Funnel Cloud in Denver Area

Today was another busy day in the weather center. On the drive down to Denver I could see from the clouds it was going to be a very active day in terms of the weather. The entire way down from Greeley, I was observing low lying clouds that were slowly building. When I arrived at the station, there was a huge building cumulous cloud directly over the station. Of course, I whipped out my camera phone and took several pictures!

When I went inside to the weather center, I could see from the radar that thunderstorms were already developing just south of Denver and west of I-25. A few warnings were issued 10 minutes after I arrived.

With the month of August and September, comes less and less chances for thunderstorms and tornadoes. Today was an exception to that general weather pattern. We received a call that a funnel cloud had been spotted in the Denver metro area. Mike sent out air tracker to see if we could get any pictures our selves, but had no luck. Luckily we had a few viewers who were able to snap a few pictures of the funnel before it dissipated.

The funnel cloud was spotted around 3:30 PM at 104th Avenue and Federal in Westminster. The funnel cloud dissipated soon after, but the pictures taken were awesome. I was so excited when I got that call that there was a funnel cloud sighting.

To top the day off, I was able to get some help from the beautiful and lovely Anne Trujillo, with my practice session in front of the chroma key. It was so helpful getting advice from a woman in the business who has been an anchor for years. She gave me awesome suggestions on how to improve. Another great day here at 7 News!

Not More School!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey everyone, Chris here with another blog. It is that time of year. My final year at UNC will begin on Monday. I am excited and yet not... so... excit...ed. I am excited that i will be increasing my knowledge of meteorology but not so excited about the homework that is sure to come. My biggest challenge of all is coming this semester. I will have to juggle level 400 classes with work and this awsome internship, but I know I will be able to manage everything ok.

I am also saddened because when school starts my days of working with Mike Nelson will be limited. However, i do have the honor of working with Richard Ortner and Scott Mace. I know I will continue to be in good hands throughout the semester while working with theses two fine Meteorologist.

So far my experience here at channel 7 has been the best experience ever! I still make a few mistakes here and there, but hey, i'm only an intern. I am gradually getting better on "the wall" where i practice my on-air skills. I have found out that whether their is nobody watching or 20 people watching, it always makes me nervous. However, I continue to find myself constantly improving. This proves that practice makes perfect and there is no where else I would rather do it.

Hello Everyone

My name is Chris Yates and I, like Kim, am a new 24/7 weather intern from the University of Northern Colorado. I am majoring in meteorology and am hoping to have a carreer as a broadcast meteorologist. My picture is not up yet but i'm sure will be up soon. I was very fortunate, i was able to start this internship early giving me more time to work with the best group of people i have ever known. My experience here so far has been remarkable. I've made accurate and not-so accurate forecast with Mike Nelson guiding me in the right direction. I have also been able to practice with the green screen, wich has been both very entertaining and very educational. So far my experience has been great and i know that it will only get better over the next couple months.

A Day of Many Firsts

Today I had the pleasure of working with Meteorologist Richard Ortner. For the first time today I was able to record the forecast on the 24/7 weather forecast phone line. After a few mess ups (actually it was more like 6 of them) I finally got it down. I was finally satisfied with my recording, and I was able to give the forecast over the phone.

This is not as easy as it may sound. When you are verbally giving the forecast you have to remember to give the forecast in a way that everyone is going to be able to understand. You also have to make sure that you are giving a "general" forecast because viewers are calling in from all over the state! It is difficult to generalize the weather in Colorado. It could be sunny yet raining cats and dogs all at the same time. Only in the beautiful state of Colorado can you see such weather.

Another first for me today, I was able to practice in front of the green screen. I have never done an ENTIRE forecast in front of the green screen before. I was so nervous! The hardest things about it were trying to remember to smile, look directly in the camera, move out of the way so you are not standing in front of the graphics, and talking in a calm tone. With a little help from Richard I was able to practice the forecast several times. It gets easier the more you do it. I can not wait to do it again!

I am having so much fun at this internship. It is awesome to finally get to use all the things I have learned in forecasting the weather! I can not even imagine how much more I will learn just from watching Mike. He is incredibly at what he does. I remember when he came to my school in the 5th grade, and I was able to see his famous "tornado dance" for the first time! I still have the old weather map he autographed for me! Ever since that day, I knew I wanted to do nothing but forecast the weather.

My First Week

Hello!

Even though my picture is not up yet I thought I would send a shout out anyways! My name is Kim Insana and I am currently the new weather intern for the fall. I am about to start my Junior year at the University of Northern Colorado working on a degree in meteorology. The other fall intern, Chris Yates, is also from the University of Northern Colorado. We are both very excited that UNC is represented so well!

A little bit about myself-I LOVE the weather! It is all I talk about. Being able to work with Mike Nelson is going to be such a good experience and I can not wait for him to teach me some of his forecasting secrets! I am rather excited for this school year to start because I am going to be taking all major classes this semester. I will be taking Dynamic Meteorology, Computer Science, and Oceanography.

At UNC I am the Vice President of the student chapter of the American Meteorlogical Society, and I can not wait to see what this year holds for the chapter! We are currently working on several community service projects. One of these projects is a tornado machince that we have put together that we will be taking to the middle and elemetary schools in Greeley.

I am already having a blast here at 7 news, and I have only been here for 1 week! The people that work here are so nice and very welcoming. They have made me feel at home from the very first day I walked in. This internship is going to be a blast! I'm still working on convincing Mike to let me ride in the Air Tracker, you will be the first to find out if it actually happens!