Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue Thunder
I'm sorry Rose, what I meant to say was that I specifically remember listening to Don Kent on 'BZ Radio that Monday morning, forecast 1-3 inches of snow. I was a senior in High School at the time. I remember it like it was yesterday. Also, don't get me wrong, I truly feel that Don Kent is a legend as I posted earlier in this thread. I don't want to leave the wrong impression.
Blue Thunder
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No worries, Blue Thunder. I just wasn't sure if VtSteve was referring to the Blizzard of 78, which was forecasted by some meteorologists, or the forgotten snowstorm of Jan. 20-21, 1978 that SteveA referred to, which was not forecasted.
With regards to Don Kent, my memory is not of his forecasts but of my parents constantly saying Don Kent was always wrong.
But he certainly was a weather vanguard. I love this snippet from an
interview of him by Eric Pinder:
"But the going wasn’t easy at first—the Weather Bureau jealously guarded its treasure trove of data from private meteorologists like Kent, who were in effect competing with the Bureau. Kent began with no Teletype machine and thus, no easy way to get the data vital to a forecast. To learn what was going on, he bought some old ham radios and eavesdropped on airplane conversations between Boston and New York. The pilots would frequently ask about or relay the weather conditions and Kent would listen in and jot down the data on a map." Boy, have times changed. I can remember during the World Series in 2000, one of the National Weather Service forecasters in New York mentioned the "Subway Series" in a forecast discussion (a somewhat technical discussion of the reasoning behind the forecast not usually read by the general public but available to them). The private forecasting firms screamed bloody murder that the NWS was competing with them. [insert crybaby smiley here]