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Forecast is…cool

In more ways than one.  Cold and wet and rainy out today—just as forecast on WFAA.com.  Our local news outlet’s website—channel 8 here—is a daily stop for Angelina.  For years now she’s been a hound about the weather, checking it first thing when she gets up, and throughout the day.  (It never rains enough for her.)  She tries to identify the clouds, and notices changes in them, as well as the wind direction.  She’ll check our barometer if she remembers it.  (The barometer which we bought a couple of years ago for a school science project.  She picked one on—drum roll—the weather.)  But her main fascination is with the extreme weather, tornadoes and supercell thunderstorms.  The slightest bit of precipitation sends her checking the storm track.  Hail?  Tornadoes?  Downbursts?  She’s on ‘em like a duck on a junebug.  No surprise, then, that she’s said more than once she may be a meteorologist when she grows up.

Her brother Alexander has no aspiration to that, but his interest in the subject is strong enough that he also chose a weather-related science project that year, and when choosing science-related place mats for the table a few Christmases back, we got him the weather one and her the astronomy.  Now they argue about who gets to use it.

That all being the case, it seemed natural to see if our first behind-the-scenes trip this year could be to the Channel 8 weather studios.  So a few weeks ago I popped onto the website to see who’d be best to contact about a tour.  The answer was immediately obvious: Colleen Coyle.  Who better to talk to Angelina about a career in meteorology than a woman with a B.A. and published in the subject, as well as storm tracker and meteorologist for the TV station whose website she checks every day?

I dispatched an e-mail to Colleen, and then sent a friend request on Facebook, since sometimes that’s a faster way to get hold of people.  The e-mail did the trick.  She replied that she’d be happy to do it, and suggested we do it at the satellite studio at Victory Park by American Airlines Stadium.  We delayed it a few weeks so that my dad, then on vacation in Florida, could come with us.  A private pilot of forty years with an avid interest in meteorology himself, I knew he’d like to join us.

We set the date for this past Saturday morning, while the show was still on.  That way we could watch Colleen do the weather on TV before getting our tour.  She did a great job of keeping in touch, even remembering after three weeks about our tour and e-mailing about it.

It only took half an hour to get there, and parking was a cinch, since it was early on a Saturday morning.  After some initial confusion about where exactly to enter—we could *see* them doing the morning show through the glass walls—Colleen saw us and came to our rescue.  We were “her people.”  She was in the middle of a set, so she had us wait where we were at first to watch the proceedings, and then came over a bit later to offer the break room or a different vantage point from which to watch the show.  They have five different sets/desks set up in the satellite studio, so we had to make sure we weren’t standing in a spot where at some point we’d show up on camera.

When she finally had a longer break she introduced us to everyone more properly.  It’s a very loose set, with barely a handful of people making it go.  Everyone was exceptionally friendly and, not surprisingly considering the venue, outgoing.  Our four-year-old, Christina, had to go the bathroom, so at the next break we did take Colleen up on the break room offer.  Christina got to go to the bathroom and my dad got his coffee.  All was well with the world.  Well, almost: Christina was disappointed there wasn’t any decaf for her.

When the show was over, Colleen came and got us and gave us a brief tour of the weather set/station.  Since it’s a satellite studio, it’s mostly a computer bank with multiple monitors that she can use to make and call up the maps she needs, and the graphics she wants to use.   There was of course the green screen that lets her stand in front of the radar and forecasts, and Colleen let the kids try it out.  Angelina was wearing a multi-color striped sweater, so on the TV screen her green stripe cut her in half.  She recovered nicely once she stepped back out.  (Guess it’s green socks for Colleen on St. Patrick’s Day.)

As we were wrapping up, Colleen let the kids get behind the anchor desk to see what that was like.  She gathered the on-air talent together with us and the result was this:

A quick poll on the way to the car found unanimous enjoyment of the experience, and was buttressed by quick smiles all around.  So a big special thanks to Colleen Coyle, and kudos to the entire Saturday News 8 Daybreak staff at WFAA, for making it an enjoyable experience.  Be sure to check out Colleen’s Facebook page, and you can also sign up for daily e-mail forecasts sent straight to your in-box every morning.

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