6.4.2025 -- NLS -- Victor Perez Fallout & Forecasting with Meteorologist Michael Coats

On this episode with Julie…

Julie dives into a developing story from EastIdahoNews.com about the Victor Perez police shooting in Pocatello. She breaks down newly released emails and documents that reveal behind-the-scenes communication between city officials, including concerns from a city council member about transparency, delayed responses, and how the public was being informed. Julie highlights prior police interactions with Perez—who was nonverbal and had mental health issues—which add important context to the controversial shooting and the city’s response.

Later in the show, Julie is joined by a guest meteorologist for a wide-ranging conversation about forecasting in Idaho, why this hurricane season could be especially active, and the evolving role of AI in weather prediction. They also touch on the quirks of being a local weather personality, the challenges of accurate forecasting, and yes—even a little alternative rock talk.

It’s a thoughtful, layered episode mixing public accountability, community safety, and a deep appreciation for... weather.

Let’s talk advertising. When you want to advertise on the radio, you call the station, right? But what about Facebook, Instagram, Hulu, Disney+, Peacock, and other streaming platforms?

You could try clicking around, reading books, or taking online courses to figure it out—or you can let us handle it. At Sandhill Media Group, we’re your local experts in both radio and digital marketing.

Visit SandhillMediaGroup.com today.

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Transcript

All right. Good morning, East Idaho. It's Julie Mason here on the Neil Larson show. By the time Neil gets back, you guys are going to get used to that. That opening, being cut off like that. It's part of the new clock that Neil built in it. It definitely takes a little cut out of, of the traditional opening that you usually hear on the Neil Larson show.

I'm running the show solo today. For those who who haven't been regularly listening in over the last little bit. Neil is in Alaska. He enjoyed some great sightseeing yesterday with his friends. Went through a two and a half mile tunnel that goes through a mountain there. Apparently. It's pretty awesome. It's a railway and a highway system. He also visited the only aquarium in Alaska yesterday and saw some glaciers, some beautiful lakes.

So we're wishing him the best. I hope he gets to get out and sightsee today as well. We've got a big morning, coming up for you at the 9:00 hour. Meteor ologist Michael Coates is going to join me for the hour. It'll be a great, hour of fun and maybe some lighter topics. So, of course, we'll obviously talk weather, the Canadian wildfires, all of those things.

But Michael is always a great guest on the show and a friend of the show. So, appreciation ahead of time for him being willing to come in and spend the hour. I wanted to kick off the 8:00 hour, though, talking about an article that was published yesterday in East Idaho News.com. Big credit to them on this one.

It's concerning the Victor Perez shooting in Pocatello that got national attention. And obviously massive regional attention. Just a quick reminder that shooting happened on April 5th. That is when Pocatello police officers, were alerted via A911 call from a neighbor that there was some sort of domestic dispute going on at Victor Perez's home. Victor Perez is a 17 year old autistic boy, is what the article calls him.

I want to let everyone I want to just paint the picture accurately for everyone. He is 17. He does look like a man. He does look older. So if you haven't seen a picture of Victor Perez, he's a bigger kid. Even though he's 17, he looks much more like a man than he does a boy. Though that, 911 call was made, there was a little bit of uncertainty in the 911 call.

They were worried that he had been hit in the head. They were also, telling the dispatcher that, Victor Perez had a knife in his hand. So that is what the police officers rolled up onto that day. Now, Eastidahonews.com requested these records. They wanted any communication between, Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad, their public information officer, Marlis Irby, Pocatello police chief, Roger shy.

And then any member of the Pocatello City Council. And if they requested any, communication about the shooting that ran from April 5th, which was the, just days after the or the day of the shooting to April 15th. They also asked for police reports and photos and incident documentation, that involve Victor Perez prior to that April shooting.

They wanted to know how much knowledge the Pocatello Police Department had. About Victor Perez. It's important to note that East Idaho News had to pay for this information just under $396 to get the requests. So, like I said, big kudos to them for taking the steps and making sure that this happened. So on April 7th, that was two days after the shooting and after, I'm sure the Pocatello Police Department and the mayor's office were being inundated with requests, about details surrounding Victor Perez and his condition because Victor Perez was still alive at that time in the hospital.

East Idaho News was able to obtain emails that show that Pocatello City Councilman Hayden Paulson expressed concern to Mayor Blad about the social media uproar following the incident. So this was two days after it happened. Referring to emails from the media regarding the video of the shooting that went viral. Councilman Paulson emailed Mayor Blad asking, are we having a meeting about this?

Not sure how this works. I've seen it on Reddit and people are spreading it a lot on other social media. The video is not good. So clearly Councilman Hayden is or Paulson is concerned about this. And then, according to the emails sent between Paulson, Mayor Blad and Chief Shai, at least one city council member was distressed after seeing police snipers on the roofs of nearby buildings during a peaceful protest at the Pocatello Police Department.

This happened after Victor Perez's death, so days later. So keep the timeline all in mind here. It took seven days before Victor Perez died. He spent seven days in the hospital. During that time, there were several, what I would call I mean, this word has been molested, but peaceful protests, just people who were incredibly concerned, about the police shooting and wanted awareness brought to it.

And so during one of those, a council member saw those snipers on the roof. That council member felt like that, increased the agitation in the community, that the snipers weren't possibly necessary. Then on April 12th, Councilman Paulson sent two officials an email with the subject police on roof stating he was using his city council email to make sure the public was recalled or that the that the communication was public record.

Councilman Paulson continued asking questions about who the decision makers are in Pocatello. I'm getting the in like the impression here that much like a lot of the public, council member Paulson was floundering a little bit, wondering who's leading who here. It took, Mayor Brian Blad several days to make a statement. It took Police chief, shy several days to come out.

When he did show that video. And so I think what we're interpreting here is Council Member Paulson is just wondering, you know, we've had quite a delay. Who is making the decisions here? He went on to write, that display is awful. Meaning the snipers and shows a clear flippancy or flat out hostility to Pocatello, ns about the seriousness of the situation.

Who made that decision? So he asked that question who made the decision? Constituents are demanding answers, and I am too. Okay. East Idaho News says records do not show Paulson receiving a response from the mayor or the police chief to that email. He's clearly asking who's running the show. And with the stuff that was provided, all of the items that were provided to East Idaho News, they did not see a response from Mayor Brian Blad or the police chief.

Okay. More stuff from the items that were obtained. Other city officials, including former city Councilman Josh Mansfield, seem to be concerned about the situation as well. In a text conversation between council member Paulson and Council, former City Council member Josh Mansfield, this one happened on April 7th. The two seemingly talk about the graphic video that circulated taken by the 911 caller, Brad Andrea, says it was actually his son that called, but you can hear him in the background on the call.

Okay. So Council Member Paulson asked the question, did you watch the video of the shooting on the Pocatello subreddit? I emailed, Blad so Mayor Blad this morning asking if we're having a meeting because it's bad. Maybe that's what Thursday is about. Mansfield responds and said, I saw it circulating. It's definitely what Thursday is going to be about.

The news article then goes on to say that information revealed in the documents seems to indicate that officials were frustrated with witnesses and individuals related to the shooting. Speaking to the media. So what they're saying there is, like the police chief, the mayor had some frustrations that those who took the video, meaning Brad Andreas and his son, who was on the 911 call, that they were frustrated that that video was leaked to the media.

In a text message exchange on April 10th. Shy messages an unknown person so we can't see who it is. She expresses frustration about a man named Brad that Brad is Brad Andre's and one of the reporting parties that called the police before the shooting. Now, in that text, it says this. Brad is continuing to change his story. When are we going to come out against this narrative?

I think we need to ASAP. Maybe there were. Maybe the release today can say there are multiple accounts of what information was relayed for inaccurate account. Here is the 911 recording and the transcript. So a police chief is trying to, put together here is the way that that they are going to explain the information to the public.

So he does seem frustrated about that. Andre told Eastidahonews.com on April 7th that he and his son saw Victor Perez swinging. Swinging a knife around, but said it didn't seem like any of his relatives were scared of him. Remember in the video, there are two women and a man standing there that are relatives of Victor Perez. They then noticed Perez on the ground with a log next to him.

Brad Andres said he assumed someone threw it at him and described it as, quote, sketchy before deciding to call the police and report it. Here's what, Brad said in April. It looks sketchy. There's a knife. There's things in danger. So my son made the correct call to call 911 with the goal of helping his neighbor with this situation.

Dispatch may have exaggerated something because this wasn't a knife fight. Nobody would have been stabbed. Nobody was in immediate danger. So I believe this is Brad Andres explaining that, maybe what was relayed to dispatch wasn't what was relayed to Pocatello police officers. Now, obviously that's just his opinion, but that's that's his explanation for it. Now, in a text message chain between city officials on April 12th.

So this is three days before Victor Perez dies. A person appearing to be mayor Blad states, I wanted to let you know that I have found out. What I told you on Thursday was incorrect regarding the Perez shooting. I just had a phone call from the chief that they have removed life support, and he has since passed. So the text message was signed.

Brian, the point of this being included in the article is there's a lot of communication going on that is outside of like official communication chains. And so when Mayor Blad signs a text Brian and not Mayor Blad, there are some that would perceive that as a little too flippant, a little too conversational for what some would say needed to be a much more official stance and position and communication between all of the parties.

Now, the City of Pocatello issued a news release on April 10th that provided some detail about the shooting and investigation. According to emails between the Public Information Officer, Kirby Mayor Blad, Chief Shai and all of the City Council administrative services managers, the group had prepared a list of 18 questions and answers about the context behind the shooting. The list included that Pocatello police officers had responded to the press press house twice in the past, but none of the officers who responded on April 5th had been to the House before.

So we're clearing up some information here because a lot of people were asking that question. Didn't they know about this artist, this autistic young man? Didn't they have knowledge about this prior? And it appears via this communication that none of the responding police officers had been to that house before. It goes on to say the police department and City of Pocatello later held a news conference on April 17th, where the 911 call and body camera camera footage from the two of the four responding officers was released to the public.

According to text messages between. All of those people that I've already listed. Mayor Blad had been planning to answer the questions publicly, but changed his mind after the city was served with a lawsuit by Victor Perez's family for wrongful death and civil rights violation. So when you've had outrage about the fact that Mayor Blad wasn't present, this could explain that.

So that's the purpose of this being in the news article and explanation of why Mayor Blad? I don't know, I guess you could say, backed out of that press conference. Now, according to court documents obtained by Eastidahonews.com, as part of a second records request, officers were called to Perez's home on December 2nd. So that is of 2024. So this is not the four responding officers, but previously officers.

Officers had been called to that residence. They described in the reports that Perez was a mentally disabled juvenile, and that he had battered a relative in the home. Police reports indicate that officers and dispatch had a difficult time communicating with the family due to a language barrier. When they arrived, they saw that Perez was allegedly that Perez had allegedly been holding a woman down on the floor by grabbing her hair.

Now, in that visit in December, officers de-escalated the situation. They handcuffed Victor Perez to detain him while they investigated. Court documents say the Perez family told officers that Perez is mentally disabled and that he suddenly became violent. The family also stated that Perez had a history of violent outbursts. They went on to note that they had just moved to Pocatello from Chicago, and that while at their last home, Victor Perez had strangled a female relative, which might have been one of the reasons that they moved, the family told officers that Perez had not had access to his medications for a couple of months, and they believe that his aggression was a result of not being

able to take his medications. So all of that happened in December. Then on March 1st, Pocatello police were called to the home after Perez's grandfather said he was having trouble controlling his autistic grandson. When officers arrived, the family stated they needed help figuring out how to manage Victor, as he had some trouble at school. In that visit, officers tried to talk to Perez, but learned that he was nonverbal, which is a key component to the day of the shooting.

Because they were the responding officers were rapid firing commands at Victor Perez, and he wasn't responding. We now know from this previous, police encounter on March 1st that it was listed that Victor Perez was nonverbal. Officers asked him what was happening, and Perez, in a way to communicate, would make two fists and cross his hands at his wrists as if to tell them, take me to jail.

So that was in the documents also could explain why Victor Perez started walking towards the officers and the, shooting that happened in April. Now, the officer said he would not be taking him to jail. So I told Victor, I'm not doing that. And Victor's relatives told officers that they had received a letter from the school regarding Victor's behavior.

But the letter is redacted in the police report, so Eastidahonews.com cannot tell you what the letter said in that visit. In March, the family asked police to take Perez to the hospital, but officers declined, saying they could not transport him because there was no medical emergency. All right. The last part of the news article talks about police conduct.

In the documents received by Eastidahonews.com. It is clear that many concerned citizens. I had questions about less lethal weapons available to Pocatello officers. According to the question and answer list included in the request, officers have access to Pepper spray, collapsible batons, less lethal shotguns with beanbag beanbag rounds and tasers so as they had for other options to subdue Victor Perez on the day of the shooting before using actual gunfire and firing.

You know more than a dozen bullets. They go on to say. As for de-escalation training for the officers, the documents state that the Pocatello officers underwent 40 hours of crisis intervention training and, quote, review policy in squad meetings and during use of force training. So there's those 40, 40 hours and then additional conversation that's happening. According to Mayor Blad, there is a pending investigation by the Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force with the Bannock County Sheriff's Office as the lead investigative agency.

Now, as a note, I had a chance a few weeks back to talk with a police officer. I did ask that officer to, give me an idea if he felt like this task force was going to be able to manage the review of this case, like, could they be infiltrated? Could they? I just wanted to know, you know, give me your bird's eye view.

Is this going to go the way that we hope as a public it will go? I was reassured that he felt like it absolutely would. I will not put him on record because I didn't ask him to be on record with that. But this was a couple of weeks back. We were talking outside of the studio. I asked that question and, he reassured me that he did feel like this task force was going to be managed the way it was supposed to be managed.

I just felt like this was incredibly interesting information that East Idaho News was able to obtain. I think the public does. I don't feel like this is going to simmer to the point that the public is going to stop demanding answers to their questions, and some of the questions were answered here specifically, what could they have used instead of bullets on that day?

And did those four responding police officers have knowledge at all? And for me, the biggest question which you've heard me talk about here prior, I'm not going to second guess what the police officers were doing. My biggest concern about the day was the fence. And why wasn't that taken into account? Hopefully that will be answered with the investigative task force.

But after the shooting, when there was no emergency happening and there was plenty of time, why was the response by city officials and by the police chief slow rolled? I it was slower than I think those in the region were hoping for. And I feel like this article answered some of those questions about their hesitations. All right. Let me know what you think of this article.

I would love to hear what you think about the response and the communications that were happening between Mayor Blad, Chief Shai, the public information officer, and the other council members. You can do all of that by texting me on the Stones Automotive Group call and text line. That number is (208) 542-1079. And, I'm hoping to have a segment with Neil Larson here coming up soon.

And then in the 9:00 hour, meteorologist Michael Coats will be joining me for the entire hour. All right. Join you after the commercial break here on Newstalk 1079. And good morning, East Idaho. It is Julie Mason. No, Neil Larson in studio with me for the 9:00 hour. He is in Alaska, but his shoes are being filled by meteorologist Michael Coats.

Oh, okay. So we're going to talk about his, poor eating habits. Yes. Yeah, his Cheetos on spaghetti, his, as referenced in the last segment, his rather large head that he can't find a hat for sure. We can talk about all of that. I should have brought some hummus and some veggies because I love that stuff.

And I know he hates that stuff. He does. We could have shared because it would have been going up the joint. You got a new digs in here. This is nice, dude. We're loving this new studio. For listeners who haven't heard, we shifted within sand Hill Media. We're now in the large studio, and it's been great because on Fridays we do studio for covers.

We have bands in here. It's been awesome. I'm amazed because I'm. I did radio in college, but when I did radio, it was still all karts and yeah, yeah, giant board and lots of racks of machines. And now you come in here, it's sleek, it's nice, it's it smells good. Okay, well, that's because Neal's. No, I'm just kidding.

Yeah, because Neal's thinking of a car right now. Driving was. He is. I've teased him endlessly that, good etiquette is not to eat beef jerky in a car. But it's two guys, and they probably did anyway, so there they go. I'm just. I was curious to hear about his Canadian food choices. Poutine. And he did have some.

Yeah. He gave it a like about a six out of ten. Seven out of ten. Yeah. But he ate the McDonald's version of it. I I've had some good poutine I've been to. I went on a Canuck Alaskan cruise a couple of years ago, and we stopped in Victoria and got some real good poutine at a nice sit down sports bar.

And it was amazing. Yeah, good fries and good gravy and good cheese curds. Yeah, it depends on the place. That's what I sent back to him when we. He sent me a picture. Right. He said, I don't see what the hype is. I would give it a six out of ten. Seven out of ten. I said, well, you are at McDonald's.

It might taste different if you were at a nicer restaurant. Yeah. I mean, he's got to try Tim Hortons. I hear they're pretty good. The donut place. Okay, there we go. Pass that along. Yeah. He also tried, ketchup flavored Pringles. He's a big fan of those. I also like the all dressed. Okay. Lots of spice to those.

Yeah, it's like a sweet barbecue. You can actually get those at Maverik right now. Okay. Little purple bags from Lay's. Oh, good to know. Yeah, but it's a seasonal thing here. But year round in Canada, that's okay. That's where I tried my first salt and vinegar potato chips. I had a Canadian roommate in college and she brought those from Canada.

And I was like, these are good. Like, we need these. Yeah, yeah. Why are they not in America now? They are. Yeah. We're lucky. All right. Michael Coats, for listeners who haven't been on when you have joined me before, what is the Wikipedia version of Michael Coats? Where did you, start with meteorology. How did this all come about?

You know, I, I kind of just fell into this job. I know this is going to sound really weird, and maybe a little bit pretentious. I'm not trying to boast, but I just didn't think I'd be doing this job. I knew I loved broadcasting, I loved radio, I thought I'd be a DJ, I thought it'd be a, DJ of an alternative rock station or something.

But I really love the news. But then I also loved geography and science. So when I got to college, I'm like, okay, let's let's figure this out because I really love, science. I love geography, but I really love the news. So journalism won out in the beginning, and I got my degree in journalism, but my minor was in geography, which was very weird at my university because most of the students who got minors were in some field kind of related to journalism or the arts.

So I'm like, no, I'm going science. So I went and got a geography in minor and studied that, and they loved it. And then I got into news and I was doing news. I covered news as a photographer, a photojournalist. I was behind the scenes as an assignment editor who's basically the hub of a newsroom. And I was working in Palm Springs, California.

That's my first job, my first station, and that's close to where I'm from. And I covered murder trials and court days on end, and I did shootings and really bad stuff. And then my friend said, hey, you know, you want to try weather. We need somebody to do the weekend weather. And like, yes. So I just started learning how to do the weather in Palm Springs.

Loved it. Went back to school, got my broadcast meteorology certificate from Mississippi State. How long did that take after your undergrad? Well, that was a three year program. Okay, I significant I actually started it here when I moved to Idaho because I got approached by management saying, hey, you're pretty good at doing the weather. We got the station in Idaho Falls we just bought from a newspaper, and they desperately need a morning weather guy.

Do you want the job? And I said, sure, I'll move data. I had nothing going on. No girlfriend, nothing. Hold me back. I was just living with a roommate and a two bedroom apartment in Palm Springs. I'm like, yeah, I'll just roll the dice and come to Idaho Falls. And that's what I did. Okay, I left. That was 20 years ago.

But you didn't stay in Idaho Falls initially. You moved or did you? Why am I thinking you were in a Salt Lake market for a while? Oh. Oh, my wife is from the Salt Lake market. That's why I'm thinking. Yeah. My wife, my wife became my wife was my morning producer. So yes, I did fish off the company pier and she was the producer of the morning show.

And you did well. You're skilled. But as she came up, she was from a she's from Salt Lake City and she worked at the station there. So I think that's where that's where I'm grabbing that. Yeah, we met at work, but the bosses couldn't complain because they met their wives at channel eight. It was like the matchmaking building.

Okay? It was part of tradition, and they're great. So. Yeah. And I just thought I'd be here for three years and move on. But I liked it, and they kept promoting me and I'm like, oh, okay. It's pretty nice. Nice here. Like it. And then, you know, like two houses later, a couple mortgages, you know. Yeah, yeah, a couple of cars, four kids and a dog.

And you're like, wow, this is you really moved on. Yeah, you're a full blown adult. You're like, yeah, there you go. Yeah. Do you miss California? Yeah. I miss the food. I will say I miss some of the Mexican food. It's a little lacking. I that's okay to say I don't miss the traffic. I, we drive, but I love the weather.

When I go see my mom and dad, we take the kids, they swim for like a week in August or July, and we go back. We go to the beach. It's fun. Disneyland, you know, but I don't think I want to live there ever again. I just don't I don't see myself there anymore. And you guys are just such a, just a part of the community here with, with your lives.

So that would be pretty tough to uproot. And the town I grew up in was Hemet, which is actually very similar to what Idaho Falls feels like. So I think I've just feel like I'm home here because it's a very similar sized city. But as soon as I start driving past Caesars Palace and I-15, yeah, my my hands start to tense up a little bit on the wheel.

I'm like, oh gosh, here we go. And it's the it's the racetrack. And what is it about that stretch after Vegas that seems like an eternity to get to where you need to be. I think it's because you're on the home stretch. You're like, I just got to get to Barstow. And and if you have kids, there's nowhere good to stop from Vegas to Victorville.

Yeah. Forget it. It's like, you better hold it. Yeah. So there's no travel spots. I mean, they're building some mavericks around North Las Vegas, but, yeah, there's nothing. It is so true. Yeah. I haven't driven the California stretch for a minute because my daughter that lived in Irvine moved back north and she's now in, like like alpine area of of Utah.

So, I don't have to go that way, but I do go to Arizona and drive that several times a year because I have two children there. I have started not going the route of Vegas because I hate Vegas so much. I get it go. I mean, it's a two lane road. It's a little bit longer, a little bit bumpier, but it is worth it.

So they don't have to go through the sand completely. Yeah. All right. Let's talk a little bit of weather. I was doing some searching before you came. I knew about the Canadian wildfires and everything, but I ran across this story. It says a swirling gray haze forest. And it gives a woman name to shut her house, to block out the fine grit that settled on every flat surface in her Puerto Rico home.

The culprit? A 2000 mile dust plume blown off of Africa Saharan desert. Tell people about this. So there is a plume, a dose of dust. Excuse me. And we call it the Saharan dust. The forecast. There's actually a dust forecast that you see a lot if you're in the south, in the southeast, and we track that in weather because it also is an indicator if we're going to have tropical storm development, if there's dry, dusty air coming off the African continent, it kills hurricanes because it dries up the air.

So so there's a benefit, there's a benefit. But then also it makes the skies very milky and white in Florida and around the keys. And Puerto Rico. And, the air quality goes down quite a bit, but the dust does come all the way from Africa, gets swept up because of those prevailing winds, especially closer to the tropics.

And that dust gets pushed towards the Gulf area. Okay. So this dust plume, do you does it look like it's going to hit portions of America? It already has. Okay. It is hitting Florida right now in Puerto Rico. And, it is killing off, the chances of a hurricane right now, which is good. And then also the it's catching headlines right now because it's mixing with the Canadian wildfire smoke.

And especially east of here it's really bad. So Midwest Great Lakes then all the way south towards Florida they're getting that smoke from Canada. Plus it's mixing with the dust okay. Bad air quality if you live in Florida just in Tennessee Mississippi that area okay. Yeah. You mentioned hurricanes. What's this? What does the hurricane season look like right now?

It's pretty quiet, but it looks like it's going to be very active. The hurricane forecasts for the long term are showing that things are going to really ramp up towards mid to late season. Now we just started hurricane season June 1st. It goes all the way through November and it looks like, towards late summer and fall, that's when we're probably going to hit the peak and we're there looking about ten hurricanes, maybe even 14 named storms, but maybe half of those hitting the U.S, that's the estimate right now.

And that's a lot. 14 named storm storms as a heavy season. Yeah it's a heavy season. Yeah. So that's the big concern right now. Yeah. Those those poor letters at the end of the alphabet. They never use those last names. Yeah. Hurricane what would it be Steven or Sally or just never happened. They go in alphabetical order and they rotate male female names and then they go past that.

They go to Greek or, you know, they sometimes have to do that. They go to extra names and numbers. Okay. How often does that happen? Very. It's happened a few times in the last ten years I remember. Yeah. But yeah, this looks like it's going to be an active season. So we might see that again. Okay. Those Canadian wildfires you were talking about how they looking bad now Canada.

Typically you will have a lot of wildfires especially in British Columbia. But this time a lot of the wildfires are more east. So Neil's not going to be driving through a lot of that. That's more towards, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. So we're talking the middle of Canada. If you don't have provinces, and it's all in the northern reaches.

So very forested regions. And small communities, a lot of small communities being evacuated. You have a lot of also, tribe lands. Yes. First Nations like home in Canada. They're being evacuated and some of them are actually being airlifted. I've seen some CBC reports that they're using military planes to take people out of the wildfires, because some of these towns only have one road in and one road out, and some of them are isolated, and only you can get there by only rail because they're they're so far away from civilization.

Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. That's devastating for them. Are are these wildfires under control? Are. No, no. Completely out of control. I mean they're trying to get a handle on them and especially on the when they approach these cities. But but I've been looking at the news out of Canada and it's it's going to be a long fight. And they're using resources from the US to come up and help.

And we do that. We share resources back and forth between trees usually. Yeah. Okay. More weather, questions that I had for you. Water was such a big topic last year. How did we deal with our snowpack this year? Good. And all of our reservoirs are full. The only one that could use a little bit more is Palisades.

Last I checked was about 90% full. But all of our reservoirs around here are full. But I we did get enough snowpack, to hold us over. The big question is, what's next year holding like, so right now we're about an inch below where we should be in terms of precip for the year. So we're a little bit shy of our rainfall amounts right now for this time of the year.

So if we if we get a decent winter, we'll be okay. But it's dependent. Now it seems like every winter are like, biting our nails. Yeah. Anticipation and water is going to be a big deal. Our need for water is just always constant. It's not going away. No. Yeah. No. I know that in previous years, there's been some issues, like the the snowpack melted too rapidly, too quick.

Are we experiencing anything like that this year? No, actually, we had a really easy time this year. We didn't have any major floods. No major flood warnings or flood watches. No major flooding around the usual spots. The poor have got a lot of water, but we actually got through flood season, pretty unscathed. It was, really good.

The weather was just right, and we got. We lucked out this year. Yeah. There are some years when we warm up real quick and then everything melts and then we have all this flooding. But this year was really good. We eased into it. The restoration companies are sad. They didn't get the benefits from the flooding. Yes. You never make the whole happy river, Mike.

Oh, it's like a I'm like a politician. I you know, I, I never make anybody happy and everybody's grumpy. Yeah. How often do you get phrases at you like, why did you do this? As if you're in control of the weather. I don't know, I think people just like to talk about the weather. It's just, you know, also, it's a good icebreaker when somebody runs into you at Fred Meyer or Costco, like, oh, you're the weather guy.

Why did you do this? I'm like, I have no way. I'm sure that happens to you. It happens to, both me and Neal, because we're on Facebook Live primarily. Yeah, like you walk past people in a store and they're doing that. Stare at you, and you're. And then you're like, do I know this person? They do the help.

They do. The dog head tilts like, yeah, do I know that person? Yeah. And then I had somebody come up to me and said, hey, remember at church the other day? I'm like, I don't know who you are. And they're like, no, you go to our church. I don't know who you are. I just because I go to your church, does it mean I don't know who you are?

They. They thought I went to their church. They just recognized me and thought, oh, okay, you go to my church. Yeah. And then when I first moved here, I had the. Oh, you don't know me, but I have a daughter. Oh. Got it. Because they were trying to find you a date. Yeah. I'm like, well, how ugly is your daughter?

That you're.

That I, I'm okay with you asking that question. If they want you to date the daughter, you should be able to ask that question. It was just a it was a lot of getting used to because I again, I kind of fell into this job and I'm like, oh, people know who I am and recognize us. And I'm like, oh, you did say you came from a city that was similar in California to Idaho Falls.

I hear from people about how friendly we are here. I was on a hike with my girlfriends that I go on trips with every year, and we were we were, in southern Utah. And as I'm hiking, I'm saying hello to people. I'm on the left and my friend, who has lived in Utah for most of her adult life, looked at me and said, why are you so nice to everybody?

We are, and what do I do? It's just who I am. And this is Idaho Falls. I know what you have forgotten because you live in Utah, but this is who we are. Yeah. And the town I grew up in again, it's called it's Hemet. It's still there, but it's away from a freeway. It's kind of off the beaten path in California.

So it's not like a major city. And we had cows and we had citrus surrounding the town, and we were about an hour outside of Palm Springs. So it was a very similar feel we had. So you probably were nice to people. Yeah. You knew everybody. You had a Kmart and then you had, you know, you had a handful of churches and you knew everybody.

My mom was a schoolteacher and my dad worked at a car dealership. So, yeah, you run into people a lot. Yeah. And your parents are still living. You get to go visit them? Yeah. They're retired. My dad just retired, and he has his project. He has a sailboat. And good for him. He's been working on his boat and he loves it.

What's the closest body of water for him? There's a big reservoir south of Hemet. Okay. My mom's like, he is not taking that in the ocean, but she's watched too many reels or TikTok videos of sharks coming up next to the boat. Exactly. Yeah. So, I mean, my brothers are joking, like, yeah, we better get the coast Guard's number on speed dial.

I mean, I'm sure my dad's going to be fine, but we worry. I'm glad he's got a project. I remember hearing a story of a woman whose husband worked with my husband, and after he retired, after about two weeks, she packed him a lunchbox and said, go find something to do. I'm done with you being home. Mom's like, he's here all the time.

It's like a Saturday every day. Well, now he's outside doing his cell boat restoration. All right. Okay, I'm going to ask you some questions about, your music choices since you were in radio. So we'll do that on the other side. If you have questions for meteorologists Michael Coates, please send those questions into the Stones Automotive Group call and text line.

That number is (208) 542-1079. All right. We're back on Newstalk 117. I'm Julie Mason and I'm joined by meteorologist Michael Coates for the 9:00 hour Michael, my grass is so green. Thanks to the good winter, I'll give you part of the credit. We had some good rain. We did, but I've got to give most of the credit to town and Country Gardens.

Their four step lawn program has helped me rehabilitate my grass. I purchased that home and gutted it in January of 2021. It was quite the project and the grass needed a lot of tender loving care, and Town and Country Gardens has helped me do that. It's not too late for you to start. If you've been like putting it off or you were vacationing or whatever, and you need to get going on it, it's not too late.

Get on down there. Get the four steps, put on step one. Wait 2 or 3 days. Put on step two. You'll be completely caught up and you will thank me because your grass will thrive. They also have a massive selection of potted plants there, so if you're looking to adorn the inside of your home, it's a great place to visit.

And then there are appropriate planting times for certain shrubs and bushes and things like that. So get on down there. Ask the experts around town and country gardens. They're located south of Idaho Falls on the Yellowstone Highway, across from the malting plant. Okay, we've gotten a whole bunch of texts. Michael. I'm going to read them. Are you ready?

Yeah. First one, I moved to Meridian from Iowa after living there for 40 years. Michael was the best meteorologist I watched. Typically. Spot on. I still watch him once in a while. You're top notch. Oh. Thank you. So lots of love for you. Somebody wants to talk about your broadcast. Maybe last night. It says what was making you laugh during the weather last night.

It was something about your brother, but I tuned in a few seconds late. There was a story about a guy, a cop in Colorado, who was trying to get a bobcat out of the house, and he was using the laser pointer and the body cam you're watching through the body cam. And he said, here, kitty, kitty. And the homeowner's like, that's a bobcat.

And the cops like it's just a cat. And the way he said it made me laugh because my two brothers, I'm the weird one in the family. My two brothers are both in law enforcement. One's in Portland and one's in California. Oh, bless him in Portland. And he's at the medical school, so he's not in. He's. Oh, but but he's in downtown Portland.

He's at the. Oh, yeah. And he's a cop. And he pulls people over. He's you know, so he's. Yeah. He's got a rough job. But the one in Portland sounds exactly like that cop on the news last night. And I just couldn't stop laughing because I just said, that is totally what my brother would say in a situation like that.

And, like, it's just a cat. Oh, wait. It was the same cadence and everything. And so that made me laugh. And that's what I was saying on the news, because then the anchor dog was a little confused of what I was laughing. I just couldn't hold back. There we go. So yeah, totally makes sense. All right, someone's conducting the interview for me because we were talking about talking about this, you and I on the commercial break.

So let me just read the text. Please ask your new co-host. Is that your title? I guess you're no longer a meteorologist. Your co-host, Michael Coats. Ask your new co-host how Ellen and the DOJ's cut backs. The DOJ's cuts have affected his ability or the ability of weathermen to do forecasting. Forecasting locally. I think they're referencing the cuts to the weather service.

So we haven't seen any major changes yet. But there's a lot of concern, especially because there've been major cuts at the hurricane Center. There's been, forecasts, cuts. Well, there's been cuts at some of the local forecasting offices. Now, there's a weather office in there. There's weather offices spread out across the entire country, our local offices in Pocatello.

I'm not aware of any major cuts right now. But there's been a hiring freeze, and things have definitely slowed down. And so. And just like other government offices, they've been doing the early retirements and then they've also been doing some layoffs and cutbacks. So the concern is as we're going into hurricane season, is this going to affect us right now?

Probably not in the short term. If there is a bad storm coming in, if there's a severe weather, then what? The weather service staffs up, they get people in there, they're working overtime, but there's going to be burnout. And that's the fear right now as we get towards the end of hurricane season, as we get towards the end of the next couple of months after severe storms and tornadoes and really bad, nasty weather, is there going to be burnout?

That's the big question. So there's a lot of there's a lot more question marks right now than answers. Our local, weather office, as far as I know, they're still fully staffed and functioning, and they haven't affected my forecasting whatsoever. And your app is still working all those little gizmos on your phone. They rely on the National Weather Service.

That data. So the National Weather Service, I think, is one of those quiet government agencies that no one really even thinks about. But under that umbrella, you have the tsunami warning center, you have the Space Weather Center. Neil's love there with the northern lights. You know, you have the Storm Prediction Center, which looks at severe weather. You have all these different offices, including we also have a NOAA office in Idaho Falls that works specifically just for the INL.

And they're getting moved, because they're selling off their building. But they as far as I know, they're fully staffed still. They're just moving their building back onto the INL campus. So at this point we haven't seen any major impacts, I would say to the weather service, okay, so if we do have maybe the potential perceived burnout, and because people are working overtime and everything, we might see an and an interruption in some of those services, how would it actually affect you?

Would you not get data. Would you like how would it affect you at the rate at the TV station? We might not get the model data on time. We I've seen that before, especially when the government has shut down before sometimes was computer models maybe go from three times or four times a day down to once a day.

So you don't get as an accurate forecast or you don't get a completely updated forecast during the day. So I've experienced this when the government shuts down the weather service, also, most a lot of their departments shut down, but there's still people. There is a skeleton crew and and they still work even though they may not be getting paid right away.

So the model data might be delayed. The observation data may not be coming in as consistently. And then also you may not get warnings fired off in time, or they might be a little bit delayed, because if you're doing more of a regional warning, if somebody in another office, let's say Boise is then looking at Pocatello warning zone, they may not know the geography as well, and they may not issue a warning right away.

So tornado warnings, thunderstorms. So that's where it could be a little bit disconcerting. And that's where the fear is. Especially down the road right now though we're not really seeing that, but it's kind of like a wait and see. So just, you know, that's my perception. Why shouldn't everyone be tense? Right. I should be like, is this going to work or not?

Work? Yeah. All right. We got to take a quick break. We've got local news eight on tap. So, a little nod to Michael's coworkers, and we'll be back on Newstalk one. Oh seven. Name and or back on the Neil Larson Show. I'm Julie Mason, joined by meteorologist Michael Coats. And Michael, we got an interesting, question. I didn't quite understand it, but you explained it to me over the break.

In various parts of the country, they might not have as much warning for a storm or something like that, but we get it a few days in advance. Explain that to people why we have more notice. I think the view yeah, the listener. I say viewer listener was asking, why? Why do we get a warning so far out and advance when the storm isn't here yet?

It has to go through the mountains or something like that. I think they're referring to winter storms, because what happens to the weather service when they see a winter storm coming? They issue a warning or watch days in advance. Especially if it's a winter storm. And then usually just to kind of give people a heads up that something's going to be happening, but there's a lot of nuance in those warnings where, okay, it's going to hit the mountains first.

And if you read the warning, which can be a long amount of text, they'll be like, oh, we get it's going to hit Island Park, it's going to hit the mountains of central Idaho, and then it's going to filter down into the snake River plain. So sometimes, yes, we do get warnings far in advance, especially winter storm warnings.

They'll start out with an advisory or a watch and then step it up to a warning. But that happens typically in the Mountain West, especially in the mountain west. We get those warnings a days in advance, sometimes even a week in advance of we know a winter storm is coming because they want to give people time to plan if they're going to be driving over a mountain peak or something.

So we're kind of lucky. Yeah. We're lucky, you know. Exactly. I, I mean, and I'll, I will be honest, sometimes, though, I do kind of cringe when I see those warnings come out, because then I know that other people in this area, other publications, I won't name names. They might use a scary photo of, like a blizzard, cars driving through a snow storm saying Winter Storm warning issued.

I'm like, it's for Palisades, guys. It's not the entire region, not for Idaho Falls. Okay, let's calm down. And so that makes my job a lot harder. And then I have to work overtime. I feel like just kind of quell the fears. Get that information out. Look, we're looking at an inch here, guys. Come on, we can handle it.

It's not that bad. Another weather. Question. We just completed tornado month, so you complete May, which is tornado month, and you move into June and the subsequent months for hurricanes. How did tornadoes look? Because listening to the national media, you would have thought it was the worst ever. Are you talking about. Oh, yeah. Okay. So, winter time and winter time, you get tornado season in the South, but now we're getting into the plains States.

You're talking okay. Yeah. So there's different tornado seasons depending on the parts of the country. And the worst part is that a lot of people say, oh, this came without warning, but a lot of times there was a warning. It's just that we live in an age now. I think that we're so connected, but yet we're so disconnected from current and real information.

That's the problem, I feel like, because no one's listening to, I mean, I know we have people listening to us right now, but during the day, a lot of people aren't listening to the radio or they're not getting weather warnings on the radio. They're not listening to their TV or seeing the stuff on TV. So where do you get your warnings on watches?

So I, I want to make sure everybody has a good app, never pay for weather app. By the way, you've already paid your $4 to the weather service a year. Every taxpayer pays their $4 for the National Weather Service, which is a pretty good deal. I mean, the way yeah. So the National Weather Service costs us average taxpayer $4 a year, for all that information.

And that's free. So get a good free weather app that will alert you to warnings and watches. Do you have a favorite? Well, I have my own weather. Yeah, obviously I have a jersey. Yeah, but, you know, if you use one of the major weather apps. That's good, but make sure it's geo located that your location is turned on, especially if you're traveling.

You can also, program addresses into your app, so. Oh, grandma's house has a warning or my school has a warning. So you can help those, your loved ones that might live somewhere else. Exactly. Okay. Someone wants to know they sent in a text. They want to know how often is the data that you get way off? I mean, not just a little bit off, but you did a forecast and it didn't even come close to now that happens sometimes, especially snow storms will make me sick if there's something off.

That is the thing that drives me the most. I would say ill. I'm trying to think of a phrase for that. You look at a model and you can analyze it over, analyze it, and you're like, okay, I'm looking at about 1 to 2in in Idaho Falls and it doesn't snow. And then you're like, oh gosh, you get really sick to your stomach because everybody's expecting a snow storm and it doesn't come.

And that happens quite frequently actually. But I mean, most of the time I nail it and I get it pretty close. And then no one ever really. Oh, he did his job. Okay, great. Let's move on. But yeah, it's the days where I'm a little off. Or even if it's like I predicted, two inches of snow and it snowed four inches, then I still get sick because I'm like, why is it still snowing?

I was just supposed to stop at two inches. That pressure that you're putting on yourself, I do, I do it to myself. My mom drives my wife nuts too, I'm sure. Do you talk about weather all the time with her? Is that a like, all the time or do you leave it at work? I kind of leave it at work, but it's always there.

Yeah, I'm always looking. I get asked that question all the time. Do you talk politics at home? Rarely. Rarely. After four hours every morning, I'm done. I'm, I'm I'm finished. All right. I'm loving all the texts that are coming in. Please continue to send questions for Michael Coats to the, Stones Automotive Group. Call and text line (208) 542-1079.

And we got to take a commercial break. It's and we're back on the Neil Larson show. I'm Julie Mason. He's Michael Coats again. Thank you for thank you for inviting me I really appreciate it. I guess I didn't stink up the joint last time I came by. No, no, you haven't lost the gig yet. Okay. If you missed the beginning of the 9:00 hour, I asked Michael all about himself, and he got his first start in broadcasting on the radio side, not TV side.

You said you did a music station. You thought possibly you were going to be a DJ. I want to know what your favorite favorite genre of music is. If you could be a DJ today, what would you want to be broadcasting? I bet I'll do alternative format, alternative rock and that realm which we don't have in this market right now, and it's come and go, and I know that's kind of formats are kind of gaining a little bit, but I'm really an alternative music head.

Punk head. I'm not grunge, I guess. I grew up in that era. I think you're a product also when you grow up. And when I was coming up, it was. And where I grew up, it was all about Nirvana, Soundgarden and those sounds from Seattle Red Hot Chili Peppers. Yeah. So that. No, that's my one of my favorite albums.

Okay. Californication. And then also, the punk scene growing up in southern California, skate punk was really big scar, really big in the scar. So that's my realm. I have no knowledge of country music, and my wife has to teach me and Jeff Roper has to teach me because, you know, I'm just kind of all sounds the same to me.

No offense if you like country music, but it's just, like, not my thing. And then I came in when I grew up, the heavy metal thing, like the Def Leppard and that kind of stuff that was already kind of waning where I was growing up. So I kind of laugh at Neil for loving Van Halen and those those bands.

Yeah. Yes. Those were the bands we made fun of growing up as, oh my gosh, those guys in those pants. And those are the fashion choices. The hair. So yeah, that's my realm of music. And I know I'm a little oddball here in eastern Idaho sometimes with my music. And if you come into the station, channel eight in the afternoon while I'm working because I'm usually in the dark studio alone, you'll probably hear my music choices.

And I have to turn it down because the boss is walking like, oh, you got to turn down the music. They're walking in. So I listen to a lot of music while I work. That leads me to a great question, because I think people probably wonder, you work late in the evening because of the 6:00 in the 10:00 broadcast, what time do you actually like go to work in order to get everything done?

And what's your workday like getting around to? And the thing is, usually we have a meeting about 210 and an editorial meeting at the station. So there's a morning meeting to figure out what the stories are for the day, the plan for the day, the producers. And then we have a 2:00 or 210 meeting, and that's when I usually start my day.

And then I forecast all the way to 5:00 news broadcast. Five 536 I take a dinner break, I get to go home, which is nice about this area. If I worked in a bigger city, I wouldn't probably be able to go home for dinner. And then I get to hang out with my family, kids, get them off to bed, and then go back and do the nine 930, ten, 1035.

I'm done. I left this for you. 1035 I'm done. The only problem is, during the school year, I get to wake up pretty early because there's the school busses. You're helping those munchkins? Yeah, those monsters got to get up and go to school. Yeah, but then I'm free. I'm usually. So my morning is like the time when I'm, like, shopping.

I do all the grocery shopping. Yeah, the mowing, the lawn. So yeah, all of that. Great, great. Okay, what have we missed? Is there anything that you wanted to talk about? We've got about five minutes so I don't well I was we talked a little bit about the the cuts in the government. So weather is a really weird thing right now.

And the thing that I'm fighting is all the social media forecasting. And have you ever been on YouTube or on Facebook and you see like a graphic of a giant hurricane about to attack Florida? And I just I see these, I heard something called the Jabroni. It's like these Japanese online and you're like, oh my gosh, because that is the bane of my existence right now, is trying to fight all the misinformation about whether and, and the, the major storms coming in.

And a lot of this is just kind of getting swept up in people's, I don't know, their excitement. They want to see the worst of the worst. And so that's my biggest thing right now, is I'm usually fighting misinformation. I'm finding my time being spent online is like trying to fight people's, ability to, like, really grab onto something.

That's an exciting headline when reality, it's not that exciting. And the thing is, that's really frustrating to me is like, if the weather's really nice, no one cares. That's right. They leave it all alone. They leave it alone. And then when the weather turns nasty, of course, then when you start to see this stuff come out and you get publications, even here in eastern Idaho that say there's a big storm coming and you're like, no, there isn't.

So the whole social social media thing is, is really quite interesting with the it's because for me, it's information is so readily available from legitimate sources. Yeah. Yet people treat social media as their most legitimate source to get information. You see these? I kind of make fun of these, local Facebook groups like I love Rexburg or whatever, or, you know, life in Idaho Falls or whatever the names of them are.

I'm just so shocked that people go there for the majority of their information. Right. And it's funny how it's like, I need a dog groomer. I'm like, well, you could have just googled it. There's a thing called Yelp. I know that's kind of funny. And we're in this age where I think people also have forgotten how to search or find information.

You and I grew up in an era where we had to go to the library and look at the Dewey Decimal System to do research, and then when I got to college, it's like we got this thing called a computer, and we got a LexisNexis, and, and a lot of this stuff is like, but we still had to use books and we still had to navigate how to seek out good information.

Nowadays, it's just kind of it's just kind of where the epitome of lazy. Yes. I mean, how how quick is an internet search or an AI search? Now, I find AI so quick because it'll source out the material I'm asking for, and then I go to the source. Exactly. Yeah. And so and I, we've been using artificial information or I would say AI in weather for a long time with computer modeling and stuff.

We're just using a different form of it and some. Now Google's like we're going to put out an AI weather model and I'm like, okay, let's see how this goes. So that's going to be interesting to see what happens with that. If that Google AI weather information in a hat in a half a minute. So about 30 or 40s are you worried AI is going to take over your job?

Not at this point, no. I we already have apps. We already have ways to get weather information. I don't think I is going to take over the human aspect of looking at a storm cell and figuring out where the rotation is, and where the worst part of a tornado is, or where the snow is going to hit.

I also, I mean, not to tell you your answer, but I think people like to hear from a live person. I think that they enjoy listening to Michael Coats, so I don't think AI is taking that over. Well, let's let's hope that let's hope I can hold onto this career for a little bit longer. I hope so. All right, Michael, thank you so much for joining me today.

I truly appreciate it. Have a great, you know, two three months until Leo leaves again and I'll have you back. But thank you for inviting me. All right. And we'll see you tomorrow on Newstalk 107 nine.