Building a Passion for Weather into a Profession with Denys Khrulov

In this episode of the Everything Weather podcast, we talk with Dennis Khrulov, a senior meteorology student at Penn State University and founder of PA Weather Plus. We discuss Dennis's journey into meteorology, his experiences with weather forecasting, and the challenges of balancing school with running a business. The conversation also touches on the future of independent weather forecasting, the importance of communication skills in meteorology, and the rewarding experiences Dennis has had through the Campus Weather Service and storm chasing.

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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

Kyle David 0:06

Hello and welcome to the Everything Weather Podcast, where we talk with people about the weather world, explore and discuss everything weather, and have a little fun along the way. I'm your host, Kyle David, and today on the podcast, we're excited to have Dennis Krulov. Dennis is a senior undergraduate student at Penn State University studying meteorology and atmospheric sciences. He's also served as the forecast shift leader for the Campus Weather Service for over two years and is the owner and founder of PA Weather Plus, a weather information and forecast outlet for the state of Pennsylvania. Hey there, Dennis, and welcome to the Everything Weather Podcast.

Denys Khrulov 0:45

Oh thank you. I'm so excited to be a part of this and excited to join another talk.

Kyle David 0:50

Absolutely. And you are the first student that I've had on here on the podcast so far. So I think this is going to be a very fun conversation, insightful as well for our listeners. And before we get into that conversation, I've got a fun game for you, Dennis. So we've got would you rather? I've got some weather-themed would you rather questions. And since you are a Penn State University student, I've got some would you rather Penn State theme questions? So with that, are you ready?

Denys Khrulov 1:18

Oh, I'm definitely ready.

Kyle David 1:20

Alright, I'll start off with the Penn State Would You Rather question first and alternate back and forth. Alright, would you rather wear an Ohio State University shirt to a Penn State tailgate or lose to Ruckers the Rutgers football team?

Denys Khrulov 1:38

Ooh, that is a tough one. I guess I can't let the team lose to anyone, especially Ruckers. So I'm gonna unfortunate enough to go with the wearing to Ohio State gear at a tailgate, even though it's all gonna be on me. As long as we win, that'd be better.

Kyle David 2:02

Hey, you know what? As long as your team wins, that's all that counts at the end of the day. And on that note, you'd said can't lose the Ruckers. Are you one of those people that believe in the Ruckers Penn State feud?

Denys Khrulov 2:14

Not really, because ever since I've been here as a college student, we've been crushing them each year, so I really don't see the feud. I think it's really the Rutgers fans. Unless it was an old-time feud where I wasn't really old enough to understand, but yeah, no, we crush Rutgers all the time.

Kyle David 2:35

I'm a Rutgers alum, so I was just curious on your take of the feud. In my opinion, I I don't see the point of it. I think our rivalry, our Rutgers rivalry with Penn St or not Penn State, Princeton, is bet much better, has a richer history than the one with Penn State. I think somebody was just cranky at Penn State one day is like, hey, I'm gonna root against Penn State. But anyways, yeah, not to digress too much into football. Next one up is would you rather have constant 100 degree heat or constant below zero cold?

Denys Khrulov 3:10

So below zero cold is that temperatures?

Kyle David 3:14

Temperatures, yeah.

Denys Khrulov 3:15

Temperatures. Okay, definitely 100 degree heat, just because anytime I'm cold, it's like painful, it's really discomforting. Heat, also discomforting, but it's not really painful per se, especially since I'm an outdoor running, outdoor runner and stuff. And even though people say, Oh, you can put on layers, it doesn't matter. I'm still cold. I step outside, I'm still cold. Heat, I can just hydrate, so it's not really that bad. Jump in a pool. So I'll go with the 100-degree heat constantly.

Kyle David 3:50

And I've had some similar would you rather questions to this one, but you are the first that has said they would prefer the heat over the cold.

Denys Khrulov 3:57

Oh, yeah, I'm always team heat. My friends think I'm crazy, but I'd rather be comfortable or as comfortable as I can be.

Kyle David 4:07

And real quick impromptu one, because I just thought of it. Would you rather have dry heat or humid heat?

Denys Khrulov 4:14

Ooh, that is a toughie. I've never really experienced dry heat when I'm in Pennsylvania. It's usually anytime it's hot really hot, it's always really humid with it. And anytime it cools down, it's not hot enough to really feel with dry heat. Honestly, I don't mind the humidity. I'll go with heat and humidity. I don't know. Especially when I'm running outside, it's when the dew points are really low. I get like dry air, dry air long where I cough a lot with the dry air, so the humidity doesn't really affect me that much. It's a little bad, but dry air. I feel like it's as a runner, it's a little bit worse. I don't know. I don't mind the humidity too much.

Kyle David 4:57

I haven't experienced dry heat myself, so I can't say either, but I would rather go with what I know than what I don't know.

Speaker 5:04

Yeah.

Kyle David 5:05

So, alright. Would you rather have to walk up to short lidge road every day or take the Blue Loop bus during peak hours?

Denys Khrulov 5:15

Oh my gosh, always up the shortledge road. Trust me, the buses at the peak hours are horrible. You end up spending more time getting on the bus, waiting for the bus to leave, and then stop. It's ridiculous. Getting on the bus is a peak time. When I lived all the way across campus freshman year, I stopped going on the bus just because it would take me almost sometimes 20 minutes longer than if I would have walked it just because of how many people get on and off. So definitely working up, even though shortledge is a big hill, it's much quicker than going on a bus at peak times.

Kyle David 5:50

I feel like you described the record buses like to a T. Because especially when the buses that are in the New Brunswick area, because you also have regular rush hour traffic as well, and that's just that exacerbates things.

Denys Khrulov 6:05

Yeah, definitely. I hate dealing with traffic. Lots of people.

Kyle David 6:11

Commuting is not fun as a student. But anyways, would you rather get guaranteed frequent snowstorms? So we'll say like one a week, twice a week, but it only rains at your location whenever wherever you are, or you get no guaranteed snowstorms. You may get like a couple here and there during each winter, but you get a lot of snow when you do get snow.

Denys Khrulov 6:37

Definitely the no guarantee, just because bigger snows are more fun in general, adds in more of the fun to it as well, because you never know when they're gonna happen. So yeah, probably that one. And cold rain sucks anyway, so yeah, that that's a good point.

Kyle David 6:57

The cold rain, no, I'm agreeing with you on that one.

Denys Khrulov 7:01

Worst weather types ever out there.

Kyle David 7:04

Forget it. And then like here in New Jersey, because we have the Atlantic that's close by, that cold rain happens more often than not, and yeah.

Denys Khrulov 7:13

It's just say here in central PA, it's been like you either get all snow or all rain, it's terrible.

Kyle David 7:23

There's no compromise, there's no in-between. It's either you get snow or you get rain.

Speaker 2 7:29

Yeah.

Kyle David 7:31

Good reassuring to know that Pennsylvania also has that trouble as well. Yeah. But, anyways, would you rather eat only Canyon pizza for a month or only creamery ice cream for a year, but no other dairy products other than their ice cream?

Denys Khrulov 7:48

Probably the ice cream just tastes better.

Kyle David 7:52

So to to preface this, every time you have a bowl of cereal, you can only have the creamery ice cream in there. So anytime you want a dairy product, it's gotta be the creamery ice cream.

Denys Khrulov 8:05

So I have to eat p Kenyan pizza all the time. For a month. For a month. It's not the greatest pizza, but I think I probably that one actually, yeah.

Kyle David 8:15

That that's the lesser of the e the two evil. Yeah. Okay.

Denys Khrulov 8:19

Because I don't know, eating if I have to eat ice with everything, that might be a little rough.

Kyle David 8:25

And if you're lactose intolerant, then forget about well, if you're lactose intolerant, you're SOL anyways.

Denys Khrulov 8:31

Yeah, yeah. Luckily I'm not, but still that's a lot of ice cream.

Kyle David 8:37

It certainly is. Anyways, alright. Would you rather be in an EF5 tornado or be in a category 5 hurricane?

Denys Khrulov 8:47

Probably a category 5 hurricane, just because I think the rate of survival might be higher. Just because I don't know, because in a hur in a tornado, you get it's like really strong, and you probably are gonna get flung unless you're in like a deep underground shelter. Um, but in a hurricane, you get I've never really experienced a hurricane before either, so I think that'll be an interesting take, especially on a cat-5 hurricane. I want to see like the stadium eye effect. So I think, yeah, probably Cat-5 hurricane. Overall, the intensity is a lot longer, and duration might be longer and stuff, but I feel like the chances of surviving one might be a lot higher than a EF5 tornado. And yeah, I'm gonna experience a hurricane once too. That'll be fun. So yeah.

Kyle David 9:40

That's some good reasoning there. And I've only experienced like I don't even think I've experienced a hurricane. I think the closest that I got was Sandy, but that wasn't technically a hurricane. It was Hurricane Force in my area up in central New Jersey. And then there was Tropical Storm Fae. Yeah, I've never been in a hurricane either. Okay, that's some good reasoning there. Alright. Would you rather never be able to attend a Thon again? And for context, that's the dance thawn, or never be able to go to a White Out game ever again.

Denys Khrulov 10:18

Probably the never go to a White Out game, just because Thon, it's for a good cause. All the money goes to all the cancer treatment kids, so like it's a really good cause, you get to really connect with all the people there and stuff, and it's all for a great cause, yeah. But whiteout, yeah, they're fun, but definitely Thon. Probably go to Thon. So never go to Waggame.

Kyle David 10:44

That's some good reasoning there. And for those that don't know, Thon's a very good charity. Go and look them up after the podcast. I've not been able to participate in a Thon, but if you're a student, I would recommend participating in it.

Denys Khrulov 10:58

It's a lot of fun. You get to meet a lot of people, and then and it's all for a great cause.

Kyle David 11:04

And that's the icing on the cake, too. You're having fun and then it goes towards a good cause. So alright. Got one more weather one and then a Penn State one to wrap it up. Would you rather hear Thunder Snow or see a triple rainbow?

Denys Khrulov 11:19

That's a tough one, because I think I might have seen a triple rainbow before. Probably hear thunder snow. Just because I don't know. I think I've I might have seen a triple rainbow once or twice before. They're pretty cool.

Kyle David 11:33

It's cool that's they're incredibly rare, too. I'm surprised that you've seen one.

Denys Khrulov 11:37

Yeah. I think one or two. I've s I swear I think I've seen one or two triple rainbows before. The third one wasn't always like really faint, but you could always make it out, especially the double rainbows, but sometimes you get that triple on the periphery. Those are pretty cool, but I don't know, thundersnow is more exciting.

Kyle David 11:54

It's got a real surreal feel to it when you hear thundersnow. Yeah. And if you see the lightning that produces the thundersnow, oh yeah. Just chef kiss, that's probably the coolest weather experience there is. Yeah. So alright, that's the last weather one. I've got one more Penn State one for you. Would you rather have a class in Willard building with no air conditioning in the summer or in Osmond lab in the middle of winter with no heat?

Denys Khrulov 12:26

Probably in Willard, because the Osmond building is just creepy. And I've been there in the winter before at night for a physics lab, and it's not fun to be in. It's really creepy. It's like a haunted house at night. Don't have to go anywhere, just go to Osmond at night. You'll get a haunted house experience. It's just really creepy, and it's a really old building. Stuff's falling off the ceilings. It's like weird. I'll take the heat and willard. Not as creepy, but still a little bit. Parts of it have got renovated, but still it's probably better. The unrenated unrenovated parts are probably still better than the freaking Osman building.

Kyle David 13:05

And it sounds like there might be a little bit of supernatural activity or paranormal activity in Osman's lab.

Denys Khrulov 13:14

I haven't heard anything in Osbund, but yeah, probably without thickly it is.

Kyle David 13:19

You were saying like stuff like knocking down is a little creepy. I don't know if there's like any lore to the building or not.

Denys Khrulov 13:26

I don't think about Osmond, but I know some other buildings do have some supernatural lore to it.

Kyle David 13:34

Interesting. And if we were a supernatural podcast, that would be our topic to dive into. But we've we're a weather podcast, so we stick to the weather and leave the paranormal stuff to all the ghost hunters out there. Yeah. Alright, that's our last would you rather question. And now let's get into the conversation about your weather story. So on the podcast, I talk with people about their weather story and what got them interested in the weather. So tell me, Dennis, what is your weather story and what got you interested in everything weather?

Denys Khrulov 14:05

So what got me interested into weather that goes back to when I was, I think, six or seven years old. So this was during the February 2010. So a little context, I'm from the Pittsburgh area. So I live south of Pittsburgh. That's where I grew up. And that month in particular, we just got hit with I think it was like two or three back-to-back major winter storms. And the first one dropped the most snow, dropped, I think, over two feet in my house. And I remember going to bed the night before. Not really thinking of anything. I'll be like, oh, I'm just gonna go to school tomorrow. I'll be fine. Nope. I wake up and there's over two feet of snow on the ground. We don't have power. I'm like, what in the world? How? Like, why, how, when, like, how did this happen? I'm a little kid, just curious. I'm like, what happened? How did this happen? And we were out of power for three days. I was playing with my friends all the time. This snow was up to or like halfway up our bodies since we're like kids back then. So it was cool to play in that much snow. And then I remember after we got the power back on, I got hit by another winter storm. I dropped another foot. So we some people probably had like 30 to 40 inches on the ground. I believe that month, that month in total, we dropped like 50 inches of snow. So it was a really snowy month, came from a few bigger winter storms. So I remember after a power did come on, I asked my parents, I'm like, well, where can I watch all this weather information? Like, how can I find out more about it? So they turned on the weather channel for me. And ever then ever since then I've been just hooked into watching the weather channel growing up as a kid, instead of watching cartoons and fun stuff, I was like, I'm gonna watch a weather channel and see what's gonna happen with the weather. And growing up throughout my elementary school years, I've been doing I was doing more like a little bit of a research. I'm like, well, I can actually make a career out of this, it's actually really fun. And then watching other weather events on the weather channel, such as watching the 2011 outbreak down in Mississippi, Alabama on Well Channel. I remember watching that a lot and getting into severe weather. We were watching Sandy coverage growing up and various of other weather events that they've did live coverage for. So that stuff just got me really interested in the weather, and since then have been really interested in it.

Kyle David 16:28

I think every person that I've had on, most I would say, some have not seen the weather channel because it wasn't as big when they were our age and getting into the weather, but I think everybody, most people will say they got into it because of the weather channel, or they got more into it because of the weather channel. Yeah. And on that note, can you recall a specific event that the weather channel covered that still sticks with you to this day, or a particular presentation done by one of the meteorologists there that still sticks with you today?

Denys Khrulov 16:57

So, yeah, I would say probably the 2011 tornado outbreak down in the south. I just remember coming home from school and watching it all unfold, watching the tornadoes on the live streams, and then them talking about how the setup was very favorable for a massive outbreak down there. So I remember that was a really memorable time, and that's when I really I was like, severe weather, this is really cool too. Like I was interested in snow, but then I was like, there's also severe weather, and I got really interested in severe thunderstorms because there's just been these massive things, much bigger than us, and they're so cool, but they're also so destructive at times too. So I remember watching the 2011 outbreak after I got home from school that day. That was really memorable. Of course, Sandy as well, watching the coverage on Sandy, I was trying to figure out what was going on. Got lots of rain and wind, even in the Pittsburgh area as well. I remember my school delayed one of the mornings because of high winds, and I believe we had like mudslides in some parts of the region just because of how much rain fell. And yeah, and those are some of the memorable ones. And of course, Jonas, Winter Storm Jonas in 2016. I also watched the Watershannel a lot for that too, and got more of their coverage. So yeah, those are some of the more memorable ones.

Kyle David 18:11

Winterstorm Jonas. I forgot the other name that it goes by, but I do remember that snowstorm. It was quite the headache in this area of the woods, and then also out in Pennsylvania as well. And speaking of, you get a lot more snow than I do here, which I'm a little jealous of. You said, like, what, the one year you got 50 inches of snow, which you're lucky if you even get like 20 to 30 in my area of it. So uh going back to that experience with snow up to your waist and just enjoying the snow, can you talk a little bit more about a light-hearted weather event like that and maybe dive into a little more about that event, or yeah, we'll do that, yeah. So like a lightheart event.

Denys Khrulov 18:55

Yeah, it was really fun. We got like 50 inches that just no, it wasn't the season, it was a whole just in that month of February. Like that whole season we might have got like 80 or 90 inches. So it was like a I think it was one of the top snowiest winters in Pittsburgh. 2009, 2010. So yeah, it was great. Got to play with my friends all that week in the snow. We built like a massive snow fort. I remember in one of our neighbors' jars. We went sledding a lot, then it was a little hard to sled with so much snow. We were out of school, I believe, for nine or ten days, including two weekends. So we got like two weekends and then that whole week off. So it was like a long break from school, and it was nice. So it was a great event. Losing power wasn't so fun. I don't remember. I really don't remember the power average, but I know it's probably really sucky without power, eating food and stuff. But I don't remember those parts. I remember more of it. Playing out in the snow, seeing all the snow, because that really never repeated itself ever since then. So it was quite a rare event and holds a special place.

Kyle David 19:56

A week and a half off from school. I'd be lucky if I get two days in a row off from school because of snow. I think the most we've ever gotten off from school is actually from Sandy. That was like three days off from school, but that was uh an incredible event, one that will be forever on its own merit. But wow, week and a half off from school. I'm a little jealous because a little bit of a snow lover myself.

Denys Khrulov 20:26

Well, it's because we got two back to back that week, so we were like not really planning opening school.

Kyle David 20:34

Back to back.

Denys Khrulov 20:35

Oof.

Kyle David 20:37

Wow. Uh uh that's all I can say, really, is wow, that's just that's uh good prime zone for winter weather out there. Wow. But, anyways, talking back to you'd mentioned you eventually realized you can make your passion for weather into a career, and you started dabbling a little bit for those that don't know into weather forecasting in middle school. Can you talk a little bit more about that and when you realized weather forecasting itself can be a hobby or more than a hobby?

Denys Khrulov 21:08

Yeah, so it was like either late elementary or early middle school when I got access to Facebook. I was like, wait, I can make a page and I can give weather forecasts to just friends and family. So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna do that. I'm bored. What else? I don't know why I was a kid, I don't know why I was thinking of doing stuff like this. But anyway, like, you know what? I'm gonna make a page, I'm gonna like create these really cringy graphics on I don't know, it was like paint.net or paint something, the Windows Paint app. Graphics are horrible. I just drew stuff, labeled stuff. But hey, I was doing the forecast and I was sending them out to just friends and family on Facebook. So I don't know, maybe like 10 to 20 people at most were seeing the forecast, if at all. So I was just doing it for fun. I believe I started around then I was also doing like weather community forums on Facebook, so I learned more. About like models and different models to use. So I wasn't just using the weather app to make the forecast. I was actually like trying to pick and find data online where these weather apps get the data. So it wasn't Tropical Tibbets, but it was some other website, and I don't know if it's even up anymore, that I used to get model data from. And had remembered, I think, a GFS and the NAM. So I would use those websites to make forecasts. And that's really good what jump started my PA where the plus page was now grown to almost 90,000 followers to this day, which is pretty impressive. But yeah, starting out as a kid, just I was like, hey, I could just do forecasts for my friends and family, and then be fun just do for fun my own time and had a lot of fun with it.

Kyle David 22:42

Wow. So you started that in middle school, and that was basically the predecessor to PA Weather Plus, which we'll talk about more throughout the podcast. But that's crazy that you just started with Microsoft Paint and some online resources and stuff, and that kind of gives you a little bit of an interesting perspective, which we'll touch upon a little bit later. But I want to talk a little bit about when you realized you can make something more out of this and you decided to go to school to study the meteorology more in your search for a meteorology program, a meteorology degree. What are some programs that stuck out to you and why did you end up going to Penn State?

Denys Khrulov 23:24

Of course, being in Pennsylvania, my options were a little bit limited. I didn't want to really go too far. So, like some of the bigger schools that I was looking at, like Michigan or Oklahoma, that also have really great meteorology programs, they were far, like, especially Oklahoma. That's pretty far from Pittsburgh. So I was like, I don't really want to go that far because even though they might be cheaper, I have to consider travel costs and just the headache of travel. And I was like, I really don't want to deal with that so early on after high school. So I was like, I'm just gonna say stick to in-state, plus it'll be even cheaper than that. So I was like, I'll stick to in-state. So I looked into meteorology schools here. There's only there were only three that were offering meteorology programs when I was applying four years ago. So there's a school in like my backyard basically called California University. I think it's called now like West Penn or something. They offered meteorology there, but I think within the last year they got rid of it just because there wasn't a lot of students enrolling in meteorology there. And then I also applied to Penn State and then also Millersville, which of course are the two big bigger schools that have meteorology here and pretty renowned for their meteorology programs. And then in the end, I just stuck to Penn State just because it's a little bit closer to Miller's, it's a little bit closer to home than Millsville is in like two, two and a half hours. And just it's world renowned for its meteorology program. There's a lot of connections you can make, just in general. There's a lot of alumni at Penn State, there's a lot of great coursework to learn more about meteorology that I felt that Millsville really didn't have. So I was like, okay, I'm thinking I'm just gonna pick Penn State to go to my go-to school. And that was a great choice, and yeah.

Kyle David 25:13

And you talked a little bit about the the connections to Penn State, all the alumni that have come out of the Penn State program, the classes, and this kind of segues interestingly into your current stuff because you're a current student right now, you're about to graduate as we're recording this. Can you talk a little bit more about the Penn State experience, what it's like to take meteorology classes there, and what are the different programs that are offered to you there to further your meteorology experience?

Denys Khrulov 25:41

So, yeah, we have a great program here with a lot of different classes that you may not be able to take at other smaller universities that may offer meteorology programs. So it's a lot of rigorous coursework. Your meteorology classes are relatively small, so you get a better connection with the professors in these courses, so you get to learn a lot more, especially if you meet with the professors, go to office hours and stuff like that. So that's a really great tool here at Penn State, which I think helped me a lot to get through some of the harder classes like synoptic and dynamics, which ended up naturally not being that bad. So if you're like a really true weather weenie, and people are saying, Oh, you're not gonna get passed through dynamics because there's so it's such a hard class, you know, you'll be fine because even though it is a little bit mathy, just again the great professors here, the great connections you have with them, and of course the people you work around with too, you'll get through it just fine. It's and then you get to also learn on why some of these weather events do happen through mathematical processes. That's what it really boils down to. So even though you might not be ever using some of those equations ever again in your life, if you're forecasting or doing other stuff that's not really related to research, you still get to learn on how those events and stuff in the atmosphere does happen. I think that what really was really cool for me is I gotta really calculate some of these things and processes that happen in the atmosphere. So that was really awesome. And I think Penn State does a really great job at teaching those courses through the great professors here and in general.

Kyle David 27:19

And to add on to what you said about the equations and stuff, as somebody who's been out of school, or at least for meteorology for the last few years, I have not had to look at a single equation for any of my work. And to be honest with you, I think I've repressed all my memories from dynamics and uh all of the calculus-heavy classes, but I do enjoy it, and it sounds like you enjoyed it as well. Can you talk a little bit about some fun moments from your classes and then maybe share like a couple of challenges that you had faced during your classes?

Denys Khrulov 27:52

So again, the fun stuff was like learning about everything. Again, once again, trying to connect how all the stuff happens in the atmosphere and different weather events. So those are really fun, and just hanging with all your weather friends in the weather center and doing homework and finishing assignments, that's really fun. Some of the challenges, of course, exams are challenging, and though you're having fun in class, doing these homeworks all together. In the exam, you're all alone, so you have to actually really put your critical thinking skills to use. But still, even though they were challenging, again, the professors really prepare you for these. If you study and just understand the concepts, you do fine. And yeah, those are some of the fun things, and of course, other stuff outside of academia life here. All the weather clubs here are really fun. Campus weather service. You get to be a part of other organizations such as Weather or Not, Weather World, Storm Chase Club. There's a lot of fun opportunities here that you can do also outside of the challenging coursework and exams, which makes it a really fun place.

Kyle David 28:59

Now, since you mentioned it, I want to talk a little bit more about those programs like the Campus Weather Service, Weather or Not. I don't think you mentioned it, but oh man, I'm blanking on it. But anyways, um, I want to talk a little bit more about those programs that you mentioned. For those that are already in the business, they've probably heard about Penn State and all of their different programs, especially the Campus Weather Service. But for those looking to get into meteorology or don't know as much about the meteorology schools out there, can you talk a little bit more about those programs like the Campus Weather Service, the storm chasing team, and weather or not?

Denys Khrulov 29:35

So the Campus Weather Service, it's the oldest and largest student-run weather forecasting service in the country. So that makes it so great. There's a mix of communication and forecasting shifts. So in communications, you get to do radio hits, really practice your communication skills. So even if you're not going to broadcast, it's still a good way to get because you can't for if you can't communicate the weather, you no one's going to know what you're talking about. So just in general, the communication shifts, it gets you prepared for that. You get practice inside of the green screen in front of the green screen. Learn some of Adobe products on how to edit and use the Mac software, which is what we have, which is what a lot of TV stations have. So you get a lot of that experience. Your second week freshman year, which many of the other schools might not have that offer. So that's communication shifts and then forecasting shifts. It's more of like an NWS style forecasting. You do you get a sign of zones in the state, and you do basically a five to seven-day forecast, the highs, everyday lows, and the smaller description. And in some cases, you get to do a whole statewide discussion within that shift. So you get a lot of opportunities, not for just communicating, but also forecasting, and you're also over there with four to six other people and a shift leader. So you get to some of them speed and ships with all you friends and just have a great time. So Canvas Weather Surveys really got me a lot of skills and forecasting and communications that I probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere else. So it's a great club to be a part of. And of course, Storm Chase team, really fun a part of as well. You get meetings throughout the year, learning about severe weather, thunderstorms, and forecasting them throughout the year. And then at the end of the year, I'm in May, you get there's like an application and every process, and they choose like 10 people to go on a chase every year on top of the executive board. So about 15 people get to go, and 10 are chosen, and it's a great experience to go in the planes for 10 days after the finals are over and just chase any storm that's there. So that's definitely one of my most fun things from being a pence, is going out storm chasing because I've always dreamed of going storm chasing now and I got to go out with great gifts of people and have a great time. I did get to go all my three years here, which is an awesome experience, but we did not see any tornadoes, but still we had a lot of fun. Still saw some really awesome thunderstorms that you don't see normally in the northeast. And on top of that, it's a great time to do some tourist stuff, check out new places you might have never seen before. Like this past year we went to Austin, Texas, and I was like, I'll never love I thought I'll never love Texas, but Austin, Texas seems like a nice area, and if I never gone on the if I never went on a storm chase trip, I would have never known. So there's a lot of stuff on the trip that you get to do that not just necessarily storm chasing because you get break days, super weather isn't always happening. So that's also one of the great perks of being on there. So yeah, a lot of opportunities within stake within Penn State and Meteorology Department, a lot of club, but those are my two favorite storm chase and of course campus foyer service.

Kyle David 32:50

Yeah, and the the storm chasing experience, the fact that you're able to do it for three years, that's phenomenal because during my time at Ruckers, it's offered every other year, and I only got to do it one time. But the fact that you're able to go and storm chase three times as part of Penn State's storm chase team, that is phenomenal. You can say it's a lot of tourism and different weather you get to see and stuff. But I want to talk more a little bit about Campus Weather Service because we introduced that you're the forecast leader and you have been the forecast leader for the campus weather service for more than two years. During your time as the forecast leader, what's been a rewarding experience for you that you've been able to learn from and apply what you've learned to your business, PA Weather Plus, and then as you're getting ready to graduate, the postgrad world as well.

Denys Khrulov 33:38

So, yeah, I've been a shift leader for a variety of different shifts within Campus Road Service, and being a shift leader for these shifts is very important because you have to step on and be a leader, and you have to also learn, but also teach other people forecasting skills. So there's always like first years and second years on my shifts. I may not have a lot of forecasting experience, and through that I get to teach them, which is a great tool to have, is teaching other people, especially things you're really good at. So being a shift leader for these shifts wa is a great experience, and it's been always fun co-shifting with some of my friends and teaching all these people, and then yeah.

Kyle David 34:21

So you said you had to teach students, you're you're basically your peers, and I've been honest with you, I've had experiences like that, and it's it makes me feel uncomfortable because it's like I'm trying to help my fellow peers do the same thing that we're doing. And on that note, how do you get through that and learn as you're teaching your peers forecasting, communicating the weather, and all the other nuances to the meteorology world?

Denys Khrulov 34:49

I don't know, just I just do what I normally do. I just go through the weather discussion, try to hint out things they might not be learning in just their basic meteorology classes and explain that topic at a broader level. So I think it's a little bit awkward, especially if you're friends with some of these people, but I feel like they've they're always there to learn. So it's not really too awkward, at least for me, especially sometimes it's some of the first years, especially in maybe their first time ever looking at a weather model. Sometimes not everyone's like me and started with looking at weather models in like fifth grade, but some people were just stepping into college and they've never heard weather any weather models or any forecasting techniques. So, like teaching them and seeing them especially improve throughout the semester is really rewarding, a rewarding experience because now they get to then go throughout the years and then also become a shift leader in one of the shifts.

Kyle David 35:45

And on that note, can you share a specific experience that you know you were able to teach somebody weather forecasting or just something with related to the campus weather service and they had that aha moment?

Denys Khrulov 36:00

I guess just general. I remember one of my friends who I met my sophomore year, he was a freshman and he didn't know anything about weather forecasting, and I helped him throughout the years and trying to get him better at weather forecast and giving him tips and trips and all that stuff, and now he's ship eating his own ships too, so that's a great experience.

Kyle David 36:25

That's awesome. Being able to see your mentee, or I guess it's mentee is the right one. Somebody you helped teach and about the nuances of the weather and being able to forecast confidently and communicate the weather confidently, be able to go into a leadership position, that's very rewarding.

Speaker 2 36:43

Yeah.

Kyle David 36:44

And since you had mentioned it, that you'd shared some tips and tricks. Do you have some tips and tricks on Pennsylvania forecasting? What is forecasting like out in Pennsylvania?

Denys Khrulov 36:56

It's definitely I guess it varies depending on what you're forecasting. It's a vague question, but I think like in general, like winter weather forecasts, like the snowstorms never get to what the models show, almost never. Always get one of the snow forecasts. Some of them should win and get more than what the models are showing, but most of the time they've been not as impressive. Weather tip, I guess, is like with their mountains, especially if you're east of the mountains, you get an effect called colder damming, where the colder surface sticks around much longer than any model shows. So for that one, I would say go colder. And usually when it's colder, you get more ice instead of snow. So it's mostly ice events that are undermodeled. So I always say, Hey, hey, go a little bit colder on this. Cause just because models are scurrying out this cold air usually doesn't happen as fast as they say, and just because of the damming effect caused by the Appalachian Mountains, especially if you're on Central Pier, we get like the upper center of some of the icer events we get from time to time. So yeah. Also, severe weather sometimes also doesn't pan out as some of the models show sometimes, too. But I guess it really depends on what type of season, what type of weather event you're really focusing on, just because Pennsylvania gets so many, but there's always like biases and flaws to how the models do with those events.

Kyle David 38:23

And it may surprise people to learn that Pennsylvania does get severe weather. Can you talk about an experience where you had to forecast for severe weather and did it pan out or did it not pan out for you?

Denys Khrulov 38:36

So yeah, let's just talk about what happened last Sunday. So this is Sunday, let me look at the date. It was Sunday, the March 16th. I wasn't particularly forecasting for campus oil service, but I was forecasting for my PierloPlus. And waking up, I was like, oh, okay, the SPC issued a slight risk. I was gonna go issue my own little risk. And throughout the morning, I really saw things get really destabilized. I'm like, okay, this is gonna go a little bit higher than a slight risk. So I make my own little risks, and I went a little higher than a slight risk on my outlook, and it turned out to be a pretty damaging squall line that ripped through much of western and central and northern Pennsylvania. I got back here to state college right in time before the storms went through, and we actually had a gust on top of our weather building to 67 miles per hour, and that's normally what you don't see in state college. Like I've been here for four years, I've lived through this past summer. I really not haven't seen a storm gust above 40, really. You get storms to come through, but they won't really reach their maximum potential. But seeing that squalling come through with those, I was on top of a parking garage with my friends, though gusts are probably over 70 at times. That's 67 gusts, it's between it's like on top of the building, but there's buildings in the way before that building, so it's probably a little bit interference, but still it was a pretty intense storm. A lot of trees, pine trees, especially came down, power lines were down, so people were out without power for days. And it if you saw the storm report map, there's a lot of reports from all the way from south central Ohio through PA and then even to portions of upstate New York. So it was a pretty impressive squall line to say, and also dropped a few tornadoes along its way, too. So quite uh um severe event, also quite early, too, because it's mid-March, you really don't see these early severe weather events reach a full potential, and they did.

Kyle David 40:33

Yeah, normally it's a little bit later in the season for those in the northeast, like Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It's more like late June through August, September, like the summer going into the fall where those areas see the most severe weather. And just to see that this past Sunday, as we're recording, this was incredible. And even the severe storms down in the southeast, those were remarkable on their own as well. Yeah. But before we go into the break, I want to go on a light note. What's been your favorite weather event to forecast for?

Denys Khrulov 41:06

To forecast for? Yeah, it's like a pretty weather is more fun to forecast for just because you get a lot more people looking at your things, people are more interested in what how much snow, and in general, it's fun trying to draw your snow maps, see where the heaviest snow would fall. So, in terms of forecasting, I think winter weather is definitely a lot more fun, but experiencing wise, I like severe weather more.

Kyle David 41:33

And of the two winter weather and severe weather forecasting, is there one particular event that is your favorite, or do you like them all equally the same?

Denys Khrulov 41:42

Um, in terms of forecasting, I probably like equally the same just to forecast. Winter weather can be a little bit more challenging, I would say. It does have an extra because severe weather, you could just outline a zone that's favorable for severe weather. It doesn't really have to 100% verify to what is gonna happen, but for winter weather, especially it's hard to especially here in Pennsylvania. You always have the rain snow line, so that's always hard to pinpoint. Even 12 hours out, it's still difficult to pinpoint. So definitely, I do like the added challenge to that, especially when weather forecasting, that you really don't get that challenge in severe weather. There's some challenges, severe weather, but still in general, winter weather is a little bit more exciting to forecast and adds more challenges, but yeah.

Kyle David 42:32

And the dreaded rain snow line, everybody has mentioned that on the podcast, whether they're from the northeast or at some parts of the Bid Atlantic, that dreaded snow line can make or break a winter weather bed for some people.

Speaker 2 42:45

Oh, yeah, for sure, yeah.

Kyle David 42:47

And we haven't even gotten into more of your PA weather plus work and your perspectives as you're graduating from Penn State. We'll continue that conversation after a quick break. So stick it right here. We've got more Everything Weather podcast coming up in just a bit. On this day in weather history, we revisit the Prague Stapulpa Oklahoma F5 tornado that was one of 31 tornadoes that tore through the central plains on May 5th, 1960. On May 4th, the day before the Prague Stapulpa tornado, a low-pressure system situated over the Texas panhandle brought favorable conditions for severe weather for parts of Texas and Oklahoma. Warm, moist air from the Gulf surged north. Strong wind cheer from the ground up was present, and rising unstable air was all in place over Texas and Oklahoma. More than 20 tornadoes were produced from the afternoon to the late evening of May 4th. The outbreak of tornadoes and severe weather would continue on May 5th, with the low pressure system beginning to move north into Nebraska. Several severe thunderstorms and tornadoes formed during the afternoon hours across the region. However, one tornado stood out not only from this punch on that day, but from the entire multi-day outbreak that had occurred. At around 5 p.m. Central Time, a tornado was observed as it formed just south of Shawnee, Oklahoma. As the tornado continued tracking northeast, it destroyed several farmsteads and dealt devastating damage to the Refthaven Cemetery to the east of Shawnee. It continued moving northeast, causing extensive damage in the Otuka, Prague, and Padden, where at least 14 farmsteads were destroyed, and the tornado was described as an overbearing white barrel-shaped cloud that was completely on the ground. It continued its path northeast through Iron Post, where it continued either damaging or completely destroying everything in its path. As it obliterated the northwestern portion of Iron Post, the tornado claimed two lives and injured 11 other people. At around 6.32 p.m. Central Time, the tornado dealt a devastating blow to portions of Sepulpa, where it claimed the lives of three people, injured 70 others, and destroyed or damaged over 300 homes, a school, and two churches. The tornado finally began to weaken and was seen lifting back up into its current storm at around 7 p.m. Central Time, just before reaching Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Bragg Sepulpa Oklahoma tornado was finally over after being on the ground for more than 70 miles over almost two hours. The rest of the tornado outbreak would unfold as the evening progressed, with severe weather continuing into the next day off towards the east. A total of 71 tornadoes were confirmed from the outbreak altogether, with 33 total lives being lost, 302 others being injured, and damages up to $347 million in 2025 being inflicted. The Prague Sepulpa Oklahoma tornado was the most violent tornado of the entire outbreak, earning the highest ranking of F5 on the Fajita scale for grading tornado damage. While few pictures of the most extensive damage are still remaining, the Prague Sepulpa Oklahoma tornadoes still refer to this day as one of the most exceptionally violent tornadoes in Oklahoma's history. We've been talking about his love for the weather, getting into weather forecasting as a middle school student, and eventually turning that into a business PA weather plus. We're going to be talking more about his business and a little bit more about his experiences. But first, I've got another fun game for you, Dennis.

Denys Khrulov 46:59

Oh, I'm excited.

Kyle David 47:01

So we've got Forecast Frenzy. So I've got two themes for forecasts that we're going to do, and each with their own little like subsection, if you will. So first off, we're going to be diving into Stranger Things. So first, you're going to give a normal forecast for Hawkins, Indiana. It's a normal day, no upside-down breaches. It's just normal across Hawkins, Indiana. So what's the forecast for Hawkins?

Denys Khrulov 47:31

So for Hawkins on a normal day, since a town is centrated in Indiana, I'll give it a good 82 degrees with partly cloudy skies and maybe a stout southerly blue breeze at like 10 miles per hour. Great little summer day in Hawkins.

Kyle David 47:54

That's a Chef Kiss summer day, even here in New Jersey. But now let's turn things upside down. Pun definitely intended. I'm sorry. To the upside down. So we're in Hawkins, Indiana, but in the upside down. What's you got all the little floating things in the air and demagorgons, mind flare? Yeah. What's the forecast there?

Denys Khrulov 48:18

So when you're upside down, probably a cold temperature. I'm not sure what the temperature really is in hot upside down, but seems colder. So maybe a temperature of 37 degrees with flying fuzz, and of course, your occasional upside-down thunderstorm with all the red lightning as the monsters are crawling through the space. Definitely a lot more dangerous than the regular Hawkins. So you want to be watching out for demogoring and flying bats that may be coming after you. And of course, the violent thunderstorm associated with the monsters.

Kyle David 49:00

Probably I don't know too much about the physics of the upside down, but it probably does not obey the normal laws of physics and stuff. So we who knows, we may get some out-of-the-sworld tornado or thunderstorms with the weird nature of the upside down.

Denys Khrulov 49:17

I know, yeah. Some as a mind flayer, when he walks around, he can kind of like spawn like tornadoes, tornado vortices within his arms. I remember from season two, that's what how Will got stuck in the upside down.

Kyle David 49:31

That's true. He does have like little mini tornadoes for arms in the upside down. Yeah. Which that would be insane to be in the center of with this big mind flare tornado. I don't know what you want to call it, but that entity in the upside down. So, alright, that's our Stranger Things themed forecast for Hawkins, Indiana, in the upside down. Now let's go to the real world and go to Penn State. So it's a fair weather day. It's a typical spring day. What's the forecast out in state college?

Denys Khrulov 50:08

State college for a great spring day, high of 77, maybe a dew point of 65 with probably cloudy skies, and maybe a passing evening thunderstorm would be the ideal spring day here in Penn State.

Kyle David 50:27

Again, that's a pretty solid day, even for New Jersey standards. I would definitely take that weather over the summer of in Hawkins, Indiana. But now let's go to the other extreme, and that is you got a big snowstorm. Since you mentioned it, let's go back in time to 2016 for winter storm Jonas. What's the forecast for state college for this particular snowstorm?

Denys Khrulov 50:54

So for state college, I believe they're probably on the northern end of the heaviest snow, they're probably still forecasted here. Let's go six to ten inches of snow, cold in the low 20s, gusty winds, 20 miles per hour. So your typical central Pennsylvania snowstorm event.

Kyle David 51:16

Maybe like a couple of sprinkles of thunder snow in there somewhere.

Denys Khrulov 51:20

Yeah, that would be awesome.

Kyle David 51:22

Kind of just to like put the icing on the cake there for this winter storm. All right. That's a wonder snow. That's a solid forecast. And I don't mean to keep bringing up New Jersey's abysmal winter weather, but we're lucky to even get that for the last few years. So I'll take that over New Jersey's winter weather any day. So, all right, that is our forecast frenzy. Now let's get back into the conversation. We've been talking about your experiences with Penn State. We haven't talked a lot though about PA Weather Plus and your experiences with that. So we're gonna dive into that and talk a little bit more about getting that started. And we touched upon it a little bit with back in middle school for you. You were doing your own forecast, you discovered Facebook. What was the moment for you that officially kicked off PA Weather Plus?

Denys Khrulov 52:18

So what really kicked off PA Weather Plus? So I continued to do forecasts as usual for my friends and family on the page. I think it was called I don't know what there were a few of named changes, so I think it was called like Pittsburgh's Weather Channel at the beginning, and then at the end of middle school to high school, I changed it to Weather X17. I think that's when I changed it to S X17. That's when I think I made a post about some bug that was hatching in the rivers in southwestern Pennsylvania and it was showing up on radar that evening. So I was like, this is silly. I'm just gonna post it's for fun. And that post went viral somehow. I don't know why that post in general was even about weather to begin with. That post went viral and had a couple thousand people seeing it. Also like a lot of likes and shares, and that's what really pushed my followers from just a couple like under a hundred to now we're talking uh I think I reached like two thousand that night followers. So that was a big random thing that just like happened, and that's really got more followers to the page. I'm like, okay, maybe now it's time to start taking this a little bit more seriously. Now that I have the actual follower base, maybe I should do a little bit more updates in forecasting. So throughout high school, I'd make graphics on PowerPoint, and then through that I would create graphics and then push them out to Facebook. Especially the winter months, did the best just because people always interested in the winter weather and driving in winter weather, so people were always interested in stuff on apps. The winters throughout my high school is what really got my page more access to the state of Pennsylvania, so people would come to the page to see what's happening in the winter. But during the summer months and spring months, fall months, since I didn't really have that big of a falling base, people were still not really into the rain and thunderstorm stuff. So the warmer months were my downfall seasons, not really a lot of growth growth, but each winter would generate more and more fallovers until when I got to college. That's where really things started to even take off more even more. Still winter seasons were still my biggest form of growth, forecasting winter weather, and then just this the past year is when it really like exponentially took off. I don't even remember what it really was. It really wasn't even winter stuff. I just my pages, I think it was like northern light forecasting, I believe. Cloud, well, not just northern lights forecasting for forecasting cloud cover for the northern lights, and I think what really took it off was the May event. We had the G5 solar storm event, and I was like, okay, I think I was on the storm change trip too. I was like, I woke up in the hotel room and I saw the news of people saying extreme solar storm happening, you're gonna see doorland lights all the way down to like I don't know Florida, and I was like, okay, maybe I should make a cloud forecast for this. And luckily that night the cloud forecast looked phenomenal in PA. There was no clouds forecasted in most places, or I think some places had clouds, but most of PA looked pretty good. And I was like, Okay, I'm just gonna make this forecast for my hotel room as we're waiting to go storm chasing. And as I was watching that post out the whole day, it like really took off. Like, I think I had like millions of views on that one post. It was just a cloud forecast saying clouds won't be clear for tonight's geomagnetic storm. You can go out there and watch the Auroras, and that post itself, I think, really like I think I was only at like I'm not sure how many followers, probably like 10 to 15,000. That post really took it off. I was hit over 20,000, and then we kept having these solar storm events happening all summer long at times, so that really just kept getting more and more, and then we also had severe weather events, not the summer we had heat waves, we just had it just kept adding out up more, and just each little thing just kept blasting off my page even more and getting more reach, and then now I'm just like doing daily stuff just to keep people in the loop.

Kyle David 56:36

And you said the one post got millions of views, people seeing your content.

Denys Khrulov 56:43

Millions.

Kyle David 56:44

Wow, and you're some meteorologists who've built an on-air presence over years and have just got into social media, some of those people are lucky to get thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, but millions. That's astronomical, pun intended, with the auroras and stuff. But anyways, that that that's insane that this business that you had started has gained so much traction so quickly. It's a very unconventional path. On that note, you know, what's something that you've learned in starting up this business and how have you applied that to your meteorology journey and this through that this I'll call it untraditional path?

Denys Khrulov 57:29

So you learn to have a tough skin because no matter what happens, it's a bust, or they get people are always gonna be angry. You get a lot of nasty comments. I had a lot of really nasty comments lately that you just have to like deal with it, ignore them, block them. It's not even worth like answering back to them, be like, hey, this is why, because they're not gonna they don't care, so I don't care. So getting that tough skin, especially more quicker, because a lot of people in college they don't have their own weather page, they don't have their own outlet of weather, so they're not used to like getting all the hate, and there's they might not get that until like they land their job after graduation, but for me it's something I've already been used to, so that is another great thing to have get more of a tough skin. Get your I'm already like used to all those nasty people, but there's also a lot of great comments out there, too. So don't just get disarrayed with all the negative stuff that people are saying, but that's what's stuff up on and definitely communication skills and all the stuff you do in a classroom, you're not really applying it really out there, unless you're in campus well service, but still you're not really interacting with an audience per se. So I think having that is a big leg up because some of my posts, especially in the winter time, I'm getting, I know some of my Lake Effect posts this winter got over like 30 million views on some of them. So I'm dealing with millions of people seeing this post. I'm trying to communicate them, trying to get them to understand more of these weather stuff and trying to make them prepared. And there's people coming up to me, they're like, Hey, I listened to your forecast, so I did this instead of doing that. Hey, your forecast did really well, you did this, you did that, you communicated really well. Thank you. Like, it's so just getting those weather communication skills under my belt and applying them, and of course, just weather forecasting, as in anything, the more practice you get, the more better you get at it. So just since I'm forecasting, I literally don't have like a work, like I don't have a work balance, that's what I call it. I don't have a work life balance because even I'm not in school, I'm doing I'm looking at stuff on PA weather plus, or I wake up and look at the tropical tibets. Like, I don't have a work life balance, I just always do weather, so which I don't mind. Some people will say you should have that balance, but sometimes I'm a runner, so sometimes I'll go outside and go on a run. But sometimes on my run, I look at the model just because I'm I want to know what's happening. So it's just getting that experience with forecasting, I think, is really great. And I think that's what really helped me land a job a lot quicker than other people in my graduating class just because I'm always forecasting, and the more forecasting you get, the more practice you get. So you get a lot more better, you get a little handle the model biases, and you really get to see which models are retributeing best and how you should be applying a forecast. I think there's a lot of great things that come out running your own thing that you just don't get in a traditional classroom. You might not get that experience until a few years down your job. Because for me, I've been forecasting like for real for like since like eighth grade now. So I already know how like a lot of the model models perform and which ones I should use, which ones I shouldn't use. Sometimes there's still mistakes, of course. There's always gonna be mistakes, but just the more practice you get and get you're gonna improve your communication skills and forecasting skills, and it's a great toolkit to have.

Kyle David 1:00:46

I want to talk a little bit more about the PA weather stuff, but you brought up an interesting point in you know, you'd said there is no work-life balance. You're juggling school, you're juggling your business, PA weather plus, and your personal life too. And that's a lot to juggle as a young professional trying to get into the meteorology world. And I'm curious, how do you balance being a student but also being an entrepreneur, and then also balancing your personal demands as well?

Denys Khrulov 1:01:16

Honestly, I have no idea. I just take a day by day, hour by hour. When I wake up, I try to have a mental schedule in my head what I'm gonna do throughout the day. Sometimes when I'm doing schoolwork, I take a break, do PL plus stuff, get back to schoolwork. But in general, I think my school my workload has gone down pretty far the past two semesters where I'm really not spending a lot of time on school as I did when I was taking more advanced classes. So I think that has helped a lot tremendously because now I can just do an assignment just one sitting, like an hour to max, because that's really what assignments have gone down to now. And maybe I'm doing a little bit too quick, but I'm still getting great grades. So I don't know, I think it's working. So just trying to get the assignments done quicker under my belt, trying to be more efficient on doing them really helps a lot. But I don't know, it's just take it day by day, hour by hour, meant make a mental anytime I wake up, I make a mental schedule in my head. I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna do this. And then I think it works out pretty well. Sometimes I don't like sometimes I don't spend as much time as I like to on my page, but I think I think I'm still doing a good job, I think, of keeping it running, keeping it active. It definitely is a lot more harder with school, but like I said, my s with no exams this semester, just really a project, homework-based classes, it's not a lot of work as some people may think. So I think scheduling my days, doing everything I want to do makes it a lot more easier.

Kyle David 1:02:51

I could relate to your response your very candid response of not truly knowing how to balance all that. Back when I was doing my undergrad, I can relate to that, I can relate to that now. But besides that, going back to talking a little bit more about PA Weather Plus, you'd mentioned this had given you experiences that you didn't get to learn in some of your classes and stuff. And I'm curious, is there a moment since you were doing this back in middle school? Was there a moment that you had learned something from PA Weather Plus or what it was before that you ended up seeing in your time at Penn State that made you say, Oh wait, I've seen that before? Or is there a moment where it was the other way around where you saw something with your business that you had previously seen during your coursework or studies at Penn State?

Denys Khrulov 1:03:42

Yeah, so there's a lot of stuff actually when I was a middle school student that I learned through myself learned more in depth about the stuff at Penn State, like SKUT, soundings, photographs, 500 millibar layer, forticity, all those water jargons growing up. I I had a feeling of what they were and how to like loosely use them in a forecast. But when I got to college, I goes, I was like, oh wait, now I can really connect the ideas and really now apply them to my forecast and then just knowing them loosely. And I think that also is a big step up because some of these people in college they get to their weather class and then it's the first time they're seeing a scooty, so they're like, oh my gosh, what in the world is this? But if you already like do as a weather weenie, and you don't have to be running a page where you've just being a weather weenie in your middle school and high school years, you already saw what a scooty is, so you already know what the basis of it is, but then learning more of that intricative stuff, more in-depth stuff, you really piece it together way more well than let's say just seeing it for your first time. I think just being consistent in practicing just is really the key takeaway, just from middle school to now.

Kyle David 1:04:56

Absolutely, and there's like you said, you got you're able to piece everything together. I'm curious. You we talked a little bit about how the business gave you some in a way it's somewhat public relations, I'll call it public relations, but it gave you some public relations and communication skills, and those are totally applicable to the weather. But I'm curious, was there one thing that you learned from your business that is not weather related that you found does apply to the weather?

Denys Khrulov 1:05:27

Something like apply to weather per se.

Kyle David 1:05:30

Yeah, let me reword that. Was there something that in something non-related non-weather related in your business that you found connects somewhat to the weather that surprises you?

Denys Khrulov 1:05:44

I guess like the business side of things, like I do get money from it, so like I learned some of the things more about just like a business side and what weather events get. more traction to the post because you I do make some money off of it that I use on my day-to-day basis that it could be used as a part-time job really. So just learning how a business operates, especially a weather-run business, because it's not consistent. It's really not consistent like a regular business, because you're really especially just running myself on learning which events more to focus on, which weather events maybe I should be posting more about, try to get more people informed, but in the way also growing the business. So I think that's one key takeaway that's not like really weather related to the business, but it's also weather related because it they bounce off one another. So like learning that business style stuff on how to you know grow the page more and stuff. Of course, no like some people like post complete hype crap that like of course not going to verify. So you don't I don't want to do that but I still try to try to attract as many people as possible during more extreme scenarios to try to grow the business too but also get people better prepared but of not in the ways of like hyping stuff.

Kyle David 1:07:14

And you bring up an interesting point too and it's one that's been talked about by a few people on the podcast and that everybody has access to weather models weather data and they can post things to hype things up and some of that hype is not really warranted I'll say most of the time not warranted. But from your perspective you have a very interesting perspective you're looking at it through the lens of a meteorologist but you're also looking at it through the lens of a business owner so I'm curious how do you balance scientifically accurate content while also producing engaging content that attracts people to follow your page and share it.

Denys Khrulov 1:07:58

Yeah it's definitely hard because you want to have grow your page more get more clicks and stuff but you also don't want to misinform people so I try to I feel bad if I like make a post that's not going to happen because people are now especially with the falling so big people are like relying on stuff from me and I really can't be out there posting misinformation like some people do in the States so that's something I try to keep more in touch maybe I try to instead of like hype stuff up out maybe I'll make more posts for a specific event more than others. Try to keep that balance maybe maybe use different colors to try to make it like more of an eye popping but still I try to stay away from the extreme hype because I'll make I'll be I'll feel guilty because I'm I'm posting misinformation that was to make me feel good like even though it might make me more money then but I still like deep down like this is not right.

Kyle David 1:08:54

Like it's not gonna help anyone and the not work for the meteorology community as well yeah and that hype in turn does harm it breaks down the trust between the people looking for weather information and the actual meteorologists doing the work of communicating the weather and we have an interesting job in trying to combat that in a way and navigate all that hype navigate all of that stuff that is on social and digital media I'm curious since you've had experience with this since eighth grade and being out there on social media and forecasting how are you combating misinformation disinformation or just in general how does one combat that misinformation and disinformation I don't know it's really tough especially when you have people in the state who are always posting misinformation it's really hard I guess I just try to stick to what I think what's gonna happen.

Denys Khrulov 1:10:00

I don't there's nothing you can really do about it because I've tried to confront these people and they don't care. They don't listen so you just have to roll on your own and hope that people in the end see that one person is actually hyping it versus one person actually telling the truth and I think that's what it really comes down to. You can't you can always tell them hey you're not doing this right but they think they're doing it right. They don't care maybe they're making a lot of money off of it. They don't care on your opinion so I think in the end it's just time doing its thing people will eventually I'm already seeing stuff from the page I used to confront like in the comments that people will eventually catch on and I think that's what I guess just try to be as best as you can yourself and then just let time vanish those other people out.

Kyle David 1:10:54

That's some good advice and we haven't even gotten to asking about advice yet so we're already dropping let me try that again we're already dropping some nuggets of wisdom there. And speaking of you you have a very interesting perspective again in that you're graduating as we're recording this very soon and you're about to head off into the I don't want to say the adult world but the professional world of weather and meteorology given that you had started this business back in eighth grade what are some things that you've learned along the way that are helping you to shape your path as you get ready to graduate yeah I guess just a lot of weather forecasting skills a lot of communications you know how time management that's what I've learned a lot as well that's gonna really help post graduation just because my schedule might get a little bit more lighter so maybe I'll have actually more time to do stuff that I want to do in general like yeah just you know connecting with people those are all really great skills that I've learned that I think that's gonna really help me in postgrad in my actual career so a lot of important skills water forecasting and communications and time management organization there's a lot of in just business management in general I think it's gonna really help a lot in my career. Absolutely and to look to the future a little bit you have all these experiences and I'm curious what you think what do you see the future of independent weather forecasting pages like PA Weather Plus or other independent pages out there in the digital space evolving in the next year five years if you really want to be bold 10 years.

Denys Khrulov 1:12:39

I think I'm seeing in general more people make weather pages I think the field is going to become a little more oversaturated in a way but I think if you kind of sell yourself out to be different than others those independent pages can do really well like my page so I think just keep sticking with it really especially with the other pages I think we might maybe some pages will merge with one another try grip bigger and stuff like that but I think I think moving forward especially one to five ten years it's still gonna be important weather forecasting in general so I think a lot of these pages will thrive especially trying to information especially with meteorology and forecast in general get more digalized on social media I think this is the time to do it just because not a lot of people are really watching their TVs anymore social media is really the way forward I think and that's where you're gonna get a lot more eyes to watch your yeah and you make a good point and I'll ask just to strengthen your point you do you watch TV at all or do you know anybody in your age group that watches television? Myself I actually love watching TV anytime I have the opportunity to watch TV I watch TV. I don't have cable here at my apartment at Penn State but I know I was just on vacation in Florida and I was always watching TV when I was in the lounge area either watching dinner or in the evening I don't know personally I love watching TV I don't know maybe just think because I something I grew up watching the white channel in the local news it's like kind of resonating with my childhood others none of my other friends probably watch TV but anytime I have the chance I watch TV in the morning love it sipping with my morning coffee love watching TV in the evening relaxing on my laptop love watching the team in the background I don't know maybe I'm just an oldie but I still do love watching my TV but others probably not I'll probably just the weird one out in the group hey you know what if it's weird then I'll be weird too because I do watch television like I'll turn on like Fox weather or the weather channel if I want to watch some weather stuff.

Kyle David 1:14:46

I don't watch too much news stuff I'll be honest sports of course I watch some football games and stuff but yeah like the majority of the people in our age group don't watch live television like it used to be and it's an interesting change in technologies and on the note of technology you'd mentioned earlier you'd used Microsoft Paint to make weather graphics and now you're using WSI Max at campus weather service you're using a bunch of other new products that are out there you've gotten to see how things have changed not just with visualizing the weather but sharing it with social media and digital media how do you see that changing in the next year or so so probably not too much the next year or so I think Max is a great software to use I think a lot of broadcast stations use it.

Denys Khrulov 1:15:38

For my personal business I use PowerPoint and Photoshop gets the work done Canva as well I think a lot of people use Canva too so I don't know I think in general using those programs is going to be really the move going forward. Only reason I use Paint I was little because I didn't have money as a kid any more to spend money on Photoshop subscription but now I get the money so I get to use it anyway once now I get to get more softwares that I can use to better make my graphics but yeah I think it'll stay the same for next year. And maybe five ten years you see any changes or just curious I don't think so if I continue doing PRL plus which I plan to I'll probably still just use Photoshop and PowerPoint. Those are just my main twos unless something new gets out there but yeah I wish I could get max for PRL plus but I know it's like really expensive so not there yet might not ever get there but we'll see.

Kyle David 1:16:39

And for those that do not know what the max weather system is it is pretty much the cream of the crop when it comes to wanting to visual the ability to visualize weather information with data with like 3D graphics I would love my own Mac system. Those are expensive but side note this won't be in the podcast but PowerPoint is a GOAT in itself for like the normal studio scenes I guess that's what the term is for yeah those scenes that are not earth based or data based but hey you know what it's not about what tools you have it's how you use those tools. Exactly and they're like what you use PowerPoint as your graphics I'm yeah you can it's not just making slides yeah I've learned a trick or two from using PowerPoint for my own weather stuff when I do try and post occasionally but now we've looked to the future let's look back a little bit on your experiences as somebody who's about to graduate as somebody who has started their own business participating in the campus weather service all of these accumulative experiences what's been the most important lesson that you've learned in your pursuit of meteorology and going into the professional weather world just to push forward there will be always setbacks whether it's homework assignments exams not doing well in general just push forward if it's your true dream to do meteorology just stick with it because in the end you'll get through all those bumps and downs and stuff like that and then you'll get you'll find success or just push through it don't give up take your time you don't have to do it have to get through a degree in four years if you don't have to know some friends are gonna be graduating a semester too late just push through push through if it's your if it's your true passion just push through and I'm curious what's of all the experiences that you've experienced what's been the most surprising lesson that you've learned whether that be through your business through school through other pursuits in the weather world I what's been surprising to me I think I don't know I guess what's surprising to me is the people around you I don't know for some reason I thought when I'll be with around meteorological people everyone like get along with one another be nice but I think deep down there's people who actually get per se jealous of you so they start like not being so nice to you so I think that was really surprising to me I think just try to surround with people to you actually know who are actually supporting you and not trying to degrade you in a way because there's always going to be people but I think that surprised me in the memealogy community we're so tight knit but there are still some people who may not be as nice and I think that's what I really found surprising.

Denys Khrulov 1:19:50

But I think that can really go for probably any field to be honest but I think that was I don't know just surprising throughout college yeah it probably right let me do that again because that was quite loud.

Kyle David 1:20:03

Yeah you're right it probably does apply to other fields but it surprises me the amount of I don't want to say strife what's the word I'm looking for but like the amount of conflict that I see sometimes like on social media like meteorologists bashing each other it's just like guys we're on the same team and it doesn't just go for the weather world it goes for every industry every just society in general we're all part of the human race we're all just come on let's just be a little bit nicer but that's some very good advice there surround yourself with people who are rooting for you who are in your court and before we start to get into the end of our podcast episode and get to our whether or not trivia I've got one segment I'm calling it the sunset segment so this allows you to it's very open-ended allows you to talk about things we didn't get to touch upon and stuff. So with that said are there things that you want to clarify from what we've talked about maybe mention something that you didn't get to mention during our conversation but some myths some people have done or share anything exciting in the works for you your business and your studies anything else I want to add not really no is drive your passions another tip I want to say is just try to do something extra than what you're doing. So like everyone's trying to get a meteorology degree but do something more than just get a meteorology degree like for me again I'm starting my business but add something else to really set you apart from others I think that would be a great tool set to have especially for those um planning to get into meteorology planning to college just try to do add something else that can really help you stand out in the job field as well and just make you more successful that's some very good advice now not just for the weather world but for anybody looking to just get into college is there any other advice that you'd like to leave any other final parting thoughts or anything that you're excited to share that's in the works I guess I did get hired at Weatherworks in Hackettstown and I'm excited to start my weather journey career journey there after graduation in May really excited for that opportunity moving to a new place and then just doing my dream job as a meteorologist it's very exciting and a huge congratulations to you we've actually interviewed two people from Weatherworks so you are going to be the third person from Weatherworks that we've had the pleasure to talk to on the podcast so huge congratulations to you and the best of luck to you as you wrap up your studies and get out there into or more out there into the professional world you already got there with PA Weather Plus thank you so much. Absolutely all right with the sun setting on the podcast yes the pun's intended and looking back on our conversation it's starting to get towards the end of the podcast but we have time for one more fun segment and that is our weather or not trivia so we've got a mix of weather themed non-weather themed trivia to wrap up and put a bow on top of this conversation so with that said are you ready to get into our weather or not trivia oh yeah I'm definitely ready I love that enthusiasm all right this is whether or not your first question is related to stranger things yet another appearance by Stranger Things Stranger Things's plot was inspired by conspiracy theories revolving around a real life military base in New York with the real location's name used as the working title for the show what's the name of this conspiracy theory is it a the Montauk Project B Project A119 C the Roswell incident or D the Stargate project I believe it's a the Montauk final guess is the Montauk Project you are correct it is based off of the Montauk Project and the real life location is Camp Hero oh I forgot the but it's basically out in Long Island New York very eerie place if you get a chance to go out there. Also very cool as well with the cliffs there. So that's our first one this is whether or not your next question your next question is related to Pittsburgh winter weather which winter storm holds the record for largest snowstorm on record for Pittsburgh Pennsylvania was it a the Great Lake Storm of 1913 B the Great Appalachian storm of 1950 C February 2010 Snowmageddon or D 1993 storm of the century I believe it's B the storm of 1950 the Great Appalachian Storm of 1950 is your final guess you are correct it is the Great Appalachian storm of 1950 but those other ones are pretty close to it as well don't quote me on this but I think it's like 80 inches from that one storm I could be wrong. 80 I could be wrong uh 35 no yeah that that sounds more right yeah I don't know why I thought 80 that's not making it in there excuse my babble all right but yes you are correct it is the Great Appalachian storm of 1950 and a little fun fact we actually did a weather this day in weather history on the Great Appalachian storm I don't remember what episode but it's somewhere out there in the catalog. Very interesting storm but anyways this is whether or not your next question is related to popular thriller novels in 1991 an adaptation of a psychological horror crime thriller was released starring Jody Foster and Anthony Hopkins what was the name of the film adaptation and the novel was it a the girl with the dragon tattoo b red dragon c silence of the lambs or D One flew over the cuckoo's nest I have no idea I guess B B is your if you want I could give you a hint it might give away the answer but I could give you a hint yeah sure so Jodie Foster starred as Clarice Starling and Anthony Hopkins starred as Hannibal Lecter Yeah I have no idea I'll just stick with B. B is your final guess I'll say you're somewhat correct in the characters but you are incorrect it was the silence of the lambs that was released in 1991 with Jody Foster and Anthony Hopkins in the movie. Red Dragon though is part of that same series so somewhat on track. We'll give you a half point there for that one. So alright this is whether or not your next question is related to Derechios. On July 2203 a severe Derecho swept through parts of the southern United States particularly Tennessee and Mississippi including the Memphis metro the Derecchio was nicknamed a hurricane in the infected areas for its hurricane force winds and was named after which famous Memphian was it A Elvis Presley B Aretha Franklin C Justin Timberlake or D Chris Hardwick A Elvis Presley A is your final guess Elvis Presley I'll go with it You are correct, it was nicknamed Hurricane Elvis and named after Elvis Presley, which I'm not sure why that one stood out and people wanted to name it Hurricane Elvis, but hey, somebody's gotta come up with catchy names for weather events, right? So, all right, this is whether or not your last question is related to Penn State. Who did Penn State play in its first collegiate football game? Was it A Bucknell? B Muhlenberg, C, Ruckers, or D, Brown. Was it Rutgers?

Denys Khrulov 1:28:40

I don't think it's Ruckers. I feel like it's Ruckers.

Kyle David 1:28:43

I'm not gonna tell you. That's for you to guess.

Denys Khrulov 1:28:47

I think it's Ruckers. Is Rutgers your final guess? I guess so. I might be wrong.

Kyle David 1:28:54

You are incorrect. It was Bucknell who played in against Penn State in their first collegiate game. But hey, you know what? There's probably some records with Ruckers in Penn State, primarily Penn State whooping Rutgers. I don't think we've won a game in quite a while. So you have that over us. So, with that said, that is our last weather or not trivia question and the end of our conversation. But before we go, how can people stay in touch with PA Weather Plus and all of the awesome work that you do as you enter the world of weather?

Denys Khrulov 1:29:30

I would say follow me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter or X. Sorry. That is where you can find Pure Plus. And also, if you want to reach out to me, I'm also on Facebook and X, just from my name.

Kyle David 1:29:44

And we'll make sure to link your social media handles, both yours and then PA Weather Pluses, down in the show notes for people to go and check out. I do recommend giving them PA Weather Plus a follow because it does you do provide some excellent work for the state of Pennsylvania.

Speaker 2 1:30:00

Thank you so much.

Kyle David 1:30:02

Absolutely. And that brings us to the end of the episode and our conversation. Thank you so much, Dennis, for joining me. And thank you to the listener for listening to the Everything Weather podcast.

Denys Khrulov 1:30:14

Thank you so much. It was a great pleasure to be on here.