Let's Talk about the Weather

Do you recognize this guy? Some of you Iowa readers might. I'll give you a hint. He wears make-up when he performs his job. Not many men will admit to that.

Today our home school group had a field trip. We gathered at the library in town to meet with Jason Parkin. Mr. Parkin is the weather man from KCCI Channel 8 News. It was a very interesting field trip.



He started out by telling us all about himself... ok -- probably not ALL about himself -- but a few things about himself. Did you know he once had a job where he wore a hair net? Interesting, I know. I never knew.

Then he showed a video. It explained all about his job as a weather man. I'm curious as to why Wayne has the deer in the head lights look.

Then we all got to ask HIM questions. Robert wanted to know if it would be snowing when his Grandma flew into Iowa from California on Friday. It MAY BE! Won't she be thrilled? There were some other good questions asked...

Mansel asked about how to measure snow fall. Do you know how?
One can measure the snow fall in 8 different locations in your yard, then average them together, and that the snow fall for that area. I think we could find 8 different place in our yard to measure. I think that would be interesting to know. What is the snow fall for OUR YARD!!
He said it doesn't work to just measure in the snow drift and call in 12" of snowfall... that's not accurate.

I asked him what his dream job would be as a meteorologist. He mentioned being a storm chaser in Oklahoma. That doesn't sound fun to me -- but then again... I'm a mom and not a meteorologist. Ü I wear make-up, but I don't know much about predicting weather, or chasing tornadoes.

Here are some VERY COOL links he told us about. Check out the movies on You Tube by AKRHERZ. He said the one to watch is the "Gravity Wave". I'll admit -- that's a pretty awesome 32 seconds of video. Check it out.




That show me how AWESOME our God is. Who knew there would be weather video on You Tube viewed almost 1/2 million times? Cool.

One more suggestion was for us to check out USA today for some "good weather graphics". I found it -- he's right. The USATODAY.com weather graphic index is FULL of stuff that is neat to know.

AND last but not least -- he was kind enough to pose with my kiddos... most of them. Danielle decided to run off and play ring around the rosie with some of her friends when he was done talking. She missed out on getting her photo taken with some one famous.

Mr. Parkin is a very personable guy, and knowledgeable about the weather -- we just couldn't stump his this time... maybe next time.