AWC Weather Center

For the man sound in body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather; every sky has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously.
George Gissing, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft

I have loved observing and studying the weather since I was a child. Growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, gave me plenty of opportunity to run to the basement many spring and summer nights as the tornado sirens sounded! Twice I have had the opportunity to witness a live tornado; both times, fortunately, from a safe distance! The first time was during my senior year in high school, on the infamous afternoon of April 3, 1974, when I peered out the second-floor windows at home and watched a massive tornado (nearly half a mile wide as I watched it) pass less than five miles north of our home in Louisville, Kentucky (read more, pictures). The second time was nearly two decades later, when I watched the Castle Rock, Colorado, tornado of date-tbd from the office building where I worked, nearly 10 miles north of the tornado's path.

My interest in meteorology led me all the way to a M.S. Degree in Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. Life has it's way of leading you down paths you never expected, however, and my profession of umpteen years has been (and still is) software engineering. Still, I have the heart of a meteorologist.

Weather Pages

Weather Now — current local, regional, and national weather
Current Conditions — the current weather conditions at my house as reported by The Official AWC Weather Station. In addition to current data, there are summaries for the current month and year; and a data archive of all data captured by my station since it went online on 7 December 2005.
WeatherAmerica Links — Larry Cosgrove’s favorite weather links from his weekly WeatherAmerica newsletter.
Tony's Weather Links — weather (meteorology) related links that I find useful, informative, and/or entertaining.

Weather Articles

Tony's Weather Blog — my journal of interesting weather here in Fort Wayne.
3 April 1974 Remembered — my recollection of the Super Outbreak of tornadoes on 3-4 April 1974, in particular the Louisville Tornado. Included are a few pictures I took of the devastation in the Louisville area a couple of days later.
The Blizzard of 07 — They promised it, and it came. Not quite as much as they promised, but as much snow in one storm as in all of 2006! Visit this article for the unfolding NWS forecasts, my take on it all, and a photo gallery.
2007-04-30 Long Narrow Thunderstorm Line — An extremely thin (only one thundercell wide for the first couple of hours) and eventually quite long line of thunderstorms developed virtually out of clear air in less than two hours. Visit this article for a discussion, satellite images and animation, and radar animition of this curious event.
Two True Weathermen — my little tribute to two television weather guys, true meteorologists in a sea of talking heads and aspiring somthing-elses.