County. I spent the afternoon with 80 or so first graders who are learning about different careers at Rutland Elementary in Mt. Juliet. We talked plenty of weather and the group was well-behaved and came equipped with great questions. Their parents and teachers can be proud!

If you look at the picture closely, you’ll notice that all of the students are very well dressed - I didn’t ask, but I’m guessing there’s a dress code at the school. Whatever the case, I was impressed. Why didn’t my elementary school do that?

I had the opportunity to visit the 5th graders at Freedom Intermediate School in Franklin on Monday afternoon. We talked a good bit about Katrina and hurricanes in general, as well as severe weather here in Middle Tennessee. I wish I had been this smart when I was twelve: these kids knew their stuff!

Just got back from speaking with a great group of kids at Our Savior Lutheran Church on Franklin Road in Nashville. What did we talk about on this hot and humid Tennessee day?

Snow, of course!

Quite possible, the cutest three kids in Davidson County.

I spent most of Friday in Maury County at the Career Odyssey in Columbia. 8th graders from schools across the county had the opportunity to visit and interview folks from a variety of careers. Have you ever been interviewed by 600 8th graders? Luckily for me, it wasn’t all at the same time.

Earlier in the week…

Kevin, Davis, Brandon (our weather intern from Mississippi State) and I spent the morning talking with meteorologists from the Nashville National Weather Service. We discussed ways to improve the lines of communication between television stations and the NWS during severe weather coverage and talked about the finer points of the WSR-88D at Old Hickory Lake.

From left to right: Mark Richards (Senior Nashville NWS Forecaster), Kevin, Davis, Larry Vannozzi (Meteorologist in Charge at Nashville NWS):

I just got back from a great visit to Hickman County - visiting with 150 kids from all 7 4th grade classes at Centerville Intermediate School.

A special thanks to everyone for their generosity - I’ve got a huge gift basket that I can’t wait to show everyone this Saturday morning on News 2 at 8:00 AM.

Here are a few pictures of the students:

Future News 2 Meteorologist?

Thanks for stopping by the blog - Lisa will have the latest forecast (it’s a warm one) coming up on News 2 at 4:00 PM!

Earth Day usually happens on April 22nd, but we celebrated it a little late this year in Humphreys County. I was happy to make the drive to Waverly this morning to participate in the festivities with several hundred 5th graders from counties across Middle Tennessee.

I spent the day giving weather talks to groups of kids just like this:

Aside from the weather, kids had a chance to get up close and personal with farm animals and wild life typical to Tennessee.

I’m no expert, but it looks like someone’s got plans for this guy - I felt bad for the little fella.

We enjoyed plenty of sunshine, light winds, and temperatures in the upper 60’s and lower 70’s today.

The question on everyone’s mind: when will we warm up?

It still looks like we’ll climb above average in the temperature department as we head through the weekend.

Thanks for stopping by the blog!