Do you have a child that is interested in the weather? Or maybe a student or 4-H’er? I got interested in weather in the 3rd grade when a tornado passed two blocks from my house in Michigan and left a lot of damage behind (although most of it was not at our house, just lost power for a weekend). I did not go into meteorology as a career until graduate school when I got tired of straight physics and math. I am still a Certified Consulting Meteorologist, but mostly do climatology these days as well as serve as the Director of the UGA Weather Network. If there is someone you know who is interested in becoming a meteorologist, Dr. Marshall Shepherd of UGA provides an excellent discussion of all the things you can do to encourage your budding weather scientist in their future career in this Forbes.com article. I also happy to talk to anyone who is interested in studying the weather, and will promote the UGA Atmospheric Sciences program as a way to get a meteorology degree (of course, if you are from a different state there are many other options available too).
Here is a picture of the church 2 blocks from my home with the sanctuary demolished by the April 21, 1967 tornado.
