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With hurricane season beginning June 1, many residents and visitors will be thinking about this year’s weather forecast and how it will impact their residence, business or travel plans to Hilton Head Island. In order to help educate and assist local businesses, the Hilton Head Island – Bluffton Chamber of Commerce hosted a seminar – “Hurricane Preparedness: Preparing Your Business for the Storm” – at the Hilton Head Marriott Resort & Spa on May 6, 2008.
The well attended event included presentations by William Winn Jr., Director of the Beaufort County Emergency Management Department, and The Weather Channel’s Dale Eck, Global Forecast Center Director, and Jeff Morrow, oncamera meteorologist & field reporter.
Hilton Head, tucked into the country’s coastline, has been fortunate to not have experienced major hurricane assault in recent history (Hurricane Hugo, a category 4 storm, impacted the island in ‘89). And while our area, an ideal travel destination and wonderful place to live, will likely remain free of major weather-related peril, Hilton Head Monthly promotes preparation and prevention.
Monthly attended the chamber’s informative and enlightening seminar and took the opportunity to do a Q & A with Eck and Morrow to give readers a more personal look at two of The Weather Channel’s “Masters of Meteorology.”
Hilton Head Monthly: What inspired you to become a weather man?
Dale Eck: Snow!! As a child I would follow the forecast closely whenever there was the chance for snow and actually had trouble sleeping if snow was supposed to begin at night.
Jeff Morrow: I’ve always had an interest in the weather since I was a boy sailing with my father on the lakes of Pennsylvania. In the summers we would vacation on the Outer Banks of North Carolina where I had my first taste of tropical weather, including a few hurricanes. I actually went to college to get an engineering degree but ended up transferring into meteorology after a year because that’s what I really wanted to do.
HHM: What do you enjoy most regarding your line of work?
DM: Managing people and systems that are focused around meteorology, which I am very interested in. I also enjoy the opportunity to become very involved in technology and IT projects.
JM: That it changes and that every day presents a new challenge. The fact that my forecasts may help people in their daily lives or even help save lives in severe weather situations is very gratifying. I especially like working, live, in the field during severe weather. You can’t really know how bad it can get until you’re out in the middle of it.
HHM: What is the most significant change you’ve seen in weather reporting?
DM: Much more live reporting from the field. The systems that create graphics have become very sophisticated. Also, thanks to technology, computer modeling of the atmosphere has also grown by leaps and bounds.
JM: The changes in technology in the last 25 years or so have been incredible, especially the Internet. What used to be available only in forecast offices is now only a few clicks away, even in the field. Also, that weather has now become big news. When I started broadcasting from hurricanes in the 80’s there were few of us out there. Now every major network and local television station seems to have multiple crews covering everything from tornado outbreaks to snowstorms to hurricanes.
HHM: What was the most memorable (ex. Touching, frightening, interesting, etc.) work-related experience you can recall?
DM: Probably the Blizzard of 1993. The weather in Atlanta was as bad as I have ever seen it growing up in PA. Also, this type of unusual weather event caused more challenges for
The Weather Channel than we could have imagined prior to the event occurring. Folks were stuck at The Weather Channel and had to work 48 hours straight because no one could commute in the Atlanta area.
JM: The 2005 hurricane season trumps everything I’ve ever done covering weather in my 28 years as a broadcast meteorologist. Hurricanes Rita, Wilma and Dennis were some of the most intense experiences I’ve ever had. (Including being greeted at the door of our hotel in southwest Louisiana, after broadcasting in 100 mph plus winds until 2:30 a.m, by a man with a shotgun because he thought we were looters!) Katrina was the worst. It was the saddest story I’ve ever covered. The destruction and misery were almost beyond belief. At times it was very hard to stay focused on the job at hand with so much pain around you.
HHM: If you could do anything else for a living what would you do?
DM: I would love to live in the rocky mountains in a ski town and just forecast the weather and enjoy the snow.
JM: I’d probably be a ranger in the national park system because I love being outdoors!
To see Monthly’s extended interview with Dale Eck and Jeff Morrow, please visit hiltonheadmonthly.com. To learn more about the fascinating world of weather and The Weather Channel’s new state-of-the-art, ecofriendly HD Studio in Atlanta, visit weather.com.
