On the Road: 2016
It’s always fun to look back at the all of the live coverage over the past year and the extreme weather I’ve been “lucky” enough to cover. And for the first time in my 25-year career at The Weather Channel, I started and ended 2016 covering the same story: a sub-zero Minnesota Vikings tailgate. And even though it was 10° colder in December, it was hard to tell after 4 hours in a parking lot! As Bob Hope Said, “Thanks For the Memories.”
2016 by the numbers:
Number of days on the road: 142
Number of cities and towns: 80
Number of states: 24 (Since 1996: 44)
Number of airline flights: 74
Number of live shots: 1145 (Since 1996: 19,048)
Number of inches of snow: 179.6"
Number of Tropical Storms/Hurricanes: 4 (Since 1996: 62)
Number of pieces of grilled salmon: 174
January
The first trip of the year was into the icebox of MN and a Vikings tailgate. It was -10° with a wind chill of -30° that morning and it ended up being the 3rd coldest NFL game on record with a kick off temperature of -6°. You can get frostbite in as little as 10 minutes to any exposed skin. I was wearing 8 layers to stay warm and my face felt like it was going to crack at times. I ended up with dry eyes, which makes your eyes VERY sensitive to light. After about a week of Rx drops I was fine, but now I carry eye drops with me all winter. Following coverage of lake-effect snow off Erie and Ontario (first time during the same trip), it was all about Winter Storm Jonas, which set all-time record snowfalls in Baltimore (29.2") and New York City (27.5") and Allentown, PA (31.9"), among others. And for the first time in 140 years, you could legally go sledding at the Capitol, so I had to partake!
Locations: Minneapolis Vikings Tailgate and New Brighton, MN Frigid Cold. Mayfield, OH (2.0") and Silver Creek, Angola, Hamburg, Orchard Park and Buffalo, NY Lake Effect (10.7"). Syracuse, Nedrow and North Syracuse, NY Lake Effect (6.1"). Washington, DC. Snow (17.8").
February
How about a Groundhog Day snowstorm in Denver? And a big one at that. 11.6" fell on the first two days of the month. From there it was back to the Southeast MA where I spent just about the entire winter of 2015. This would be my first of two stops, Plymouth, for 8.1" of snow. At the end of the month severe weather season got underway with a killer tornado in LA.
Locations: Aurora and Denver, CO Snow (11.6"). Plymouth and Boston, MA Snow (8.1") Charlotte, NC Freezing Rain Threat. Buffalo, NY Snow (8.9"). Atlanta, GA Warm-up. Jackson, MS Severe Storm Threat. Convert, LA Tornado Aftermath.
March
On the road covering heavy rain and potential flash flooding along the Gulf Coast early in March. My second stop in southeast MA was the Boston suburb of Braintree. We kicked off spring with a solid 6" of heavy, wet snow. Two days later I was in Green Bay for 7.5". I wrapped up the month covering severe weather and breaking in one of our newly equipped weather vehicles with photographer Brad Reynolds. They allow us to go live while driving. Between Tupelo, MS and Tuscaloosa, AL we pulled over several times and let tornado warned storms pass by ahead of us!
Locations: Virginia Beach, VA Storm. Houston, TX Flood Threat. New Orleans, LA Flood Threat. East Peoria, IL Severe Storms. Aurora, IL Wind. Braintree, MA Snow (6.0"). Green Bay, WI Snow (7.5"). Tuscaloosa, Tupelo and Birmingham Severe Storms.
April
The biggest snowstorm I covered in 2016 was in a spot known for large dumps of snow in the Spring, the foothills of CO. They got slammed and I measured 30" over two days in mid-April in Idaho Springs. That brought the 2015–16 seasonal total for me to 143.1" of snow at all of my stops…..not too shabby!
Locations: Atlanta, GA Frost. Denver Snowstorm Preview and Idaho Springs, CO Snow (30.0"). Wichita, KS Severe Storm Threat.
May
A stop at the National Weather Center and the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK before hitting the road for severe weather. Then off to the beach and an early start to the 2016 Hurricane Season in Myrtle Beach on the 28–29th for Tropical Storm Bonnie. It was downgraded to a depression for our second day of coverage. The airport picked up .91" of rain and the peak gust was 18 MPH.
Locations: Atlanta, GA Showers. Woodward, OK Severe Storm Threat. Norman, OK and Salina and Wichita, KS Severe Storm Threat. Myrtle Beach, SC Tropical Storm/Depression Bonnie.
June and July
Of note was covering the deadly aftermath of flash flooding in WV.
Locations: Marietta, GA Drought. Myrtle Beach, SC Rip Currents/1st Day of Summer. Chicago, IL Severe Storm Threat. Elkview, WV Flooding Aftermath. Summerville, GA Drought.
August
5.96" of rain in 2 hours sent the Patapsco River roaring down Main St. in Ellicott City, MD, killing two. More flooding, with a 5-day tour from FL to LA and then returning the following week to the Baton Rouge/Lafayette areas to cover the rising waters and the aftermath. Goes to show you that you don’t need a named tropical system to cause serious problems. At the end of the month it was off the South Beach in Miami to cover Invest 99L. It didn’t develop into Hermine until the following week, so there wasn’t much weather, just a few showers. I did get a chance to swim in the warmest water of my life: 90° (kind of like soup) From there it was up the coast to Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks of NC for the last 3 days of August waiting for Tropical Depression #8 to become a tropical storm. It didn’t and not a drop of rain.
Locations: Ellicott City, MD Flood Aftermath. Cedar Key, Crystal River, Cross City, Perry, Carrabelle, Panama City, Port St. Joe, FL Flood Threat. New Orleans, LA Flood Threat. Brittany and Crowley, LA Flooding. Youngsville, LA Flooding Aftermath. Miami Beach, FL Tropical Invest 99L. Kill Devil Hills, NC Tropical Depression #8.
September
99L eventually strengthened to Hermine which made landfall in FL as a Category 1 hurricane on Sept. 2nd. I caught Hermine’s impacts as it was scooting off the Outer Banks of NC (as a Post Tropical Cyclone) from VA Beach at the beginning of Labor Day Weekend. Then it was up the coast to Rehoboth Beach, DE on Sunday which was a splendid sunny day, but no swimming allowed due to the rip currents from Hermine. Less than 2 weeks later I made my first live coverage stop in my career on the GA coast to cover Tropical Storm Julie on St. Simons Island. During the last week of the month I spent 4 days on IA flooding.
Locations: VA Beach, VA Hermine. Rehoboth Beach, DE Hermine. St. Simons Island, GA, Folly Beach and Charleston, SC Tropical Storm Julia. Waterloo, Vinton and Cedar Rapids, IA Flooding.
October
Hurricane Matthew formed in the Caribbean and I was off to Cuba for my second trip to the country to cover tropical weather. We headed to the eastern end of the island and Santiago de Cuba. The worst of the weather ended up staying to our east but it was once again a great experience to return to Cuba. To beat Matthew back to FL, we spent over 10 hours driving 400 miles to an airport that had departing flights to the U.S. After overnighting in Ft. Lauderdale, I headed north to Ft. Pierce and was on the air as Matthew passed just to our east. Heavy rain and gusts to 60 MPH was the worst of it along I-95, and the power went out. The next day a drive south to West Palm Beach and it was off to Wrightsville Beach, NC via Atlanta to catch Matthew for a third time the next morning (that’s a first). Fortunately on the immediate coast it wasn’t as bad as in FL, with beach erosion being the biggest impact. But inland it was a deadly disaster with record flooding which we covered in Lumberton and Fayetteville, NC.
Locations: Siboney Beach and Santiago de Cuba, Cuba Hurricane Matthew. Ft. Pierce, FL and Wrightville Beach, NC Hurricane Matthew. Lumberton and Fayetteville, Flooding.
November
Drought was a big story in the Southeastern US during the Summer and Fall. In some spots it didn’t rain for over two months. This led to hundreds of fires (unfortunately in many cases blamed on arson), which I covered in AL, NC and TN. This included the deadly fire that swept across the mountains into Gatlinburg and nearby areas of eastern TN. Meanwhile up north, the record warmth subsided and the first snows of the season arrived. Nothing like starting out the season with a blizzard! We were about 3 hours north of the Twin Cities in Grand Rapids for 17.5" of wind-driven snow. A couple of days later it was the first-lake effect snow of the season in western and central NY. Between MN and NY I measured 33.0" in 3 days. Syracuse picked up a healthy 20.7" in 2 days.
Locations: Lincoln, AL and Haysville, NC Drought/Fires. Grand Rapids, MN Blizzard (17.5"). Sinclairville, Perryburg and Syracuse Lake Effect (15.5"). Gatlinburg, TN Fire Aftermath.
December
First stop, a snowy tailgate at Lambeau Field as the Packers beat the Texans 21–13. More lake effect as we traveled around the Chautauqua Ridge chasing down snow bands in 5 communities. Then it was off to MN for some of the coldest weather I’ve ever experienced. I spent 5 days in sub-zero cold and I wrapped up 2016 at the same place I started the year, at a Vikings tailgate. But this time around it was 10° colder: -20° with the wind chill down to -34°. It was just plain brutal, even with 9 layers on. The game though, unlike in January, was played indoors.
Locations: Green Bay, WI Packers Tailgate (3.7"). North Boston, Springville, Mayville, Ashville and Chautauqua Lake Effect (16.1"). Minneapolis Frigid Cold and Snow (6.1")/Packers Tailgate and St. Paul Bitter Cold.
If you’d like to see more live coverage from 2016, here’s the link to various shots from across the country:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLicl2EvkQc13zVNKozbA8iBtQPQ43C8zq