Keeping the Lights On: Weather & Utilities with Meghan Klee

In this episode of the Everything Weather podcast, Kyle David interviews Megan Klee, a meteorologist and product innovation manager at Storm Impact. Megan shares her unique career journey from growing up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to her roles at Southwest Airlines and American Electric Power, and finally to her current position at Storm Impact. She discusses the intersection of meteorology with the utility industry, the importance of accurate weather forecasting for energy demand and power outages, and the exciting potential of machine learning and new technologies in enhancing weather predictions. Megan also provides insights into her creative process in product development and shares valuable lessons from her past weather prediction experiences.

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About the Everything Weather Podcast

A weekly podcast where we talk with people about the weather world, explore and discuss everything weather and the many things that connect to it, and have a little fun along the way. The podcast is hosted and produced by Kyle David, a meteorologist and digital science content producer based in New Jersey.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Hello and welcome to the Everything Weather Podcast. I'm your host, Kyle David, and today on the show we're excited to have Megan Klee. Megan is a meteorologist and the product innovation manager at Storm Impact, a provider of weather impact solutions for the utility industry. Hi there, Megan, and welcome to the Everything Weather Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Hello, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Absolutely. Before we get into our interview, I've got a fun game for you, Megan. Keep 4 cut five of these weather songs. We have Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles, Raindrops Keep Fallin on My Head by BJ Thomas, Thunderstruck by ACDC, Have You Ever Seen The Rain by Credence Clearwater Revival, Purple Rain by Prince, It's Raining Men by The Weather Girls, Ain't No Sunshine by Bill Withers, Umbrella by Rihanna featuring Jay-Z, and Blame It on the Rain by Millie Vanilli. Nine of those songs you get to keep for them, five get lost either.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

I love Here Comes the Sun. So that's one. It's Rain and Men. I don't know how you can't love that as a female meteorologist, and that song just rocks in general. So I feel like I have to put that in there.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

So that's I've heard of that drinking game. I've not taken part in that game, but I've heard of it.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

It's a big tailgating game. I think we even did it at my wedding. Why not?

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Here we go.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

So that's three so far?

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Yes, that's three. So you have one more left you get to keep.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

One more. Oh no. I think raindrops keep pulling on my head. I actually sang that song in a community choir a few years ago, and it's a it's a fun song to sing. I think I'll add that one to the bunch and throw in a bonus at one of my favorite songs is Thunder by Imagine Dragons. And if I were ever on a baseball team, which I'm not, because I'm not very athletic, that would be my walkout song. So it really pumps me up.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

That's a good song. I'll give you that one. And it does not get lost to the either, like the other five. So we have Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles, Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, Thunderstruck, It's Raining Men, and the other five gone forever into the either of our five. Sorry to everybody else, but hey, you can't beat the Beatles.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

No.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

All right. That's our fun game. We're gonna have a couple more later on in the podcast for you. But before we get to that point, we gotta talk a little bit more about you, Megan. So everybody I have on the podcast, I asked them about their weather story. So, Megan, tell me about your weather story. What got you interested in everything weather?

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Yeah, I think most meteorologists have a weather story. Mine is really just wondering why the weather does what it does. So I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which is like on the northeast side of Indiana. And sometimes we can get some pretty strong mid-latitude cyclones. I particularly remember a time, and I think this was in middle school or something, where we had tornado warnings one day, and then the very next day it snowed. And I was, what the heck? How did that happen? Now, as a meteorologist, I know exactly why that happened. And of course, we can get some interesting weather with some lake effect enhanced the ending of snow too. But that's really the storm that I remember as defining the moment for me wanting to get a degree in meteorology and become a meteorologist.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

And how did you feel as a kid watching the snowfall? And were you rooting for snow to close school, or were you more on the side of I really want to go to school?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Oh, I liked school. I viewed it as a time to socialize with my friends. I didn't root for school to be closed, if anything. I loved delays because I was a big sleeper as a kid. I could sleep forever, really. My mom always had to come wake me up in the mornings and be like, it's 1 p.m. Delays were my jam growing up rather than cancels.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

All right. For me personally, I was rooting for school to be closed just so I didn't have to go into school and stuff. I would put the spoon under my pillow, wear the pajamas inside, whatever tricks there were at the time that I knew, I just try to implement them to make sure school was closed. But now that you know how that works a little bit more and you got to experience that snow, what made you realize, hey, I want to do this for the rest of my life? I want to learn more about it and eventually get a job in the weather.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

I think it's just my want to learn more about it. I paid special attention in like earth science classes and physics class in high school. Anytime I'd talk to my family about, hey, I think I want to become a meteorologist, sometimes they chuckle and be like, okay, sure. But what's interesting is the weather interest runs in my family. Growing up, I like to watch the weather channel. My dad would always watch storms roll in, typical Midwestern, open the garage, watch the storms come in. Even my great uncle on my dad's side of the family, he was a weather observer for the National Weather Service in northern Indiana. I was told not too many years ago that my great-grandmother actually used to keep a journal of high and low temperatures daily. I guess one could say weather is in my blood and it runs in my family, and I guess we're all just a bunch of weather nerves.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Wow. So your great-grandmother, your great uncle, and your father all have had interest in the weather, some of which have kept records of the weather. How is that family connection to watching the weather influenced your career?

SPEAKER_00 5:49

That's certainly something that you you want to make your family proud. So, in that a whole lot of my family knew like what you could do as a meteorologist, like the general public, they're like, okay, you could be on the TV news or work at the National Weather Service or the Weather Channel. But I really decided to take a different route. So I think that they it opened their eyes to the different types of sectors that you can go into as a meteorologist. Of course, with family, they always view you as their personal meteorologist, and I'm happy to do that for them. But it's been fun to live out that dream. I remember my great uncle, the one who's a weather observer, came to my graduation party in high school. He was like, I'm really jealous that you're actually pursuing this. I wish I would have done the same. To me, that's something that I still remember and was certainly a huge compliment in my eyes.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Yeah, and you get to keep the family legacy of weather watching, weather observing, and learning more about the weather. Going back to your high school graduation, you had to have been thinking, okay, this is something I want to go and pursue. Where did you go?

SPEAKER_00 7:01

I decided to try and save some money and start the first two years at a community college to get some of those jet ends done. And then I transferred over to Purdue University. So I did put myself mainly through college to become a minorologist who need a degree. So I was the first college graduate in my family. Purdue is a state school for Indiana, and I'm so happy that I decided on Purdue. It was somewhat of a smaller meteorology program, but you really got to learn and know your professors and your fellow students really well. So we worked together a lot to work on projects, and the professors really were in tune with what you may be getting or may not be getting and what needs help here and there. But overall, it was a really awesome experience.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

What were some of the experiences that you got to take advantage of during your time at Purdue?

SPEAKER_00 7:53

So one thing that I really liked, which was part of a class that was acquired, was doing daily weather briefings in front of my uh fellow classmates. So that really forced me outside of my comfort zone and doing analysis on the weather of for the day and deciding on a particular region to talk about out loud in front of my classmates. Also, senior year, we led a research project, and this was part of a class where you could come up with any idea that you wanted. So we all got five weather stations that we could deploy and just see what kind of data you collect from the weather and create a research paper. As a project, of course, you have to analyze all the thousands of rows of data that come with that. So Purdue has a wind farm close by to the west in Benton County, Indiana. And as a group, we were like, there's gotta be something there. There has to be a way that the wind farms affect the local weather. So we decided to go out and start knocking on doors of houses and say, hey, can we put this weather station on your property? And surprisingly, these people decided to trust a bunch of college kids and allowed us to put weather stations up on their property. We tried to form somewhat of a box with putting a weather station also in the middle of that box and see how different weather parameters change downwind of the wind farm. And one thing that was really interesting of that is coming to a conclusion that downwind, the temperatures are warmer and also drier. So one can implicate that the growing seasons for those farmers where those wind farms are embedded in their fields could prevent the first frost, potentially. So, of course, there needed to be more research done for that conclusion, such as using soil moisture sensors to really confirm that. But it was a really interesting project. We did submit that to be published, and it was by the Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research. And we also presented a poster at the 2011 AMS in Seattle, Washington.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

And before I get into a little bit more about the experiences and what you learn from that, why does the wind farm affect the weather with around it? How does that occur?

SPEAKER_00 10:11

As the wind goes through the wind turbines, it acts as like a giant fan. So it mixes the boundary layer. When a boundary layer, of course, the temperature, typical temperature, decreases with height, right? So if it's mixing those uh warmer temperatures back down to the ground, um, then it it can warm up the temperatures a degree or two, which can be the difference between frost and not frost.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Very interesting. And that kind of gives a little bit of a taste of what the atmosphere is like, how it behaves and stuff. Can you tell me what surprised you the most about that experience and how has that shaped your practice today?

SPEAKER_00 10:48

I think what surprised me the most is that it was somewhat of a not original, but we were somewhat pioneers within doing the research of wind farms and maybe how it affects the weather conditions because this was back in like 2010, right? So that was one thing that surprised me, but also just how much I really enjoyed wind turbines. I know that sounds a little nerdy, but just standing and looking up at a wind turbine was really fascinating to me. And I think that might have been the first inkling of why I maybe was interested in pursuing a career path in the energy sector. So overall, just a wonderful experience. And I think it really did help jumpstart my job search once I graduated.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Very interesting. And you can't help but look in awe at the huge wind vanes, especially the ones that are out on the water. I myself am in awe of those big infrastructure projects out there with the offshore wind projects. So you started getting a taste for the industry, the utility and energy industry. And come graduation, you got your degree. What was next for you?

SPEAKER_00 12:03

What's really competitive. Getting a job after graduation, you're competing against all the other new grads as well. So it did take me a while to get a job after graduation. And for any students who are listening to this podcast, don't lose faith on getting a job. Just keep applying. My first job after graduation didn't happen until late October of the year I graduated. So that was with Southwest Airlines down in Dallas, Texas. I was an associate meteorologist in their operations center. The main job for the meteorologists for an airline is to give weather briefings to management on how the weather may impact operations for today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. So essentially 72 hours. And when we became most important was during big storms like hurricanes or even winter storms, where they might need to delay dispatching planes, taking off and landing at those locations, or even some cancels ahead of big winter events or big wind events as well. After that, I decided to take a job at American Electric Power that's based in Columbus, Ohio. That was closer to home. Of course, Dallas was certainly a different world to me as a Midwestern girl. So I didn't really blink twice when I got the offer at AEP. It was also a different sector. So there's a lot to learn getting that next job with AEP. There, we did a lot, a different type of weather forecasting. There was energy trading, which was a day of, or for those traders out there called Bow Day, to seasonal forecasting. So it was in everything in between. And then we would work on hourly temperatures, cloud cover and precipitation forecast for 48 hours in advance. And that was for the energy load forecasting. And that was a particularly difficult training for me because it really takes a full year to go through all the seasons and learn the nuances of temperature curves based on cloud cover and time of year and cold air and warm air infection. If the air mass is super dry or if it's um humid, that impacts the temperature curves for the day. And that ultimately affects how much energy demand may be needed in that particular region. And of course, there's the risky weather patterns too. If it's 95 degrees, but there's a chance of thunderstorms, sometimes the temperature can go from say 95 to 75 in a matter of 30 minutes with rain-cooled air as the storms come through. It's really difficult to forecast for those days because you don't want to all of a sudden just drop the temperature 20 degrees in one hour because what happens if that storm misses the area that you're forecasting for? Then all of a sudden you don't have enough energy supply to meet the demand for that day. It's certainly a challenge for us meteorologists out there who are doing any sort of energy load forecasting. That's one thing that was always super challenging, but could be highly rewarding at times as well. And the most important thing that I did at AEP was forecasting large storms that might cause significant power outages. We at AEP had a large service territory. So it was over 200,000 square miles from the southern tip of Texas up to southwest Michigan and over to Virginia and everything in between. So we dealt with all sorts of weather types, such as hurricanes, wind storms, ice storms, wet snow events, and of course severe weather, and particularly lines of severe storms with high coverage of DMG winds. Those were the main weather events that we were looking for to warn the different management within the company of hey, you might want to start asking for additional resources outside of the service territory, restoration resources to bring in and help put restore power once the power goes out. That was probably my favorite part of the job just because there was always variety. And one thing about the large service territory at America Collective Power is that you were never bored. There was always weather happening somewhere within that territory. I did really like that job, but it came to a point where I just wasn't growing or learning anymore. I spent 10 years at AEP. I was the manager for I'd say half of that, almost half of that. So I just decided to leave. And now I'm at Storm Impact as a product innovation manager. And it's been really nice to switch things up and use a different part of my brain for the time being. So that's my career path.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

And before we get into your current role at Storm Impact, some may not know about the energy and utility industry and what the connection is there to the weather. You touched upon a little bit, but I want to explore that more in depth. So, what is the importance of having specialized weather forecasting for these different industries?

SPEAKER_00 16:57

It's interesting because when I took the job at AEP, a lot of people are like, why does an electric company need meteorologists? But when you sit down and think about it, weather impacts all areas of a utility. It impacts the energy demand. The hotter or colder it is, the more energy people are going to want to keep their house comfortable, more heat, more air conditioning, so on and so forth, as well as the power plants, generating power plants, the distribution of power lines, transmission of power lines, and really everything in between. It's pretty wild when you think about all the different areas within utilities that weather can impact. It's really important, more so nowadays, because the public is so dependent on power. Like all of the technology that we utilize need to do our jobs and to just do everyday life nowadays. Anytime there's a big power outage, it's scrutinized. Then the regulated areas, state commissions can investigate utilities for not being properly prepared for a big storm that's coming. Sometimes that can go up to the federal level. So as a utility, you want to make sure that you are prepared for that storm and know the level of impact it may cause. And not properly responding can sometimes give utilities fines. And I'm talking like hundreds of millions of dollars. So it's certainly not nothing. I'd say that's the most important thing with utilities and having in-house meteorologists can be so important because yeah, you might know a storm's coming, but how impactful is it going to be to your company is also a really important question, too.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Absolutely is. And it's becoming even more of a demand with things like electric vehicles starting to become more of a thing now, even hike hybrid vehicles, things that are starting to demand more energy than normal.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Absolutely. And it's we're at an interesting point right now in time where there's a lot of power plants that are retiring, in particular coal plants. And while that's important for the environment, we have to keep up with bringing new generation online too and getting that power to where it needs to be. Investments in renewables, investments in nuclear power, investments in transmission lines, making sure that power can get to where it needs to be. A lot of the good wind out there in the United States is in the central part of the country. But where does most of the population live? On the coast. So you need to make sure that you can get that wind generation to those higher populated areas. I think technology is going to need to come a long way. I know that there's been a lot of research into small modular reactors, which is essentially like a tiny little nuclear power plant. And I think that could do wonders with making sure that there's enough energy to supply demand. But man, you talk about people getting electric vehicles, the new data centers, and then just everyone else utilizing the normal power that they do for their houses. During the peaks of energy demand, which in the summertime is in the late afternoon. And in the wintertime, there's two peaks. One's in the morning right before the sun comes up while people are getting ready for work and school, as well as in the evening once the sun goes down. So when you have intermittent energy supply from wind and solar and even hydro, if there's issues with hydro too, you have to make sure that the rivers are actually flowing. So in places that are drought prone, such as the West, which do have a lot of hydro facilities and power plants, they might not have a ton of power to produce power. So it's quite the challenge. I think there's a lot of things coming in the future that I wouldn't say scare me, but I think that there's a lot of work to do, and how do we manage this power with the intermittent generating resources? I heard that there's some nuclear power plants that are coming back online after being out for I think decades. That's certainly interesting to me. Nuclear power might be most useful in the future, especially small modular reactors. So it's certainly been interesting to be in the know or in a utility industry during this transition. I think there's a lot of opportunities. It's just a really fascinating time.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

And it's be at risk of sounding corny. You could say that a storm is brewing with all of these different things that are going on.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Yeah, even on the climate change and weather events becoming more frequent and intense.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

And I want to talk a little bit more, speaking of Storm, about you and your work at Storm Impact, your role as a product innovation manager. We touched upon in the intro, but I want to dive into that more. What does Storm Impact do? And what's your current role there?

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Yeah, Storm Impact provides software as a service. And we specialize in machine learning models that predict things like utility power outages, damage to assets, like how many poles or transformers might be damaged from the storm moving through restoration crew needs. How many crews may you need to bring in from outside states to help restore power? And also the estimated time for restoration for storms that caused power outages. So we, our main customers are investor-owned utilities, but I do think we have some exciting future products that could widen that scope and customer base. So what I do at Storm Impact is I work to improve those machine learning models that predict utility outages due to weather, which is my expertise with my over a decade experience of working that for a utility. So I bring the information of working inside utility operations with my meteorological knowledge. So I find myself quite useful in this role. So I also come up with ideas for new products and features too. And what I really like about this job is that it really allows me to tap into the creative side of my brain. So I get up there in brainstorm. Okay, if I was an end user of this product, what would I like to see? And what's really awesome is having this team of super intelligent people who can make that vision and idea come to light. It's only been six months, but I am so excited to see where this company can go.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

And you said that you'd use a little bit of your creative side, which is not really something a lot of people in the STEM world get to do that often. Can you share a moment where you got to really get into the creative weeds with your work?

SPEAKER_00 23:46

It does happen a little bit at AP2 because we created a uh weather portal from the ground up, but just being able to visualize how a product may look and how a user can interact with it, but also display information in a way that is easy for a common user, non-meteorologist, to utilize and take that weather information or that prediction and make a decision. So thinking and testing and asking questions to current customers of okay, so if this was a feature, how would you like it to look? How would it grab your attention and how would you use it? A lot of it is going to the customers asking, would you use this one? Two, how would you use it and is it useful to make decisions? And three, how do you want it to look? So coming up with some of those options for them to pick from has been really cool. I've been just in operational forecasting for so long that it is really cool to just sit back and just think and brainstorm on some of these.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Yeah, it's always fun to use your creative side with your science-related job. But bringing it back to the weather, can you share a memorable weather experience that you got to work on that really shaped your practice today and your thinking?

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Right now at Storm Impact, we're trying to improve our thunderstorm predictions. MCS forecasting, that's what's called convective system forecasting, my favorite for several reasons. It's challenging to forecast. The weather models don't particularly do great with needing MCSs and intensifying them, but also MCS can be really impactful to utilities, especially if they have significant severe winds that are widespread and cause a lot of damage. So right now I'm working with my colleague, uh Dr. Brent McRoberts. He's really the brains behind the machine learning model part of the company. So we're doing some work on doing some holdout or cross-validation testing with a combination of weather parameters to improve our models to be more accurate to capture these events and the magnitude of damage they may cause as well. We're currently in that process. We're not through it yet, but I'm looking forward to analyzing the outcome and seeing if my instinct is right with the forecasts and the predictions that we create utilities when MCS do actually come through.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Very interesting. And I actually want to touch upon what you mentioned earlier with machine learning, because it's a very hot topic right now with machine learning, AI, new technologies that are coming out. What excites you the most about those new technologies and how does that drive you work at Storm Impact?

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Oh, yeah, I think like I said with the energy or the electric um uh space that we're in right now, the technology world's also rapidly evolving. And machine learning models and AI, I think, are going to do great things. There's been some promising results of AI-driven weather models that are outperforming some of the physics-based ones. And I think that we're in a period of time where we really need to embrace machine learning and AI in helping with forecasting. I don't think that those types of technologies are going to replace jobs. I think they're just going to create another tool in our tool belt, for lack of a better term. And there'll always be jobs to interpret these models too and apply forecasts to different audiences. I think there's exciting things coming. Some of the ways that our model can predict how many pools may be snapped in a particular area is really fascinating because it takes the utility data out of assets, combines it with the weather forecast now, and connects it to okay, what happened with past storms? How many poles broke in that area after XYZ storms came through? And it creates those predictions and the users can then take that data-driven information and make decisions. So instead of saying, oh, the storm seems this tropical storm ESAES, for example. Last time when that came through, this many poles broke, and we needed these many workers to come in and restore power. Instead of just trying to guess and use prior experience at the utility, this is actually data driven. So that's one way that our customers can use the product at Storm Impact is to be able to document what the predictions were for a particular particular event. And it's almost like insurance to the utility, where if they were to be investigated by a state commission for their response to a storm, they can say, we buy software as a service from Storm Impact, and they specialize in predicting how impactful a storm may be to our utility. And this is the data that we had at the time. So we made decisions based off the information we had at the time. And that's all right, because the data they had at the time is based on past storms. So I think there's promise in new technologies coming about.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Absolutely. And we're gonna take a quick break right here, but don't go anywhere. We've got plenty of more Everything Weather podcast with Megan Klee and how she's implementing machine learning at Storm Impact. On this day in Weather History, we go not so far back to the January 2024 North American winter storm, unofficially known as Winter Storm Heather. The winter storm began as an extratical cyclone on January 12th over the northeastern Pacific Ocean. The system moved ashore on January 13th, battering the Pacific Northwest with heavy snowfall, ice accumulations, and hurricane-force winds. The cyclone continued moving east, eventually weakening as it passed through the Rockies and plains. However, the leftover parts of the cyclone combined with an Arctic front to bring continued wintry precipitation to southern states that don't commonly see it, such as Texas and Louisiana. On January 15th, the consolidated system moved into the eastern half of the United States, bringing freezing rain and sleep. On January 16th, it moved north into the mid-Atlantic and northeast United States. It brought snow across the region, ending multi-year-long streaks without measuring snow in several cities. On January 17th, the system parted the country and moved out into the northern Atlantic. While not the most impactful winter storm to hit any of these areas, it was the first significant winter storm to ring in 2024. In the northwest, Ice and fleet from the storm caused several accidents in the Willamette Valley and triggered multiple avalanches in the Rocky and Cascade Mountains. In the south, snow and ice paralyzed many travelers, especially on portions of the Interstate 65 corridor. In the northeast, New York City, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and other cities snapped their streak of days without one inch of snow, which had been running for several years. The system overall caused$3 billion in damages and claimed the lives of 30. Hello and welcome back to the Everything Weather Podcast. I'm your host, Kyle David, and today we are joined by Megan Klee. She's a meteorologist and the product innovation manager at Storm Impact. We've been talking about her weather story, her interest in utilities, energy, and the intersection of that with meteorology and the weather. We're going to get back into that conversation about her work at Storm Impact, but first, I've got another fun game for you, Megan. So we've got weather fast money. So in the style of Family Feud, I've got five survey questions that people have answered. This is all from a Family Feud website. You're going to give your best answers for each of those questions based on survey answers. Alright. When are you ready?

SPEAKER_00 32:19

I am. I love Family Feud, and this is like checking something off my bucket list. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

Alright. Starting off, name a way you can tell a storm is coming.

SPEAKER_00 32:31

Dark clouds.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Name something snowmen might have nightmares about.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

The sun.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

Name something you do when it's raining.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Get out an umbrella?

SPEAKER_01 32:42

Name something you drink when it's cold.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Hot chocolate.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

Besides love, what is in the air at springtime?

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Holland.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

Alright, we've got our answers locked in. Let's go over what you got. First one was name a way you can tell a storm is coming. You said dark clouds. Survey says. Number one answer. Sixty-one people said dark clouds or sky. Next one up is name something snowmen might have nightmares about. You said sun, survey says. Number one answer. It's also tied with fire and flamethrowers. Peeing dog slash pee. Oh crap. Not sure how that one got in there. And blow dryers.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

Ah. Alright.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

So 16 people said sun, fire, pee, blow dryers. I'm not sure how pee got in there, but okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

I mean, I don't want a dog peeing on me, so I get it.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

Sunny thing. Yeah, that's fair enough. Alright, next one was name something you do when it's raining. You said get an umbrella. Survey says. 11 people said get an umbrella. Sleep in was the number one answer. Next one was name something you drink when it's cold. You said hot chocolate. Survey says. Number one answer. 50 people said hot chocolate. And I'll just throw this one out there too because I can see what other people have said. Nine said soda.

SPEAKER_00 34:23

Soda?

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Yeah. I'm not sure about that one, but this one I I guess kind of makes sense. Seven said beer. Because it makes you warm.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

Oh yeah, like a beer blanket.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

Yeah. Probably not the best thing to drink though when it's cold out. Hot chocolate, I will definitely take. And the last one is besides love, what is in the air at springtime? You said pollen. Survey says. Number one answer. 53 people said pollen.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 34:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 34:56

Unfortunately, that is all too true during the springtime. Pollen is a nemesis of mine. Do you have allergies?

SPEAKER_00 35:04

I mainly hay fever in the fall, though. So I don't particularly like dry leaves. That is my allergies, but my husband gets really bad allergies in the spring.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

Yeah, allergies are not fun. Speaking of leaves, on an earlier episode, we had another weather fast money. People said that leaves smell. I'm curious. Do you think leaves smell?

SPEAKER_00 35:26

I mean, they smell when you burn them. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

That's yeah. Okay. Kinda. I'm just curious because it just made me think of it and it just popped in my head. All right. Well that is weather fast money. Let's get back into our conversation about you and your work. So we've talked about your story from working at an airline to working in the utilities industry. And now you've taken more of a managerial role with working with different technologies, using a little bit of your creative side. How have these diverse experiences shaped your approach to weather risk mitigation?

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Oh man, over the past 15 years, I've learned that sometimes effectively communicating the forecast risks is even more important than the actual forecast. Also, like knowing your audience and taking that forecast and communicating that forecast effectively to that audience is also very important. If you can't effectively communicate the forecast to uh result in actionable information to the end user, then you failed what your job is. Certainly learning how to forecast the best to your ability, but you could have a perfect forecast. But if you can't communicate it the way that your audience needs it so they take action, then it's worthless.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

It almost becomes like playing a game of telephone.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

And speaking of communicating about the weather, you have weather terms, different setups that are very complicated to explain. How do you approach these challenges of communicating complex weather?

SPEAKER_00 37:05

Yeah, so I would write weather discussions with our weather alerts back at AP. And the one thing that I found was really helpful was focusing on the impacts. So you could sit there and say, oh, the level of instability combined with the warp max coming through is going to yada yada, right? But no one really cares. They don't really care about the size behind it. They just want to know what's going to happen, why do I care, and how is it going to impact me? Um, so knowing at AEP, at least knowing the type of weather to look out for and the impacts that it can cause can help you create the discussion or communicate the impacts in a more efficient way. And I do have an example from my time at AEP in terms of winter weather. Winter weather was a really big deal, especially in some of our southern utilities and territories where they get it every year, but it's somewhat rare. And it gets a lot of time and noise over the news and any amount of snow, ice, or sleet would be something that people would talk about. Hey, did you know this winter storm's coming along? Yeah. So taking that information of, yeah, you're going to get a winter storm. Why should you care? Is looking for what impacts the utility may have from that winter storm that comes through. We're not really looking at sleet as a problem because it bounces off trees and power lines, or even a lot of dry, fluffy snow is not very heavy. It tends to blow off tree branches. So you could get two feet of dry snow and you really won't have a whole lot of utility problems, except for maybe someone running into a utility pool. But you certainly don't need 200 uh line men or women out there waiting to restore power when you have that much dry snow. So, really, it is my job to objectively look at the forecast and ask myself for this particular situation, is there enough ice for significant utility problems? Is there enough heavy, wet snow? Those are really the only two winter weather precipitations that matter for the utility. And if the answer is no, then we can say to that utility, we're not expecting many utility problems from this event. And they can breathe easy and they'll just be on standby rather than spending approximately a million dollars staging restoration crew resources ahead of the storm, putting them up in hotel rooms, feeding them, so on and so forth ahead of that winter storm, and then wasting all that money when they didn't need to because it didn't actually end up bringing down a bunch of trees and power lines. And sometimes the correct action is no action. And that's your job. Is this weather event going to be a problem or is it not? And then making sure that you can communicate that to the decision makers so that you can influence an action or non-action. We're not the ones making the decisions, but we could help with our tone and the way that we word and uh speak to them so that they make the best decision that they can given the information that they have.

SPEAKER_01 40:17

Absolutely. And since you mentioned the weather discussions, you've talked with a wide array of different people about the weather. And I'm sure you've been asked questions or people have told you things about the weather. Can you share with me the best weather question that you've been asked and possibly the worst question that you've been asked?

SPEAKER_00 40:34

Oh my. So I worked for some energy traders for a while, and it always made me feel like they respected me and my opinions when they would say, Well, what do you really think? Where's your gut going with this? So with energy trading, sometimes the most important thing is just communicating to the energy traders the rest to the forecast. Like, yeah, we have a high of uh 92, but there's a risk for thunderstorms in the afternoon. So it's possible that the the high temperature comes in short in Chicago or whatever. And sometimes you'd be like, well, if what do you think? Like if I were to nail you against the wall and you had to say higher or lower than what your forecast is, what would you say? So sometimes putting a lot of trust, in my opinion, was really rewarding. I guess it strokes the ego a little bit. Like they really trust what I think. And I feel as good as a meteorologist. Worst question I've ever had as a meteorologist. I mean, sometimes it's really annoying when you're giving a weather briefing and you then call on the person who has the first question, or then they ask you a question of something you already answered, or maybe even something you answered and you talked on for a while, and you're like, Were you even listening to me at all? I already answered that. But of course, stay professional. You want to be like, yes, repeat yourself. I'm sure there's worse things, but I just can't think of them right now.

SPEAKER_01 42:07

Probably have you studied meteors, or what do you think of the latest meteor shower?

SPEAKER_00 42:11

Oh so I was going to a baseball game for my stepbrother with my grandfather at the time, and he was like, he went to Purdue too. So he was like, What are you studying at Purdue? And I was like, Oh, meteorology. And he goes, Oh, minerals, huh? And I'm like, no, weather.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

Minerals.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

Minerals of all things.

SPEAKER_01 42:31

That's a first. Usually it for me it's either something space related, like meteors, or something not weather related. And my brother, I'll mention him, he pokes fun at me for that and stuff. Anyways, getting back to your work at Storm Impact, you do product creation, you work with these different products, machine learning, combining all of these different aspects, the weather, utilities, and creative stuff. Can you share an example of a recent product you developed that addresses challenges of big impact events for utility networks and abroad?

SPEAKER_00 43:10

Certainly. I didn't develop it, but I helped with the conceptual design of it. I'm certainly not the brains behind the model. That's Mr. Brent. We are right now working to refine our hurricane outage prediction model where different utilities can adjust the forecast track and intensity to get what-if scenarios. They want to make sure that they're properly prepared for the reasonable worst-case scenarios. I couldn't tell you how many times with my work at AEP, sometimes the presidents of the utility would be on those weather briefing conference calls, and she'd be like, Well, what is a reasonable worst case scenario that we should prepare for just in case it's worse than what you're saying it could be? So I really think that the what if part of that product is really. Really cool. Because even sometimes you could say, well, what if the storm misses us? Or what if we just get French effects of this hurricane coming in instead of it making a landfall directly in our territory? Having data to back up those different scenarios can also help make decisions too.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

Has there been a time where your worst case scenario wasn't even close to what actually happened, whether that was better than anticipated or worse than anticipated?

SPEAKER_00 44:31

Oh, I'm sure there's many times where I was like, this is going to be a big deal, and maybe it wasn't. Or there's been times where I've said, this is imminent. And those are the type of words in communication that lights a fire under someone's butt to actually do something right. One example would be the Dre show that hit Northern Ohio in June of 2022. That was a day where pattern recognition, experience really comes into play. So anytime there's a disturbance near Chicago first thing in the morning, and you're in the ring of fire weather pattern, and you got westerly, northwesterly winds coming right through your territory, you know you're gonna have a problem later that day. That's just many years of working a certain territory and just knowing that's a problem, especially if that storm happens to come through during peak heating. This actually ended up being a nocturnal event, though. And it was a rather impactful Dray show. There was huge macro bursts of over 100 mile per hour winds that took down like an entire forest. Unfortunately, that was really impactful to northern territories of AP Ohio, as well as parts of uh First Energy. It took out transmission lines. It's like, yeah, I really do think a Dray show is coming. Highly impactful events. What happened after that was because there were so many transmission lines that were knocked down, it was really hot in the southern territory of AP Ohio afterwards. And there wasn't enough energy coming into the city of Columbus to support the demand because it was like, my gosh, I think up in the low to mid-90s, but the dew point, I think, was the highest dew point ever recorded at uh the Columbus airport. I think it was something like 80 or 81. The dew point so the heat index was just crazy. Unfortunately, because power can only route so many different ways, they had to shut off power to certain regions of the city because if they would have kept the power flowing, it would have damaged a transmission line or a nearby substation and created a cascading power outage event that affected more than just that region, maybe many states. So that's an example of maybe something I didn't see coming after the Duratio was that unfortunately that load shed event from that heat wave in the southern part of uh the Ohio territory. And I don't know if anyone could have predicted exactly which transmission lines could have gone down from that event, but that's an example of a cascading uh situation. The weather hit where I said it was going to, and it was just as bad as I said it might be. But I didn't have Southern Ohio in an impact area, but they ended up being impacted due to the transmission lines that would perk down up north. So I will remember that for a very long time.

SPEAKER_01 47:36

Yes. Wow, 80 degrees dew point at Columbus. That that's humid.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

I can't remember if it's 79, but it was up there.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

Um that's humidity you can wear.

unknown 47:46

Right.

SPEAKER_00 47:47

There's also another event that I will remember till the end of time as well. This was, oh goodness, I think it was Christmas Eve of 2020, 2020 or 2021. I can't remember exactly which year, but there was a strong low pressure system that went through down in Kentucky and West Virginia territory of AEP, and it was a snow event. And I was like, okay, we're gonna have more than four inches of snow, and it's rather rare in southern Kentucky. I think it ended up being like seven to nine inches of snow that fell. But I'm over here looking at it for winter storms, you're looking for a certain amount of ice accumulation or heavy wet snow. So because it was a strong road pressure system, the temperatures were falling after the cool front goes through, right? But this territory in Kentucky was right in this banding zone where the snow was wet long enough and it was a heavy snow precipitation amount that fell in a short period of time that there was more wet snow than I thought there was going to be. I kept saying in my weather alerts, this is a transitional snow event. It's not gonna be a problem. And then on Christmas morning, all these people woke up without power and I just felt awful. And that's a situation where you're like, oh my goodness, like what could I have done differently? And as meteorologists, we have to look at those events that maybe we flopped and learn from them. But this one particularly hurt my heart because it was Christmas morning and it was cold, and there's nine inches of snow on the ground. It took a long time to restore power because it was hard to get around. And some parts of southern Kentucky are very mountainous, too. So that's an event that I will forever hold in my heart of something that I I wish I would have done better at or communicated the risk maybe a little bit more. But man, I felt like I was somewhat confident that it was going to be a transitional snow event. And it was. It just there was just enough heavy, wet snow at the start of it before it got cold, and the snow transitioned to more dry snow that it unfortunately caused widespread power outages on Christmas morning.

SPEAKER_01 50:01

Yeah, that's something that not a lot of people want to wake up to on that the unexpected Christmas gift of not having power.

SPEAKER_00 50:08

I know. I mean, I ruined a lot of Christmas mornings for a lot of kids. It it stinks even to this day to think about.

SPEAKER_01 50:15

Well, I'm sure some kids were waking up and were ecstatic, like, oh wow, there's snow. We have a white Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 50:22

Oh, look at you finding the silver lining.

SPEAKER_01 50:25

I will say I love white Christmases, even though we don't get any up here in New Jersey. But I'm sure a lot of kids were excited to have that white Christmas as a Christmas gift that morning. And going back to you said that this was a lesson for you. What would you say is the most important lesson you've learned with a weather event that has impacted how you forecast, how you communicate the weather, and how you work also at Storm Impact?

SPEAKER_00 50:51

Communicating uncertainties is certainly one that I think is really important. So we talked about communicating forecast risk can be just as important as the actual forecast. And that's true. Storm impact is a machine learning model that gives you predictions. And what I haven't mentioned is it gives you different percentiles of what could happen. We do have what we call the best estimate of what the machine learning model says, does the most likely scenario. But sometimes when you have a more highly impactful event coming, you probably want to use some of those upper percentile predictions like the 75th or 90th. And what I mean by like the 90th percentile means that given the past historical weather events up to like the past 10 years, you there's a 90% chance that the number of customers impacted or number of outages are going to be at this number or below. So instead of using the best estimate, which might be quite a bit lower than that 90th percentile, you can plan for what's a reasonable worst case scenario. I think sometimes it's good to look at ranges of predictions. So I know sometimes we don't have the luxury of saying it's going to be between 90 and 100 degrees today, but with machine learning models, they do give you a plate of options. And really it's up to the user to take that information and make a decision. And one thing that I've been working on with my team at Storm Impact is we have all this data. Let's do an analysis on which percentile and weather model predictions are the best for different weather types. So, like with windstorms, does the GFS do better than the NAM? And if it does, what percentile ends up verifying or becoming the best predictor for that event? So it takes the guesswork from the end user out of that, and they have some sort of information to go off of like based on data and analysis that says, okay, well, the GFS does the best with windstorms, and the data says that the 75th percentile tends to perform the best. So that might drive you to look at that 95th percentile instead of the best estimate in the 90th and the 75th and the median. Sometimes too much data can be almost paralyzing. Sometimes you need some guidance of exactly what number should I be making my decisions on. And sometimes that's where the meteorologists come into play. And sometimes that's also seeing what the data tells you.

SPEAKER_01 53:27

And since you mentioned machine learning and stuff, there's a lot of different technologies, things coming out that are starting to improve weather forecasting, impact prediction. What most excites you about all those things that are emerging?

SPEAKER_00 53:41

I think it's going to really help make weather forecasts more accurate. And also cut down on analysis time. Time is money. So just being able to have another set of information and data to look at from a meteorological, as well as saving time and even using some automation and some analysis can be helpful. So I have high hopes for what machine learning can do. I certainly don't think that robots are going to be ruling the world or anything in 10 years. Knock on wood. Yeah, knock on wood. But there's some exciting things to think about when it comes to technology and with automation, and it just makes things a little bit more precise and accurate. I'm all for it.

SPEAKER_01 54:28

Hopefully it doesn't end up like a Terminator 2001 space Odyssey-esque future where there's Terminators, there's impotent AI overseeing everything. But on that note of future technology, how do you see that evolving and the role of the meteorologist evolving for the next few years?

SPEAKER_00 54:47

I think a lot of things are going to maybe be automated in the future, but still going to be surprising weather events that were not predicted. The role of the meteorologist, and just speaking strictly to the utility industry, is say you have a solar farm out there that is connected to a battery. And the solar generation coming in from the sun is supposed to charge that battery. So that battery can then be discharged back into the grid during peak load time, say 4 to 7 p.m. that afternoon. But all of a sudden you have a MCS or a large storm that develops and is forecast to roll through and over that solar farm with a large rain shield behind it that was not forecast, your battery is not going to be fully charged then by the time it was supposed to be right back into the power grid. So what does that mean? That means that if the energy demand is really high and power prices are really high, you're using that, the four megawatts of that battery to go back into the grid to help lower prices. But you have this storm coming in, that means, okay, maybe we can only inject two megawatts into the grid during peak load instead of four. That's going to raise power prices and make power more expensive for those two hours that it was not able to inject into the grid. And as we have more intermittent energy that's generated by wind turbines and solar panels and batteries and hydro, what are going to be some of those weather situations that wreak havoc on the plan? You can have a plan, but what happens when weather that wasn't predicted comes into play? Icing on wind turbines, snow cover on solar panels when it's sunny, say it's a lake effect snow event, and then the wind shifts and it's sunny. You're expecting the solar panels to produce energy, but they're covered in snow. Just all of that combined, I think it's going to be really complicated. And it's going to be interesting to see when automation fails us if we're not thinking about those scenarios right now. Some of the coldest and most highly energy demand days or times in the morning when it's really cold, like negative degrees outside, the sun's not out. And sometimes in those situations, you have strong high pressures. Means that the wind's not really blowing. So how are you going to fill that energy demand with energy generation if you don't have sunshine? Batteries may work, but what happens when the battery runs out? Um and if it's cold in that region, it's most likely cold elsewhere too. So you can't just bring all that energy from other areas. It's going to be interesting to see how things shake out, whats that might be created to help with those decisions. But there's going to be times when on not predicted weather is going to wreck habit on that plan. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens in the future with that.

SPEAKER_01 57:56

Yeah, and on that note of extreme weather events, we've been seeing an increase in those weather extremes. Just the last five years, we've had a lot of extreme weather with the tropics. We had the deep plunge of cold air in 2021 in Texas. There's a whole bunch of different weather events that have occurred in the last five years that are very well extreme. How do you see this affecting the way utilities approach long-term planning and infrastructure development?

SPEAKER_00 58:25

I think that utilities that don't have in-house meteorologists are certainly going to have some in the future. There is almost zero forgiveness for power outages that last more than a couple days. And of course, we've seen with hurricanes and huge ice storm events where there's just so much damage. And there's only so many linemen and women out there that can help come in and help restore that power. I mean, my goodness, what was it? Hurricane Maria that hit Puerto Rico back in, I think, 2017. They were out of power in Puerto Rico for months, months. And they actually had to bring in linemen and bucket trucks via boat, but it took a very long time to get that grid rebuilt in Puerto Rico. But long story short, is there's going to be a lot of regulation and scrutiny on weather events that cause long-duration power outages. And the utilities must be prepared for those worst-case scenarios. We've talked a lot about how our machine learning predictions give you different percentiles. What happens if, you know, the black swan storm event comes? You're in the data set that you're using for that machine learning model, it's like, well, I've never seen this before. So the only information and data that you have is, well, what was the second worst storm that you can compare it to? We're just seeing these on percentage, I can't say that word, but like events that haven't occurred before. And the future of the utilities is they're gonna have to be extremely weather aware. We need to plan for more 100 degree days. What's that mean? More energy that needs to be flowing into that area, which means building out transmission lines. If we build out transmission lines, what kind of risks are those transmission lines going to encounter? Wildfire risk, large icing risk, hurricane risks, and even transmission lines, once they reach a certain degree of heat, transmission line can start to sag. And the hotter it is, the less power that can flow through transmission lines during that given temperature as well. So there's a lot of different ways that weather impacts planning and how much demand there's gonna be in the future and where that generation is gonna come from.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:45

Lot of questions to ponder in the next year, five years, and 10 years. I've got one more question for you. I'm gonna let open the floor for you on this one. What's a common misconception about working in meteorology and about the weather that you'd like to address for our listeners, considering this career path or those that are interested about the weather and wanting to learn more?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:06

I think everyone hates the term you can be wrong half the time and still get paid, right? So, especially in the private sector, that is not true. Like you will be fired if you are wrong by a certain degree. But also find wrong. What's wrong being off a degree or being five miles an hour under the wind forecast? That's such a myth. Our forecasts have direct impacts to the bottom line. It's a highly accountable job in the utility sector, but it's also highly rewarding. I mentioned not staging for a winter storm event is a million dollars saved. What happens if you forecast an ice storm, but it's 33 degrees and raining, and the ice storm's actually just north of your service territory? Two million wasted. Certainly, those are the times where you're just like, oh man, it sucks that I missed that event, but it was so close. So it definitely directly impacts the bottom line. And it's just sort of getting off that topic a little bit for those who are looking to get into meteorology, and maybe even those who are still early in their career in meteorology, is it's okay to switch sectors. If you had your heart set out to be a broadcast meteorologist and you're like, oh, I don't know, maybe this isn't for me. It's okay to switch areas of focus. It makes you a better and more well-rounded meteorologist, honestly. The more different ways that you can learn to take forecasts and apply it to different audiences and looking at different ways of forecasting or even durational forecasting, seasonal forecasting versus real-time or like anal casting, or even just out 10 days, so on and so forth. Maybe it's more tropical. It makes you a more round, well-rounded meteorologist to have different sectors that you've had experience in. So don't be scared of that. You have the skills to do it, and communication is like everything, no matter what sector of meteorology you're in, and all those skills are transferable.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:08

Yeah, that's even a piece of advice applicable for any industry for those that are not exactly looking to go into the weather, but are still interested. They can go anywhere with it. It's okay to change paths.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:22

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:24

All right, Megan, that's the last question. But we have one more fun game for you. This is weather or not the fun trivia show where we talk weather, non-weather, we ask non-weather and weather related questions and see how you rank. With that said, are you ready?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:42

As ready as I'll ever be, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:45

Hey, the last person I had on said the same thing and they got everything right. So, hey, we'll see how you do. Alright, this is whether or not your question is related to derechos. The word derecho is a Spanish adjective meaning what? Is it A, straight, B, powerful, C, twisted, or D, windy? I'm gonna say straight. Straight final answer.

unknown 1:04:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:18

You are correct. It is straight, or another translation I thought I saw was direct. Yeah. So first one down. This is whether or not your next question is related to the board game code names. What is the name of the person who gives one-word clues for their team? Is it a informed codemaster, C, Spy Master, or D, Word Advisor?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:43

Oh my gosh, I play this game so much, but I don't know the actual terminology. Oh, it's about spies, so I feel like it might be spy master.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:53

Final guess is spy master. You are correct. Look at that. Two for two industry going. All right. This is whether or not your next question is related to winter storms. A snowstorm in Atlanta in 2014 caused widespread snow and ice and left many people to abandon their cars in streets and highways. Many people compared these scenes to which popular show? Is it A Falling Skies? B The Walking Dead, C, The Last of Us, or D The 100?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:30

Oh, I think it's a Walking Dead.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:32

Walking Dead final answer?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:35

You are correct. It is The Walking Dead. Next up. This is whether or not your next question is related to Taylor Swift. What classic book is referenced in the song? This is why we can't have nice things? Is it A Lord of the Flies by William Goldling? B Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, C The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, or D Jane Erie by Charlotte Bront.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:03

We were so Gatsby for that whole year.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:06

You are correct. It is the Great Gatsby by F got F Scott Fitzgerald.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:11

Shout out to all the Swifties listening.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:14

Alright, this one we'll see about this one. This is whether or not your next question is related to hurricanes. Hurricane Milton was known for traveling in an unusual direction. What's another famous hurricane that was known for going in an unusual direction, sometimes referred to as the wrong way? Was it A, Sandy, B, Lenny, C, Omar, or D Klaus?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:39

I'm guessing it has to be Sandy because it got sucked into the mid-Atlantic region.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:49

I could give you a hint if you would like.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:52

I don't know if it's gonna help me. Can you name the other hurricanes again?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:56

I can give you the answer choices. The answer choices are A, Sandy, B, Lenny, C, Omar, and D, Klaus. And your hint is that the hurricane was in 1999.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:10

Klaus? I don't even think that's a real hurricane name, but I could be wrong. I haven't heard of Hurricane Lenny. Now all the people who live on the coast who love hurricanes are gonna be so disappointed in me. I want to go with Omar. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:27

Omar file guess?

unknown 1:07:28

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:30

You are incorrect. It was Lenny. Lenny. It gained the nickname Wrong Way Lenny because of its track. It actually tracked from west to east in the Caribbean in November of 1999.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:45

Fine.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:46

This is whether or not your next and final question is related to the Bachelorette. Who was the first Bachelorette? Was it A, Emily Maynard, B, Michelle Young, C, Trista Sutter, or D, Jen Tren? It was Trista. Trista is your final answer? Yeah. You are correct. It was Trista. And with that is the last whether or not question and the end of the podcast. But before we go, how can people follow you and your work, Megan?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:19

You can find me on LinkedIn, um, Megan with an H klee K-L-E-E. I was really active on Twitter slash X, but that's sort of like a mass exodus. But also I'll be at AMS in New Orleans. You can seek me out there as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:35

Impact as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:36

You can also visit our website at stormimpact.net.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:40

All right, very awesome. And for those attending AMS in New Orleans, make sure you find me and Megan there at AMS.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:48

You can rag me on not knowing my hurricanes.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:51

All right. Well, that is the end of the podcast. Thank you, Megan, for joining us, and thank you to the listener for listening to this episode. And we will catch you on the next one.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:01

Thanks, Kyle.