Happy Holidays

Things that occurred in the last week, both great and not so great. Let's start with the latter.
Standing at a funeral Thursday morning. Everyone deep in thought. A cell phone rings. A loud, shrill ring. Was the man embarrassed? NO. He took the call.
Sitting in mass on Christmas Eve. Everyone deep in prayer. A cell phone rings. One of those goofy ring tones. She took the call!
Cell phones are the greatest invention ever but customers should have to take a test to find out if they have enough common sense to set the phone to vibrate.

We finish 2007 with an ongoing drought. But the weather did cooperate for the most part as folks traveled for the Christmas season.

From my family to yours, may 2008 be a year of great joy and good health.

--Robin

50 Big Ones for Troop 236

Saturday, October 6th I had the rare privilege of serving as master of ceremonies for the 50th anniversary celebration for BSA Troop 236 out of Windsor Hills United Methodist Church. Both of my sons became Eagle Scouts in this Troop. In fact, this organization is approaching 100 Eagle Scouts, 40 in the last ten years alone. To acknowledge that accomplishment, past Eagles chipped in and purchased current Scout Master Don Sipher a brand new lake canoe. Don would rather be in the Adirondack Mountains and the many lakes in upstate New York than any other place in the world. He will be able to add this fine craft to his fleet. Congratulations to all the leaders and young men in the troop!

The "Server" is in charge

It's a well organized rack of wires, hard drives and noisy fans. It saves information. Lots of information. Terabytes of information. And our professional lives are entirely organized by it. You are looking at the News 7 server. As we continue to move toward the high definition news world, we needed to get everything digital. You probably did not notice that on Wednesday, we went on the server. No more video tape. And you should not have noticed. After all, it's just a TV picture to you. But to us, it's the equivalent of a printing press at a newspaper. If the server decides to crash, you will be seeing a re-run of Andy Griffith instead of News 7. So keep your fingers crossed for us.
Otherwise things have been quiet. The weather has been delightful if not too dry. Fall starts on Sunday even though temperatures will be well into the 80s. Due to the drought, the fall colors may not last long or be very vibrant.
Cheers - Robin

"Hey Y'all" Paula Deen stopped by

Well it's been quite a busy time recently. Brent Watts graduated from Mississippi State with his meteorology certification. Since then, Roanoke has seen several record high temperatures. More meteorologists, more hot air, you get the idea !
Leo and Karen Hirsbrunner welcomed their first child into the world, Ayden Michel Hirsbrunner. Leo never slept much before. This guarantees he'll not sleep much during the next few months.
On Friday, Food Network Star Paula Deen zoomed into town for a cooking demonstration. As a fellow foodie, I was pleased to get a chance to interview her. The video of that interview can be found on our web page at WDBJ7.com. Here is a shot of Mike Stevens, Paula and me . Paula also welcomed everyone to the first Friday Football Extra of 2007.

Here is the recipe for Lady and Sons Fried Pork Chops. Enjoy!

Servings: 1
Cooking Time: 10 Minutes
Smithfield Product: Fresh Pork

Ingredients:
6 Smithfield Pork Chops
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup all-purpose flour
6 cups vegetable oil
2 teaspoons House Seasoning, recipe follows, divided
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
House Seasoning:
1 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder
Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Steps:
Heat oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot to 350 degrees F. Sprinkle the seasonings on both sides of the pork chops, rubbing them thoroughly into the meat. Pour buttermilk over meat and turn to coat on all sides. Season flour generously with House Seasoning, roll each chop into flour, and shake off the excess. Carefully place the chops, 2 at a time, into the hot oil, and cook until the outside is golden brown. Take 1 chop out and make a small cut at the thickest part to check for doneness; adjust time accordingly for the rest. Drain on paper towels before serving.

Serving Suggestions:
Serve with hearty potato casserole and fresh vegetables.

Meet Maggie Your Searchdog

If you have logged on to wdbj7.com recently (and you should be logging on every day!) you may have noticed our new local search engine. vasearchdog.com is your fast choice for local information. I like the page for another reason. That's my dog! Magnolia Mae Reed turns 2 this month and boy has she been a delightful handful. Here she is at 2 months. Her first night at her new home.

As you might guess, she has grown quite a bit and now is very skilled at getting treats out of her dad. The next time you see the TV ad for vasearchdog.com watch how Maggie seems to be "searching" hard as she walks across the screen. The truth is my wife had the great idea of smearing mozzarella cheese on the table. That's why her nose is so close to the ground.

Oh no Mr. Bill. They blew up the thermometer!

This past week has been a tough one with many severe storms in the region. As Friday arrived I was really dragging and looking forward to some time at home with less humid air this weekend. Then we ran the following story about state police blowing up some weather instruments. It really made me laugh!! Oh the humanity.

The suspicious device blown up by a State Police Bomb Squad Thursday evening turned out to be a weather station. It happened outside the Medical Office Building on the east side of Lewis Gale Medical Center. We were told a visitor contacted authorities after seeing a suspicious object hanging from a tree. Authorities brought out a robot to check it. The device was blown up around 7:00 p.m. At no time was the hospital or any other buildings at Lewis Gale evacuated. Friday afternoon, Salem Police said the package was actually a remote weather station. A hospital employee had attached it to the tree and used putty to weather-proof it. Police say no criminal charges will be filed.

Scanning the weather news

Big storms on Tuesday. Lynchburg picked up more than 2.5 inches of rain at the airport but only 0.2" at our WeatherBug station in Dunbar Middle. The atmosphere is dripping wet and "nature is putting on a big show" according to my mom. As I came across two items in the Roanoke Times this morning it reminded me to mention the dew point. Kevin Myatt's excellent Weather Journal had this entry:

You might be surprised to learn that a day we would consider brutally humid would probably only have a relative humidity of about 50 percent. The true measure of the amount of moisture in the air isn't the relative humidity but the dew point. The dew point is the temperature at which the atmosphere would be entirely saturated, or have 100 percent relative humidity. Air can hold more moisture as it gets warmer, so the higher the dew point, the greater the amount of moisture in the air. Relative humidity represents the percentage of the available space in the air that is filled with moisture. If your gas tank holds 10 gallons and it has nine gallons in it, it is 90 percent full. But if it holds 20 gallons, it is only 45 percent full, even though it is holding the same amount of gas. A dew point of 62 represents the same amount of moisture in the air whether the temperature is 70 or 100. But at 70 degrees, the humidity would be 76 percent, while at 100, the humidity would only be 29 percent. On an extremely hot, humid day locally, our temperature might be 95 with a dew point of 75. The relative humidity would be 53 percent.

Well put Kevin. Thanks for letting me cut and paste. The other item was in the letters to the editor section. One reader wrote that global climate change was a huge left wing conspiracy. What a waste of paper and ink. Planet Earth's climate has always changed, and changed dramatically. The only question now is how much are we involved? Most TV meteorologists don't have that answer, this one included. But take politics out and ask yourself, have you done anything today to keep our planet green?

McCartney, a fast summer and friends.

For Father’s Day this year, my boys got me the new Paul McCartney CD, Memory Almost Full and a Bobby Flay grilling cookbook. Both items are special because they took the time to purchase such thoughtful gifts. Besides my passion for cooking on weekends, I’m a hopeless McCartney fan. Upon first play, the CD was OK but the artwork and liner notes were almost nonexistent. As an old Beatles fan, I cherished the album covers, lyrics and anything extra we could find to give us a behind the scenes glimpse of the group. This thing was weak. Until I realized that McCartney was sending us to his web site where we find not only the lyrics but short audio clips and HIS THOUGHTS BEHIND THE SONGS. Now the tracks jumped to life! How cool it is for a 64 year-old British rocker to be so modern.

A recent visit to Kiawah Island, SC allowed me the opportunity to catch up with fellow meteorologist Bill Walsh. He is the chief meteorologist at WSCS in Charleston, SC. I met Bill years ago at a weathercaster’s workshop in Lyndonville, VT. It was at the 7 day seminar for TV weather-folks that several of us developed friendships that last to this day. The chance to see Bill and meet his family was special. So was the bottle of wine he brought me back from France.

Finally a big thank you to all the Roanoker Magazine readers who voted Robin Reed and SkyTracker 7 Weather as the most accurate forecast. After years of winning Roanoke’s Sexiest Man, I take real pride in this award. We will work hard to keep your trust.

Beach Clouds

Have you noticed the cool clouds over our area recently? With the setting sun, the towering cumulus look spectacular. Almost like you were at the beach. In fact, the wind flow for the last week has been from the northeast. This is a little unusual. The atmosphere has been unstable enough to produce severe thunderstorms. Mainly due to large hail.

Get the number right!

A recent email that I sent to Roanoke Times columnist Joe Kennedy about problems with local phone books:

----------------------

Hi Joe,

Hope all is well with you.

Your recent columns on the phone books were interesting. But I would settle for phone book/books that have correct listings.

Our latest dilemma? One of the directories has the WDBJ Weather Department number (777 3265) listed as the Roanoke County non-emergency police number (which is actually 562 3265)

The confusion seems to stem from the fact that most Roanoke County police numbers do indeed start with 777.

Needless to say, this has resulted in some interesting phone calls, especially on Friday and Saturday nights.

Some hang up immediately after we answer "Weather Department" and immediately call back, over and over and over as if somehow they'll get the right connection eventually.
Some hear our greeting, pause and then tell us their story anyway. As soon as the caller says "I have a restraining order on my husband" we politely interrupt and get them the police number.
Some are completely amused by this mistake and insist on sharing their needs and concerns without any desire to connect with police. Perhaps they think the TV station is their advocate.

Who knows, maybe some day we will get a breaking story. But I doubt it. I hope the 2008 phone books do better!

Warmest regards,

Robin John Reed, CBM
Chief Meteorologist
WDBJ-Digital Television

Update Your Blog!

Ok Jim, you’re right. I haven’t been updating my blog often enough. Jim is a good friend and an even better meteorologist in Memphis. I’ll let the readers check out WREG’s web site and figure out who Jim is. Anyway he makes a good point. Folks use blogs to stay connected because we are often far flung. But it’s hard for us older folks to remember to write them. We are pretty good with email but my youngest son informed me rather curtly recently that email is old school. All things cellular are in. Text message dad. Heck, the keys are so small on my phone I have trouble pressing the right ones to make a text message. Then I sign them "Dad". My son laughs again. Dad, I know it’s you. It came from your cell phone. And to think that around the Roanoke Valley today, hundreds of young folks graduated high school and they are our future. And they can text message. I wonder what the new thing will be next year. Sigh.

Did you miss the Bedford Strawberry Festival this year? Apparently it was earlier than past years but it was great fun for the whole family. A record crowd on Saturday. Put it on your calendar for next year. You can pick your own berries if you like.

Mean looking cloud!

Check out this mean looking cloud caught by a cell phone camera on May 12th in the Buchanan area. Note carefully the white area between the tree and the red sign. What do you see?

It's not a tornado. But the winds associated with this storm were strong and some areas received a lot of hail.

You are looking at a rain shaft. A strong downburst of rain and wind which can be damaging. The folks that took this picture were in a greenhouse. They felt this was an unsafe location so they jumped in their car. Unfortunately that was not a great choice. If it had been a tornado, the car might have been a deathtrap. As it turned out, everyone is safe. We are heading for the time of year when storms can be very strong in our region. Keep an eye on the sky and be safe.

School Field Trip

May is a really busy month for us in the SkyTracker 7 Weather Department. So when Effinger Elementary asked if we could pay them a visit and talk weather, we had to decline. But when we suggested they come visit us, the field trip was on! The second and third grade class made the trip. We enjoyed their enthusiasm and I think they had a great time on the tour.

Brent Watts and I played tag-team weather demonstration. Wonder why I had to do all the heavy pumping on the cloud experiment?

Off to the Chili Cook-Off on Saturday where the warmest things will be the peppers in the Chili. Expected high temperature: 59.

Have a good weekend!!

An open letter to the News 7 crew

This past Monday, I really expected the lead story to be about the weather. Winds were howling with gusts to 70mph. Eventually the power went out to more than 50,000 people. I was visiting a group at St Paul's Episcopal church when the news bulletin's began. Something was horribly wrong at Virginia Tech. First came word of a student shot. Then came word of a suspect in custody. As I wrapped up the visit during the lunch hour, a call on the cell phone. The latest report: 22 dead. That can't be right. It just can't be. It must be 2 dead. Even that sounded impossible. As I arrived at work, Keith and Jean were in the studio with wall to wall coverage of the breaking news. The next news conference brought the unspeakable news. 33 dead including the killer. The gasp in the newsroom was audible. My services would not be needed on this day. Howling wind was nothing compared to the tears and wailing coming from Virginia Tech. As I looked around the newsroom, everyone was on task. There was no idle chatter. The phone lines rang constantly. And I mean constantly. At any given moment, we had 5 or 6 live shots arriving in the control room. Our images were being broadcast worldwide on CNN and other media outlets. Our audio was carried on WFIR and Q99. The most experienced broadcast news staff in southwest Virginia was doing their job. I found tears flooding into my eyes on a regular basis. Keith, Jean, Rachel, Alex, Justin, Hollani, Natasha, Susan, Joe, Joy stood up and reported what they knew. Then they hit the road and learned more. But the one who stood tallest was Rachel.

She was in the hot seat because this is her bureau. She had the contacts. She had the knowledge of the campus. Rachel had to stand there for days and report on a disaster. She did it with class even when emotions overwhelmed her. I leave work Friday night with a heavy heart, a new Virginia Tech tie and the confidence that I work for the best news organization in Virginia. No one wanted to report this news. But as our assignment editor said as he left work at the end of a devastating week:

It's been a long week and we're all tired but I wanted to say:
Be proud of who you are.
Be proud of the work you did this week.
Be proud of the people you did it for-- the people of Virginia Tech and Southwest Virginia.