"...gonna see a good friend marry,
Goin' to the chapel and we're
gonna dodge a hail storm baby..."
For a year and a half I worked closely with the early AM producer at News 14, John Kunza. Fellow Tarheel and Morehead graduates, we hit it off well from the start, especially given our warped senses of humor. John is now working the international desk for a major broadcast network based in Charlotte, and many a national news broadcast story brandishes his typed words.
Well, the boy got hitched to his now lovely bride Emma this past weekend in Greensboro, and I was honored to be a part of their special day. But it was made even more special when those powerful thunderstorms rolled in during the late afternoon hours, once all were at the O'Henry Hotel for the reception.
Scads of viewers emails came in to the News 14 weather department about those Triad storms, with myriad pictures of hail and downed vegetation, etc. Standing in the lobby of the O'Henry, I was in awe of the strong whipping wind as it spun the large revolving door with ease, all by itself. The squall line was a serious one, and just from my first-hand observations I was amazed there had been no report of a tornado close by. It was quite the maelstrom.
I've seen a lot of storms first hand, and that one ranked near the top of anything I've run across in the past couple of decades...torrential sheets of heavy rain blew in horizontally through the front breezeway with sheets of hail bouncing in like the vintage ping-pong ball drops on the Captain Kangaroo show (sorry if you younger ones are clueless about that last reference!).
As the old question goes, "How bad was it?" It was so bad John and I had to go act like fools in it, getting soaking wet, picking up hail for cheesy photo ops...and I tried to do my best Mike Seidel impersonation from his Weather Channel hurricane interviews, leaning in to the winds reporting 'live'. It was too much fun, being so spontaneous and care-free...and with hotel towels we slowly dried out our 100% soaked suits soon enough (yay for worsted wool!).
I don't have any pictures from that to post, but I do have the link to the photographer's website wherein they posted some proofs from that scene and more of the wedding in a Flash player format. I trust the links will get you there:
First, you can try the following link, and click on the picture of John and I holding hail stones in our hands...it takes you to the flash page, and when you click on the small shots they'll enlarge some for you to look at. NOTE: from the multi picture page, you can hit the 'refresh' key some and see a few more pictures get mixed in each refresh: BertVanderveen.com
If you have trouble getting there, you can try the Flash page directly: prelim proofs
And now we have the official start of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season, already with 'Arthur'. Arthur started in the eastern Pacific off the Central American coast as 'Alma', which reached tropical storm status and then dissipated back to a depression...but by then it had crossed into the Atlantic jurisdiction, hence the first name of the year 'Arthur'.
As of 10p Sunday night, the depression was weakening and will no longer be monitored by the National Hurricane Center as the low slowly moves northewest as a soaker of a system.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
Goin' to the chapel and we're
gonna dodge a hail storm baby..."
For a year and a half I worked closely with the early AM producer at News 14, John Kunza. Fellow Tarheel and Morehead graduates, we hit it off well from the start, especially given our warped senses of humor. John is now working the international desk for a major broadcast network based in Charlotte, and many a national news broadcast story brandishes his typed words.
Well, the boy got hitched to his now lovely bride Emma this past weekend in Greensboro, and I was honored to be a part of their special day. But it was made even more special when those powerful thunderstorms rolled in during the late afternoon hours, once all were at the O'Henry Hotel for the reception.
Scads of viewers emails came in to the News 14 weather department about those Triad storms, with myriad pictures of hail and downed vegetation, etc. Standing in the lobby of the O'Henry, I was in awe of the strong whipping wind as it spun the large revolving door with ease, all by itself. The squall line was a serious one, and just from my first-hand observations I was amazed there had been no report of a tornado close by. It was quite the maelstrom.
I've seen a lot of storms first hand, and that one ranked near the top of anything I've run across in the past couple of decades...torrential sheets of heavy rain blew in horizontally through the front breezeway with sheets of hail bouncing in like the vintage ping-pong ball drops on the Captain Kangaroo show (sorry if you younger ones are clueless about that last reference!).
As the old question goes, "How bad was it?" It was so bad John and I had to go act like fools in it, getting soaking wet, picking up hail for cheesy photo ops...and I tried to do my best Mike Seidel impersonation from his Weather Channel hurricane interviews, leaning in to the winds reporting 'live'. It was too much fun, being so spontaneous and care-free...and with hotel towels we slowly dried out our 100% soaked suits soon enough (yay for worsted wool!).
I don't have any pictures from that to post, but I do have the link to the photographer's website wherein they posted some proofs from that scene and more of the wedding in a Flash player format. I trust the links will get you there:
First, you can try the following link, and click on the picture of John and I holding hail stones in our hands...it takes you to the flash page, and when you click on the small shots they'll enlarge some for you to look at. NOTE: from the multi picture page, you can hit the 'refresh' key some and see a few more pictures get mixed in each refresh: BertVanderveen.com
If you have trouble getting there, you can try the Flash page directly: prelim proofs
And now we have the official start of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season, already with 'Arthur'. Arthur started in the eastern Pacific off the Central American coast as 'Alma', which reached tropical storm status and then dissipated back to a depression...but by then it had crossed into the Atlantic jurisdiction, hence the first name of the year 'Arthur'.
As of 10p Sunday night, the depression was weakening and will no longer be monitored by the National Hurricane Center as the low slowly moves northewest as a soaker of a system.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
1 comment:
The pictures were great Bob! I loved the "blowing in the wind" one. Funny! Hope the computer problems are improving.
Will
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