Sunday, August 7, 2011

17 Days Under the Heat Dome

An opportunity came up for me to spend 2.5 weeks in July in Oklahoma teaching some material for a workshop being held at the National Weather Center. Ten Korea Meteorological Agency forecasters were coming to Oklahoma for 2 weeks to learn about precipitation forecasting, nowcasting, and tropical cyclones.

So the day after the 4th of July (sometimes referred to as the 5th of July) I loaded up the Runner and I was northbound 35! I got in about 6pm and checked into my 2-bedroom, student-housing apartment. I picked that location because it had a pool and offered access to the OU pool and OU gym. 

The first weekend I went up to Wichita (I was so close, why not?!) to see family. On the way I saw this:
A dust devil!

While in Wichita I saw my dad (of course) as well as my Uncle Greg, Aunt Margaret, cousins Donovan and Drew, my Grandma Farney, and "Uncle" Terry. I also got to catch up with my friend LeighAnn and her boyfriend, Mike, who's recently back from a 4-month deployment. (She found herself an "Air Force Mike" too!) Wichita was experiencing some record heat so much of my time there was spent indoors.

The workshop went really well. The Koreans asked excellent questions and were able to see how things work in the US National Weather Service. Only a couple of them spoke English well, so all our lectures were translated by two Korean OU Meteorology students. Those girls were GOOD! I was amazed at how hard they worked and what a great job they did!
10 KMA meteorologists (all men), 2 translators (OU shirt, center, and pink shirt, 2nd from the right), Dr. Snow and Andrew (center) and Miss Lee, the HR manager (center).

I never thought that I would be excited to get back to San Antonio to escape the heat, but that's exactly what happened while I was in Oklahoma. I saw temperatures like 106 and 107 daily while I was there. San Antonio was a good 10 degrees cooler. Unbelievable.

When I got home I was very excited to be with Mike again and meet the newest additions to our family.....

....to be continued!

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