Weather has been a hobby of mine since I was 10, and I've been in the hobby for 33 years. After graduating from Chanute Weather School in the 92nd percentile of my class, I spent a stint in the Air Force as a weather specialist.
Hurricanes are the Superbowls of meteorology. To me, tornadoes mesocyclones and winter cyclones are akin to all the big college bowel games.
Chanute... I liked going to tech school there. Nice place, close to good college football...
Me too!! Ping had a different definition there. Remember?
I ended up at AFGWC in Omamha, Plotting maps with a rapdiograph ink pen and hourly observations off teletype.
Pretty boring duty - but we had a retired colonel who was a civilian employee, who specialized in predicting tornadoes. It got pretty exciting to watch him look at a map, then he would draw his red box and the asvisory would go out.
Thanks. OK, that explains why you sound like you know what you're talking about.