Talk About Live TV

Technology can be the most useful thing when it actually works. Yesterday at the station, we were not so lucky. It was about 3:56 pm when our camera operator realized that he didn't have control over any of the camera's. They had 4 minutes to figure out what the problem was before the live newscast began. Engineers began to flood the studio and try to get the camera's working. Talk about working under pressure! After a couple minutes they realized that they would not be able to get the camera's working in time for the first shot at 4. They decided that they had to move to to their backup plan, start the newscast in the newsroom. Usually the 4:00 news is split in half, one half is done in the studio and the other half is done in the newsroom. But the question in my mind was, with none of the camera's working in the studio, how were they going to do weather? There is only one green screen at 7News and that is in the studio. Luckily the camera in front of the green screen was still working since it isn't controlled by an operator. Richard Ortner's advice after the whole thing was done was to stay calm when things like this happen. This was something that was out of our control and therefore we couldn't change it. Luckily, they figured everything out by the time the 5:00 newscast was over in time for a normal 10:00 newscast. It's interesting to see what happens when technology doesn't work in the professional world. Overall, I can say that everyone handled the situation very well and stayed calm the whole time, I was very impressed.

Today I got to experience a different side to weather on TV. I came in a little later and got a chance to talk to Lisa Hidalgo about make up and camera presentation. She had me put on my make up normally and then told me what she'd do differently. It was very helpful. I never would have put that much make up on my self. She was so nice and even let me use some of her fancy MAC make up. I thought it looked like a lot, but i trusted her and she was completely right. On camera I looked much better. I am so excited because I get a chance to practice today in front of the green screen. Scott has told me to focus on being comfortable, making eye-contact, and feeling a little more conversational. He's told me to work on talking to the camera and not worrying so much about explaining the graphics. After his advice I watched a lot of other on camera meteorologists and noticed they spend no more then a 30 seconds talking about their graphics. I'd say after getting to do a lot here at channel 7, this part has been my favorite. It's especially fun to tape yourself doing the weather. Sometimes it's hard to watch yourself, but friends and family are always fans.

24/7 Weather Experience

Today I had a chance to stop by the Cherry Creek Arts Festival and I made sure to stop by the 24/7 Weather Experience, which is a booth set up by 7NEWS which gives children the opportunity to stand in front of a green screen and see what it's like to be a meteorologist on TV.

It was really neat to see the kids up there, in front of the green screen. I was amazed by how confident they were -- all of them with a little twinkle in their eyes at the sight of seeing themselves on a TV screen.

I'm trying to imagine what I would have been like up there at their age. Since I was a little girl, I've always wanted to be on TV. From dreams of being a movie star to a TV anchor, and finally a meteorologist, a career in front of the camera has always intrigued me.

I saw my first tornado (sort of)!

It was about 3:45 p.m. and I was working in the weather center, when I happened to look up at one of the TV monitors and noticed something unusual. This particular monitor was showing live video from our Thornton cam, looking south toward the Denver Metro Area. North of the downtown area, I saw what appeared to be a brown column of air.

At first, I thought that it might be a column of smoke from a fire. I quickly called Mike over to ask him what he thought it was. Ironically, at the same time, the monitor right next to the thornton video was showing footage sent in to the station of a landspout seen earlier this week. We looked at the two, side by side, and noticed how similar they looked. As we continued to watch the monitor, we could see that the column was indeed rotating.

Our storm chaser, Tony Laubach, was in the weather center as well, and recognized that it was, indeed, a landspout. A landspout, is a weak tornado, that spins upward from the ground rather than down from the cloud.

We quickly hit record and were able to capture a few seconds of footage of the landspout before it vanished. Not only did I get to see my first tornado from the live camera, but I am proud to say that I was the first to spot it on the monitor. Mike even mentioned my name on the news when talking about the landspout!

Note to Self...

Last Saturday, I decided to wear a new shirt to work. It wasn't until I went to practice the weather forecast, and stepped in front of the green screen, that I realized it wasn't the best shirt for TV. You see, the shirt I wore was definitely the color green. Not just any green, the exact same kelly green as the green screen. As I stepped in front of the camera, I no longer had on a green shirt but was wearing the national radar instead. --Now you see me, now you don't.

Mike Nelson calls it a little a bit of TV magic. Everywhere the camera sees green, it replaces the color with the weather graphic instead. In this case, that meant my entire green shirt.

The technical name for the green screen is "chromakey", and it can come in different colors, like red, blue or green. Red is not a good choice because skin tones have a lot of red in them. Also, women tend to wear lipstick in shades of red. Blue is not the best choice either because it's a common color for clothing. That makes green the best color to use for the screen. I remember Mike telling me once that they chose that color because nobody would wear that shade of green. Oops, I guess I did. Don't call the fashion police on me. :)

The moral of the story is that I should not wear green to work!

Tornados!

Today we got hit with some severe weather over the eastern plains. Not only were there thunderstorm warnings, (which we seem to get every day) there were also tornado warnings for several different areas! Since it is severe weather season, this type of weather can only be expected. Making tickers and crawls and keeping Mike informed on everything that was going on kept me busy for most of the afternoon. Luckily, the tornadoes that did touch down (9 of them!) were around rural areas so nobody got hurt to my knowledge. I think the extent of the damage was vegetation and live stock. We received some awesome viewer pictures of the tornadoes that Mike used on air. Looking at the pictures makes me realize how destructive these funnel clouds can be. Luckily in this case, not much was damaged. I give credit to the storm chasers out there, I just don't know how close I would want to come to one of those giant funnel clouds!

With the 4th of July fast approaching, cooler weather is in store for the Denver area. It's a little bit disappointing that the cooler weather happens to fall on a holiday but the break from the heat will be much appreciated. Hopefully enough precipitation will fall to help out with some of the fires still burning in Colorado.

The Art of Forecasting

I have learned that the most important part of being a Broadcast Meteorologist is to make an accurate and news-friendly forecast. Mike actually lets us make our own forecasts to practice. He says that the best forecasting skills come from experience and knowing your Colorado terrain. Most people think that Meteorologists and Weathercasters take their forecasts directly from the National Weather Service and I can tell you firsthand, that this is absolutely not true.

To start the process of forecasting, we take a look at the different models that are produced from a computer in Washington D.C. These models show up as a picture of the United States, 500 Millibars above the surface with equal lines of pressure (isobars) all over them. The computer in Washington D.C. makes these models by calculating over 7 trillion calculations per second. Trust me, I'm taking a Calculus class right now and it is not easy. Without that computer, Meteorologists would have to do all of those calculations by hand. You can imagine how important this computer is to Meteorologists. The models that are printed show how the fronts move in and out by how close the isobars are to each other. These maps help Meteorologists make an extended forecast. After that, we take a look at at the MOS models. They give us an idea of what temperatures are estimated to be at, and what the precipitation chances are for the next couple of days. They are posted in Zulu time, so it can be a little bit difficult to figure out what the actual time is, but I think I've finally got it figured out! After that, we look at all the models and maps and make the forecast. Mike overlooks the forecast, changes what he wants, and then we enter the information into the computer for the show.

It is obvious to me, that with experience comes accuracy. With the amount of experience Meteorologists in this television market have, they usually have a pretty good idea of what's in store, at least as far as weather goes!