POLYGON Issuance #8B (actually the 8th episode due to numbering issues earlier) on April 25th brought together Jason Simpson, the chief meteorologist at WHNT 19 in Huntsville AL and Mike Wilhelm, a storm chaser also from Huntsville AL. The discussion was on the April 27th 2011 outbreak that occurred in the southern United States, that both Jason and Mike covered. At the time Jason was the morning meteorologist at ABC 33/40 in Birmingham AL (where James Spann is chief and was on Issuance #3). Mike was covering the storms with chase partner John Brown that day. We delved into the event and what was going on with both the morning convection (that wasn’t forecast well) and the afternoon storms which violently moved across the south. Several of the tornadoes were discussed including the Tuscaloosa Tornado (which Mike Wilhelm shot from I-20/59). There was discussion on the radar pixel misplacement that occurred with that storm as well. We also discussed the upcoming tornado event (which has now occurred as I write this post) and what their plans were for that event.

NOTE: It is notable that the show was broadcast on Friday as scheduled, Mike Wilhelm was at Mayflower AR on Sunday and saw the tornado pass there. He was also on several storms in MS and AL on Monday as well. He was on CTV as well talking about the severe weather. Jason covered numerous tornadoes on Monday including one that went west of Athens AL that killed two people.

CONTACT US: You can contact us different ways. You can send us an email at [email protected] You can also follow us on Twitter. Jeff is @iowawx Henry is @henrycluker_wx

SHOUT OUTS:
Jeff: Severe Weather Forecasting Book by Tim Vazquez
Henry: IEM Cow (From The Iowa Enviromental Mesonet)
Jason and Mike: They discussed JB Elliott’s Retirement from his duties. NOTE: JB Elliott worked at the NWS in Birmingham from 1957-1989 and then went to work for James and his company (now known as the Weather Factory) doing coverage for radio and other media sources including the ABC 33/40 weather blog.