The New & Improved Newschannel 6

After month-long total metamorphosis, we debuted our new look today. We literally gutted the studio (while doing news and weather from the newsroom), re-tiled the studio floor, completely replaced our lighting rig, and built a whole new (pre-fabbed)set that was designed in Pittsburg, PA. Quite honestly, its like I'm working at a different station. Thank goodness the faces are the same. If a new set wasn't enough, we have all new news and weather graphics and we even changed the style and color of the Newschannel 6 logo. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. Needless to say, I was a bucket of nerves this morning. The green wall(where I do my weathercasts) is new and the monitors are larger and lower. It was just strange.

It would appear the station's ownership really wants to make us Texoma's news and weather leader. This will be cool once I settle down, and get into the groove!

Here's a picture of the weathercenter
Storm Team Command Center

"Terrible Tuesday"

Yesterday (Sunday) was the 26th anniversary of the Red River Tornado outbreak. Over 10 long-track, large, powerful tornadoes swept through the Red River Valley affecting Wichita Falls, Lawton, Vernon and Seymour among other communities. The Wichita Falls tornado was especially devastating. To this day, it's still 2nd most damaging tornado in American history, leaving behind nearly 400,000 million dollars in damage (by '79 values). The Wichita Falls tornado is also the last in the U.S. to kill over 40 people.

Please take a moment to visit this web site and reflect upon that horrible day.

Atmospheric Give and Take

For every action there is an equal but opposite reaction. This is Newton's 3rd law (paraphrased) concerning energy and motion in the universe. Seems I've been hearing that one for many, many years. In weather, for every case of "extreme" weather, floods, heat waves, there's always equal but opposite weather happening somewhere else. We saw a perfect example over the winter season when folks in California saw storm sytem after storm system visit the southern part of state. Floods and even tornadoes were reported nearly every week. "Wha' happened?!" Well, SoCal basically got the winter weather (according to climate) that is usually seen in the Pacific Northwest. L.A. got Seattle's weather in a nutshell(save for the tornadoes). California saw too much rain, Washington and Oregon saw too little. We finished March of 2005 with about a 1/2" of rain. Where the heck did our rain go? It went to Dixie and the east coast. Lately we've been hearing about flooding in Pennsylvania, Florida and Georgia. Yep, we should have been getting some of that wet stuff. The next 6 days appears to offer no changes in our progressive upper flow. It's all a matter of atmospheric give and take.

Pope John Paul II

A few interesting facts:

Born: Karol Jozeph Wojtyla
May 18th, 1920, Wadowice Poland

His Mother died in '29, Father in '41

Said to have been a very athletic young man. Also considered a gifted actor and singer in the late '30s. Nazis closed the university he was attending in '39 and he worked at a chemical plant in Poland during World War II.

He was ordained in 1946

Finished doctorate in theology in 1948. Completed 2nd doctor's thesis in '53 and became professor of theology and ethics at Lublin Catholic University in Poland.

Became a cardinal in '67

Was made Pope at age 58, the youngest in 132 years, and the first non-Italian in 456 years. At the time he became Pope, Poland was a Marxist and atheistic nation. John Paul I had only been Pope for 34 days before suffering a heart attack.

After becoming Pope, John Paul II learned Spanish, making him fluent in 8 languages.

He helped establish a relationship between The Vatican and Israel.

Became the first Pope to be an international bestselling author and the first pontiff to have a web site.

You shouldn't mourn the death of a man whom trully lived.

JC