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WeatherMatrix Member
Matt
Capper of Market Drayton, United Kingdom is the Featured Member this
season.
Matt has had an interest in
weather as long as he can remember (something many WeatherMatrix Members can
identify with!) and has been with WeatherMatrix since early 1999.
Matt joined the Tornado and
Storm Research Organisation (TORRO) back
in 1998 (TORRO is the number one European severe weather research body). Due to
his commitment and involvement he is now a TORRO Executive. Matt has his own
severe weather website which has become
one of the most popular in the UK. He has written weather related material for
the BBC and has been involved with several UK media groups and TV shows.
All of Matt's severe weather
knowledge comes from teaching himself via books, other educational material,
media and the Internet.
Matt says "I storm chase
when possible in the UK and look forward to one day making it to the 'other
side of the pond' to see some serious severe thunderstorms. Severe weather is a
passion that has always been with me and a passion i will have until my very
last days!" |
DOUGLAS KIESLING |
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WeatherMatrix
Member
Douglas
Kiesling (A.K.A. "Lightning Boy") of Minneapolis, MN joined
WeatherMatrix in July 2001. Doug has been successfully photographing lightning
his whole life. He has taken thousands of lightning pictures and is a freelance
photographer for the Weather Channel. His
website, LightningBoy.com, features
hundreds of high quality lightning still photos and videos. Click
here to download a video file
showcasing some of Doug's video that was featured on the
Weather Channel in 2002. Doug also owns
the Breaking News Video Network which helps up
and coming photojournalists break through the barriers of bringing their work
to the worlds television networks. |
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Doug says "Chasing
storms and flying planes is my hobby and my life long dream come true. They are
my first real true loves in life. I have worked very hard and suffered a lot to
be able to do what I do. I am not a rich man. I am a part time college student
in a Aviation & Computer Science program in Minnesota that also just
happens to be a master at photography."
Doug's "Executive Veto"
photograph was featured in the
2003 WeatherMatrix
Calendar. You can read a complete interview with Doug
here,
including
tips
on lightning photography. |
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ELLIOT ABRAMS |
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WeatherMatrix
Member Elliot
Abrams of Port Matilda, PA, is the Featured Member this time around.
Elliot is a Senior Vice President, Certified Consulting Meteorologist, and
Chief Forecaster at
AccuWeather Inc. Elliot has been with WeatherMatrix for over 3
years.
He produces radio
forecasts across the nation and on the Internet he writes a
humorous
daily summary. Elliot has both the
AMS Radio and TV Seals of
Approval and is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist. See
Elliot's Bio on
AccuWeather.com for more. |
JESSE FERRELL |
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WeatherMatrix
Founder Jesse Ferrell
(see
complete profile) of State College, PA, is the new Featured Member. Jesse
founded WeatherMatrix (known then as the Carolina Area Storm Investigators and
later as the Central Atlantic Storm Investigators
(CASI)) in the summer of 1996. The organization began accepting members in
January 1997. Membership, which started out mostly in
the Carolinas, then the East Coast, rapidly grew to over 4000 members worldwide
in the summer of 2002. WeatherMatrix.Net runs two major email lists and
receives over 1 million page views per month and has been featured in the New York Times, DrudgeReport.com, Southern
Living, and, most recently,
Readers
Digest and the Altoona
Mirror.
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At home, Jesse runs the WeatherMatrix Control Center, a group of
computers and equipment dedicated to WeatherMatrix Research and Development,
and also running weather cameras, weather stations and lightning detectors. His
current "day job" is at a private weather company.
Jesse has always been interested in the weather, from
his first words as an infant through high school and college. Several
childhood extreme weather experiences solidified his
interest in the science. He obtained his BS in Meteorology (Weather Forecasting
Track) from the University of North Carolina
at Asheville in 1995 after running their department web server for several
years. Jesse has worked for the National Climatic Data Center, the National
Weather Service, an Internet hosting company and a private weather
company. |
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