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A podcast focusing on the perspectives, lives, and stories of Kansans to provide greater insight into the state we all call home.
AAK_Ep28
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[00:00:00]
Gus Applequist: I feel like since we're focusing on weather, I just have to shout out Andrew Gable because, oh, Gable, he's, he's another person I know who's just completely into the weather anyway, so I think
Sydney Collins: we've mentioned him a couple times too.
Gus Applequist: Yeah, Andrew's just a great guy and, and fascinating person. Um, so, so Andrew had started the, uh, it was called Microburst.
It was the Weather Club at Wesleyan, at least I, I'm pretty sure he started it anyway, so he was graduating and I was gonna be a, a junior, I think. Mm-hmm. He's, he asked me if I would, would become the president of the Weather Club, which like, to be perfectly honest with you, I don't have like a huge passion for the weather.
Um, I am vaguely interested. So anyway, I became the, I took it a little too seriously. Like I, I went out chasing on my own, which, to be honest with you, I was not. Probably educated enough to be useful, so, so I bought one of those little amber lights that you plug into the cigarette water. Of course you did.
Sydney Collins: And that is such a Gus move to buy [00:01:00] your own. Woo.
Gus Applequist: I mean, obviously it was Amber, so I wasn't breaking any laws here. At least I don't think I was, but, but I can tell you the day that I quit. Storm chasing with the amber light. And, and honestly, I think one of the last times I ever really storm chased and I was, uh, I was, let's see, east of Salina a few miles and I was, I was getting off of the interstate and I looked over and I saw Henry Diehl who's like a very respected local storm chaser, um, and first responder and just all around great guy.
And I just saw him like clock me. And in his eyes I saw this like, like, what is this idiot doing out here? Like, and then I was like, okay, I'm gonna, I took you roll, you roll the window down
Sydney Collins: in casually take the light off. Yep. I just took it down
Gus Applequist: and I was like, okay, I'm no longer, I'm no longer that, which I don't wanna be, so, oh my goodness.
So that's my story. Welcome, uh, to an episode focused on weather. [00:02:00]
Sydney Collins: Welcome back to Ask a Kansan. Um, we are a podcast where we are amplifying, uncovering and connecting stories around Kansas.
Gus Applequist: And I'm Gus
Sydney Collins: and I am Sydnee. So today, um, we have a really, um, amazing. Um, if you haven't noticed, it's a lot about weather.
Ross Janssen: Mm-hmm.
Sydney Collins: So, um, we have Ross Jansen on from KWCH, and, uh, Gus you had a lot of weather questions for him.
Gus Applequist: I did. And, and I, to be perfectly honest, you was, was supported in those questions, Tanner by Tanner, our, our resident photographer slash uh, meteorologist in that Yes. Uh, Tanner knows, knows far more [00:03:00] than I do, and so he. He helped guide the question, asking a little bit in there,
Sydney Collins: uh, a little fun fact. Um, so Tanner is the, the guy that will.
Send you a message about the weather, like what upcoming weather? So in our mm-hmm. Chats here at the office, um, we use Slack. And Slack has things called channels. So Tanner has his own weather channel. Mm-hmm. Um, it's, it's
Gus Applequist: kind of like I have, I have my own Lord of the Rings based channel. Yeah. Most of our channels are serious client related.
We have a few for fun.
Sydney Collins: We have a few for
Gus Applequist: fun. It's called One Slack to rule them all, which I'm just proud of personally.
Sydney Collins: I want Slack to rule them all. Oh my goodness. Well, without any further ado, here is our interview with Ross Janssen.
Hello? Oh, the corgi is here. Hi. Oh my gosh.
Gus Applequist: You've made Sydney's day Hi.
Sydney Collins: Welcome, welcome.
Gus Applequist: [00:04:00] Alright. It's great to
Ross Janssen: be here. Thanks. Thank you very much. Hi,
Sydney Collins: corgi. Come here. Come here.
Ross Janssen: Hold you for a little bit and then you're gonna have,
Tanner: you can
Ross Janssen: probably sit down and,
Tanner: yeah.
Sydney Collins: And wonder around. I was wondering if we were gonna see the star of the show.
No offense.
Ross Janssen: I mean, it's the star of the show.
Gus Applequist: Pull that over. Oh man.
Ross Janssen: Oh She She is the real celebrity. She really is.
Gus Applequist: Well, for our audio listeners, we have a special guest beyond Ross, our other special guest. Um, and this is May.
Ross Janssen: This is May. This is May, may. The weather dog. May the weather dog.
Gus Applequist: She
Ross Janssen: is fresh off the Kansas State Fair.
Oh yeah. Uh, where she has probably. I don't wanna know how many people have hugged, kissed, uh, and basically it's hard being popular. Basically called all over her. Oh, wow. For the past couple of weeks. Yeah. I can
Gus Applequist: only imagine. Well, for our listeners, could you introduce yourself please?
Ross Janssen: So my name is Ross Jansen and I'm the chief meteorologist at the CBS station in Wichita.
[00:05:00] And have been there now for almost 22 years. Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Wow.
Ross Janssen: So, wow. It's, it's been a long haul.
Gus Applequist: I grew up watching Meryl Teller. So is he your predecessor then? Yeah,
Ross Janssen: he is my predecessor, and we worked together for, um, you know, I think, let's see here. He's been retired since 20, 20 19, I believe. Mm-hmm. Uh, so we, we had a long, uh, stint together.
And it's really kind of bittersweet because I actually interned with him in high school. Oh, wow. And so my connection to KWCH goes back to the late nineties when I was in high school and interning there.
Gus Applequist: So did you know at an early age that that, uh, meteorology was in your future?
Ross Janssen: I knew in fourth grade that meteorology was something that I was passionate about, and so it only made sense to.
Uh, want to pursue that in college. Hmm. And I think, you know, for a long time, and what I've been told from a lot of people that are [00:06:00] in my profession, it seems like it's something that you've. You're interested in at a really young age. Mm-hmm. So that was, you know, something I, I knew I wanted to go on and pursue.
Hmm. But fourth grade is my earliest memory of being captivated by the weather.
Gus Applequist: are you originally from Kansas?
Ross Janssen: I am originally from Kansas. I grew up about, uh, 40 miles west of Salina in a small town called eo. Um, that's, mm-hmm. Where I'm officially from. And for those that are not familiar, it's kind of halfway between Lyons and Ellsworth.
Yeah. And I grew up on a farm, technically in Ellsworth County, so I went to high school in Ellsworth. And then, uh, after that. Went on to the University of Kansas. Oh wow man. Which was totally, uh, that was a big and abrupt change for me because I grew up in a family. Yeah. That was all K state
Sydney Collins: really.
Ross Janssen: All purple.
You know, agriculture is what Kansans do. Mm-hmm. I mean, that's one of our top industries. And so my family, and still today, they're in [00:07:00] agriculture, all K state. And I'll never forget the day the high school counselor said, well, I've got bad news for you. You cannot study meteorology at K State. Yeah. You're gonna have to go to ku.
And so in that very moment, then I became a Jayhawk. It was hard. Yeah. Imagine Very DI can imagine. Difficult to, uh, switch gears like that and mm-hmm. And start cheering for the Jayhawks. Wow.
Sydney Collins: So who do you cheer for now?
Ross Janssen: Well, so I've always kind of cheered for both schools. Uh, I mean, both, both are good places to, to get an education for sure.
But when it's basketball season. It's all in on the Jayhawks. Yeah. Uh, you know, fortunately our football team is kind of starting to come around. Yeah. And now we, uh, we have reason to cheer for the football team again. There you go. So I, I definitely am a Jayhawk, um, at heart. Yeah. I have to say.
Gus Applequist: So being from one of those quote unquote small dots on the map, does that affect the way you view those dots when you're [00:08:00] doing your work on, on air?
Ross Janssen: Uh, it does. I mean, I will say, I know. Because growing up here and living here my whole life, I know a lot of people in those small dots on the map. Yeah. And so when a thunderstorm is approaching, whether it be just hail or a tornado, I often think about the people I know in those areas and wonder are they at home?
You know, if they are, what are they doing? Are they out on their front porch? Uh, because that's what Kansans do when a storm is coming. We go out and we wanna see it. Yeah. We wanna stand on the front porch and we wanna watch it roll in. So
Sydney Collins: with our American flag That's right. Our chair. I, I
Ross Janssen: do, I often think about the people that I know and all these places that I meet along the way, and it's mm-hmm.
It's incredible. Hmm. May is entertaining all of us with her. Oh my God, that's
Gus Applequist: great. I, this is a very comfy rug. And, and, uh, she's proving that point. She's taking advantage of it. She definitely
Ross Janssen: has taken advantage of it.
Gus Applequist: Well, I guess speaking of May, um, uh, and, and, uh, the dog that she had [00:09:00] before Millie, is that right?
Yep, it was, it
Ross Janssen: was Millie.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. So, so you, yeah. Tell us the story of how they began accompanying you to,
Ross Janssen: well, it's all happened organically because when I graduated from college and moved to Wichita. I hadn't been settled in my house for more than about three months, and my cousin calls and said, I've got a litter of corgis.
There are only a couple of females left. Are you even interested? And I'm thinking. I don't wanna mess with this. Are you kidding me? He said, well, he said, they're really good dogs. I think you should have one. And so there the next day, and I'll never forget because that night I had made the decision, I'm driving to Chickasha, Oklahoma to get this puppy.
The Northern Lights were visible. So I'm out on the edge of Wichita watching the Northern Lights, thinking tomorrow I'm driving to Oklahoma to get this puppy. So I drive down there. She was really cute. And, and the same cousins that I've got Millie from had a Dale, uh, years ago named Millie. And so that's how I decided on the name Millie.
Hmm. So [00:10:00] I'm driving back, of course we're connecting. She's looking at me in my truck, like, who and the heck are you? Where are we going? We're crossing state lines. And I was working weekends at that time. So I would take her with me to the TV station. And the first night she was there, she went behind the green screen where we present the weather and it's a piece of canvas.
She's back there playing with this green screen. It's waving back and forth, and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I'm getting fired tomorrow because my dog's here. She's gonna show up on TV, and people are going to wonder what in the world is going on. Well, so it wasn't long after that that she started to make random appearances on TV just by accident, and people started noticing.
Mm-hmm. And then a couple of nights she would sit behind me in the weather center and she would never move. So people initially thought it's a stuffed animal. Oh, oh. Well, after doing some answer back segments about this is what's going on, people started to connect that, oh, she Millie's real, it's a thing.
And they started thinking that, [00:11:00] well. Okay, so he's bringing his dog and it just exploded from there. And the stories I have from all those years, 'cause Millie was 14 and a half when she passed. Wow. I mean, Kirsty Alley would come back to Wichita and Tweet at KWCH. Millie. Yeah. So to me that was a big deal.
I'm like, Kirsty Alley is in Wichita and she sees Millie on tv. Mm-hmm. This is, this has reached a whole new level. So we had a lot of fun with that, but. Y you know, questions I get asked a lot. Uh, first of all, how did that whole thing come about? Yeah. But then also it's questions like, you know, are you doing this just for ratings?
Uh, what's behind all of this? And what it has become is. You know, the dog going with me on TV is not, I don't, there's no compensation for it. It's really just so people at home can find a connection with, there's an animal on tv. Mm-hmm. And all these years, um, you know, heartbreaking, there was a girl in elementary [00:12:00] school that had terminal cancer, and one of her last wishes was to have Millie at her birthday party.
Wow. So we went, um, you know, and here we're riding around the school track. With all of her classmates cheering for this little Alicia who's got terminal cancer, and it's me, Millie, Alicia, and the golf cart driver, and all these kids that are cheering on this little girl that you know. So, you know, animals are so wonderful and anyone that's ever loved a pet knows that connection.
And fortunately for me, with my platform, I get to share that love. Of my corgis, I guess you would say, on tv. And that's really what it's all about. It's not for ratings, it's not for anything other than just, Hey, that's pretty cool.
Gus Applequist: Yeah.
Ross Janssen: now here's May and she's, she's May, she's five.
Uh, there was about a year gap in between Millie and when May came about and uh, and some people have asked me, how'd you decide on May? Mm-hmm. And I would just [00:13:00] say may the love of Millie live on. So I decided on May.
Gus Applequist: That's cute. That's really good. So could you describe like a typical non weather day, or sorry, non weather alert day?
Sure. Uh, what, what is that like for you?
Ross Janssen: So, uh. I operate on little sleep. Um, but basically my day starts at six 30 in the morning because I talk on the radio from home. Mm-hmm. And now with all the technology advances, you know, we, we can do all that kind of stuff. Mm-hmm. Right from the basement of our house.
So I get up and I check the weather maps, I go on live on radio and then when I get done with that, about 8 15, 8 30. Then that's kind of my break to go exercise, you know, get some other stuff done. But I'm almost always in the weather office by one in the afternoon. And oftentimes, uh, if everything works out, I try to leave before 11 o'clock at night.
So there are long days. Um, but again, it's what I love doing. You know, I'm kind of all in on this, the [00:14:00] station being here in Kansas. And so even on days when it's sunny and quiet. You know, I'm still probably putting in at least 10 hours a day. Wow. Uh, when we do have weather alert days and we do have severe thunderstorms.
Mm-hmm. I probably don't leave until about one 30 or two o'clock in the morning, but you know, the alarm clock is still gonna go off at six 30 the next day. So you're just. Eyeballing the weekend, hoping that there's not, there's not a lot of bad weather on the horizon.
Sydney Collins: speaking of radio, so, um, my dad, uh, was Richard Alexander.
Oh. So Rich Alexander, I told, I told my mom, I go, Hey, we're gonna have Ross on. She goes, no way. You do realize that your dad and Ross talked like every day? Yeah. Mm-hmm. And I was like,
Ross Janssen: mm-hmm.
Sydney Collins: Well, I didn't realize that. Yeah. Or guests who don't know. Yeah, so guests who don't know. So, um, my, um, technically stepdad, uh, but he got the horrible teenage years, so he is my dad, um, is Richard Alexander.
He had a morning, uh, radio show on [00:15:00] KSAL here in Salina for a number of years. Long time, long time, 20 plus years. And so, um. What Ross has uh, mentioned about calling into the radio stations is calling in actually talking to those DJs. Mm-hmm. Giving them the, uh, weather report and it actually kind of builds a community within a community almost.
It's like if those people who probably don't see you on tv Right. Every day is they're listening to you on,
Ross Janssen: and it's radio mostly. I mean, that's what we do now with the morning radio. It's just a chance for, you know, the host to talk about, Hey, you know, I saw this in the sky, or mm-hmm. What planet is visible in the east?
Uh, I have a lot of colleagues that I see at conferences and they say, really, you still get up and do live radio in the morning? But that's what I do. Yeah, I mean, I love to talk about the weather and when you have a big stormy day or a lot of active weather in the evening, it's fun to get up that next morning and kind of talk about what we saw on the radar, how it all went down.
Most recently, you know, we had [00:16:00] two big hail storms. Start up here by Salina, they go all the way to Wichita. Mm-hmm. And we're still talking about that. And that was not even going to be a big weather day. And now it's likely in the top five most costly hail disasters. Oh yeah. For Wichita, because it's gonna be in the billions of dollars.
Wow. And so that next morning to talk about, Hey, did you have hail? What'd it look like at your place? Mm-hmm. Uh, that's fun. I mean, so that morning radio still registers with me and I love doing it. Hmm.
Gus Applequist: it's admirable how you meteorologists can hold it together during severe weather. Yeah, yeah.
When there's a lot of things you're trying to balance, obviously, in the studio and, and with your research on what's going on. thinking back to coverage of like Greensburg and how the tone and mood of the broadcast changed over the course of that kind of day and evening. Yeah. Um, especially when like the debris ball begin to appear on radar, um, when a super cell ramps up to the point of destruction.
How do you keep calm while. Relaying the vital information.
Ross Janssen: That's a, that's a great question, and something I do [00:17:00] get asked a lot, and I would just say that, you know, I, I have seen a lot of crazy weather, so I don't, in a particular event, I just don't really think too much about, is this gonna be the big one?
I just think about what's happening here and now ingest the information and then regurgitate what I know and what's happening and this is what it's doing. And I don't think about. You know, the overall impact that it might be having on people. Because if I let myself and my mind go to those places of, you know what, what's actually happening outside of the four walls of this TV station, you can get into panic mode.
So I tell people the environment, the atmosphere in which we deliver that kind of information is the same every day. So on a sunny day. My studio looks the same as it does on a day when it's crazy weather outside. And so you're comfortable in your surroundings, where you broadcast from, and that allows you to stay [00:18:00] calm, collected, because if the meteorologist starts to panic on tv, it must be really, really bad.
And we just don't do that. I mean, and that's, that's something I really appreciated about Merril all those years is we, he was so laid back, we had a great working relationship. And okay, so we put the sunshine on the weather map in the wrong place. Don't sweat it. You know, where you really have to be dialed in is on those busy weather days, and that's where it matters.
And so all these years later, I've hoped to carry on that tradition. But I don't know, I mean, I've had instances of tornadoes back in 2012 that was about five miles from where my mom and dad live and wondering. I hope they're paying attention, but I'm on tv. I don't, I can't drop everything and go call them.
You just hope everyone is aware of what's taking place, what's going, and so you just, you don't really think about will the house be wiped away? What's going on? You just have to stay [00:19:00] dialed in on the radar, the information that's coming in, because it is, it is a lot. I mean, we do have storm chasers that are out there.
I need to think about where they are, what are they reporting? How this whole thing is transpiring, and so there's a lot that I need to be focused on rather than. I wonder what Aunt Sue is doing.
Gus Applequist: getting into a little bit of the science then of, of how you do what you do. Mm-hmm. Um, obviously the, the science of tornado genesis has come a long way in recent years [00:20:00] in terms of tornadoes, like Udall Hesston and Greensburg.
Can you speak to just how rare some of those higher end tornadoes are and what causes a storm like that to. Exist.
Ross Janssen: Yes. I mean, living here in Kansas, we are of course no strangers to tornadoes. We all know that. Uh, there are a lot of movies, uh, that we get teased about Wizard of Oz, right? You know, I mean, can we all agree on that one?
Mm-hmm. Oh, how's Dorothy today? Get that one a lot when I go to conferences. Um, but yes, those high-end violent EF fours and EF fives are extremely rare. And I try to remind second and third graders about that who are terrified of storms. And I tell 'em, first of all, tornadoes are still, you have to have the right ingredients.
Mm-hmm. In order to get a tornado. And then for that tornado to become one that is going to wipe everything out is even more rare. So despite the fact that Kansas has a lot of tornadoes, we don't often have the, that many that grow to be that scale like Greensburg and Andover and Heston. [00:21:00] Um. But we usually know when it's possible because the amount of wind and humidity that's in the air.
And so, yes, I mean, we're, we're usually able to identify an environment where we could see a storm grow to that magnitude. I would say when it does, you know, you're, you wanna make sure that you're really focused on what you're doing. Uh, Greensburg, I was called in that night. Right after Greensburg had been hit because Merrill had lost his voice.
Mm. Oh wow. And so they called me and I came in and worked from 11 o'clock that night until 6:00 AM the next morning. Oh. And then that was a Friday night when Greensburg happened, and Saturday had bad weather and Sunday did too because the tornado sirens went off in Wichita on that following Sunday. So that whole weekend was, you didn't sleep bad.
Weather didn't sleep. We didn't sleep. That's exactly right. And. Uh, then, you know, like Andover, the most recent Andover tornado in 20, let's see, it would be 23. You know that [00:22:00] storm looked like a shower as it went over Wichita, and then right as it got over and over, we had a storm chaser that was on the south edge of town and we saw his live picture pop up in the studio and he said, we got a tornado.
So we were already on TV broadcasting his live picture before the warning came out. Fortunately, that thing didn't grow to be a half mile wide, but it still was an EF three. Yeah, so those big, big tornado days that we have usually involve a tremendous amount of wind. Lot of humidity and we're able to identify those kinds of environments usually days out.
But then on occasion we'll have a storm that ramps up that maybe you didn't think was gonna be quite that intense. But what most people are amazed is that less than 2% of all the tornadoes that we have in Kansas grow to be Andover, Hesston, Greensburg. So luckily we don't have those all the time.
Gus Applequist: It's wild.
So, so you said 20 years you've been doing this?
Ross Janssen: Uh, I've been doing [00:23:00] broadcast for almost 25. 25 in Wichita for almost 22.
Gus Applequist: Wow.
Ross Janssen: So my first, my very first job was in, uh, Lawrence at the cable station while going to school. So I was working full-time and going to school full-time. And then I was offered to do some filling work in Topeka at WIVW and I did a little bit of that, and then Wichita came calling and I said.
All right. I guess that's, I guess that's where I'm going.
Gus Applequist: It's wild how in that time, uh, like the technical capabilities on the broadcast side. You know, it used to require a, a satellite truck, right? Yeah. And camera. Now you can do it on your cell phone. Yeah. And there's people with, with. Four camera setups in their cars going out.
Mm-hmm. Um, yeah. What is it like to, to have seen that change?
Ross Janssen: It, it's fascinating, I would say because yeah, we get some of the best pictures and video, but I also think. On the negative side of it, uh, now everybody feels qualified to chase a storm because, well, I got a [00:24:00] car and I got a camera and I've got the ability to live stream.
So I'm gonna go storm chase and we're seeing a lot of our highways and roads and interstates congested with storm chasers that come from hundreds of miles around. And now there's talk in the broadcast world and in the chasing world. How do you patrol this? And I, I don't think anybody has an answer and I don't think we can.
It's, it is what it is. Mm-hmm. Uh, sadly, you know, I think, you know, we, we often don't necessarily respect storms like we should. Given the wind and the power that they have, we have people that are getting just too darn close. So watching all of this change over time has been quite fascinating because when I started in Wichita, we had.
Palm pilots for those that are old enough, they can remember that. Oh, and you, they were called storm hawks. And so you would take that out into the field and you would type in your storm report and when you hit send, it would pop up on the radar as a oh. This is what Joe Smith is seeing [00:25:00] out in El Dorado.
He's got a storm. Well, now of course that technology is outdated. Uh, we can still, a lot of people can still submit storm reports. On their phone that that come to us. But it used to be that you could have a storm like in Western Kansas that would produce a tornado and you'd never get a picture of it.
Now almost every storm mm-hmm. Gets documented, whether it be through video or picture, and we see it. So are we having more tornadoes? Probably not. Nowadays when we do have a storm, we get to see it 'cause somebody's got a camera. Every, all of us have a camera in our pocket and take a picture, email, text, submit it through apps, and we get to see what's actually happening.
Gus Applequist: It feels to me like this year has just been insanely wet. Oh my gosh. I, I don't remember every time. Every, yeah. Is it, is it really? Something vastly [00:26:00] different than what the Kansas climate normally produces, or is it just perception?
Ross Janssen: I think it's, it's all about the fact that we've been in drought for so long.
Wow. And now we're actually having rain again. Back
Sydney Collins: to normal,
Ross Janssen: back to normal. You know, I think when all is said and done, we're going to find that this year was a little wetter than average for most of Kansas, but the fact that the entire state is coming out of drought. And we're actually getting rain again.
It's feeling like, okay, this is just a huge surplus of rain, but actually we're just kind of having a normal year. It, it'll probably officially go down as a wetter than average year. But it's kind of nice to see green. I don't ever remember a September being so green. Usually at this time of the year crunch, it stuff's so changing.
Leaves are coming off the trees. Grass is dead already. Yeah. And we're just waiting for that first freeze to say it's over. Yeah. But this year is quite different.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. Well that's, that's useful. I hadn't, I guess, yeah. I don't remember. Is is that because of [00:27:00] La Nino and, and El Nina or, we
Ross Janssen: do track that stuff very carefully because even though those phenomenon which are out in the Pacific, south of Hawaii, thousands of miles separate Kansas from that actual phenomenon, it does have an influence on how the jet stream behaves.
And without getting too far into the weeds, that jet stream, they're the winds at 30,000 feet. So we're talking where aircraft are flying. Hence the word jet, but that, that wind is what drives the big lows and the highs from the west coast to the east coast, and we're kind of caught in the middle of all of it.
And so when La Nino, which is when the water out south of Hawaii is colder than average, El Nino is when it's warmer. And when we fluctuate between those two, we see drastic changes in the seasonal forecast. So what we know now going into winter. It's looking like a very, very weak LA Nina, and that's what we had last winter.
So people that are already asking, Hey, what's the [00:28:00] inside scoop on the winter? To me, the initial assessment is, I think we're gonna have a winter, like last winter average snowfall. I think it's gonna be a cold winter, but last winter, you know, we had some pretty good shots of cold air out of the north. I think this winter is going to be very similar to what we had last year, and that's because we have a weak La Nina.
Now what we don't want, we don't want La Nina going into summer. That's bad for Kansas. That's hot, that's drought. Been there, done that. So, uh, summertime it's better to have El Nino because we tend to be wetter. In the wintertime, if you like snow, uh, I, I certainly enjoy a good snow storm. La Nina can help influence that too.
Sydney Collins: Hmm. Can we back up a little bit for the non weather person in the room? Yes. What is El Nino and La Nino? Okay, so those, you define that a little bit. It's
Ross Janssen: basically phenomenon. Okay. They're not storms, but when we look at the water temperature in the Pacific [00:29:00] south of Hawaii, if it's warmer than normal, it's El Nino.
If it's colder than normal, it's La Nina. And then when it's normal, it's la nada. Neither one, it's neutral, so they're not storms. And unfortunately, sometimes if you're watching like national news or now, I suppose when you're scrolling through social media, you'll see El Nina and La Nina referenced a lot.
They're not storms. Gotcha. It just refers to is the water warmer? Is the water colder? Based on that, we can make seasonal 60 90 day predictions about the weather. Now, we can't say specifically, oh, Christmas Day, it's going to be a snowy one and this temperature, but what we're looking for are trends and patterns.
So like now I can tell you that. You know, just looking at October as a whole, November as a whole, you know, kind of what's going to be happening. So you have a rough idea of what the pattern may look like, but the [00:30:00] actual specifics of the day forecast, you know, we don't really know until we're about 10, 12 days out.
Sydney Collins: that kind of brings me into my next question. Sorry. No, no. This is on your list, but. historically, uh, meteorologists kinda, um. Uh, how do I put this in a great way?
Ross Janssen: We get paid to be wrong. Yes. Yes. I knew it. How,
Sydney Collins: is that accurate, do you think? Or do you, like what's the history behind that?
Or I guess, what are your thoughts?
Ross Janssen: I love this question. So actually it's funny you ask 'cause my colleague and I, we were just talking about this. Of course. Coming off the state fair, we get teased a lot about this. I don't think meteorologists will ever change the public's. Perception of, you know, it must be nice to get paid and get it wrong.
Wrong. But I think the reason that is, is because we are in a very, uh, well, weather affects everyone. So we're all consuming weather. Whether you watch TV or not, you're looking at an app, you're [00:31:00] consuming a forecast to know, oh, I wonder what tomorrow's gonna be like. So given that we're, we're consuming a lot of weather information with the understanding that it's probably gonna be right.
Uh, there are days where we could. Potentially get it wrong, but there are a lot of professions out there that also make mistakes and get it wrong. But we don't think about those. And I tell people like
Gus Applequist: stockbrokers
Ross Janssen: with no disrespect. You know, think about referees. How many times have we watched a game and thought the refs got it wrong?
Yeah. But they can go back and do replay and correct their mistake. We can't do that in weather, but the referee still gets paid. And then I think about. Unfortunately in the medical world, sometimes doctors don't always dial it in, you know, so you go get a second opinion on something that's wrong, just to try to figure it out.
But meteorologists are always going to be in the cross hairs of what's it like to be, to get it wrong and still get paid. And I think that's just because we consume so much [00:32:00] weather information on a regular basis that we know, uh, okay, well they got this one right today. Or they didn't get it right. And then on top of that, there's so many different forecasts out there now, were they?
Mm-hmm. Well, they're saying, they're saying this like, and I'll tell my mom this all the time. No, we're not saying that. I don't know where you got that from. But all I can do is control what we broadcast on a regular basis and all those crazy apps out there that say it's gonna rain tomorrow and it's probably not.
I don't have any control over that, but. I will be measured on whether we're right or wrong based on something I have no control over. So it's really very messy, but I would just say yes, we've gotten forecasts wrong before, uh, we're gonna get some wrong in the future. But nobody beats themself up more than a meteorologist when they miss the forecast.
Not a single person I've ever worked for or [00:33:00] with has ever said, oh, no big deal. You know, we, we take it to heart because that's what we went to school for and we. We wanna be right all the time, but we don't,
Gus Applequist: from a scientific standpoint, obviously the, the systems that you're trying to, uh, interpret in our weather are so complex.
Yeah. Like there's so many variables there at play that it's, it's, I mean, you do a remarkable job given how it's complex. It is. It's,
Ross Janssen: you have to think of the atmosphere like a giant ocean. It's a fluid, you know. Fluids go up and they go down. You know, we think of the little whirlpools that spin around in a fast moving river after a flood.
You know, that's how the environment works. It's a giant fluid and so there are lots of variables that we have to take into consideration and we measure it with satellite. We gauges here on the ground, we send up weather balloons, and so the slightest adjustment in something. Can make the forecast change.
And I think people understand [00:34:00] that. And I think that's why I absolutely love the weather, because it's fun to look out there and say, I think this is what's gonna happen. And then no one's got the answer book. We just have to live it and see what actually happens. Hmm.
Gus Applequist: I, uh, was scrolling through Facebook as one does, and I came across the, um.
The weather forecast that was issued by the National Weather Service on August 28th, 2005 is Katrina was bearing down on
Ross Janssen: Oh, yeah. Uh, new Orleans. New Orleans, yep.
Gus Applequist: And I, I have a bunch of it in my notes and I won't read it all, but there's a few things in there like, uh. Um, all gabled roofs will fail leaving those ho homes severely damaged or destroyed.
Power outages will last for weeks. Water shortages will make humans suffering incredible by modern standards. Um, you know, it, the language that that forecast used is just like shocking to the system.
Ross Janssen: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: Um, and so I have a couple questions kind of based on that. First, what is going through a [00:35:00] meteorologist head when they're forced to say that kind of stuff.
Ross Janssen: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: And s and secondly, sorry, just throwing this in there too, is how much of your job is really about predicting the weather and how much of your job is anticipating the psychological processes of your audience?
Ross Janssen: I think it's definitely shifting, uh, in the last eight to 10 years, consultants and people have come in to tell us.
Impact consumers of your information, want to know impact because what does one inch hail mean for you? Might be something different for me. Well, if I'm sitting at home, my car's in the garage and I'm just looking out the window. Mm. One inch hail maybe isn't that big a deal, but if I'm driving down the road at 60 miles an hour, one inch hail is a big deal.
Mm-hmm. So that has been really a big challenge for us as especially broadcasters. In telling people the impact, because the impact for all of us is gonna be slightly [00:36:00] different. But some of that information that was passed along, uh, social science, I guess, uh, they have studied some of that and that's what they have been told to include in their message because it might register with people better.
You know, this storm's coming in, what's it gonna do to my house? Well, if you're telling me it's going to completely obliterate my home, okay, then I might react differently to then. To just a, there's a hurricane warning. So scientists beyond meteorologists have studied how humans respond to this stuff, and that's why the messaging now is changing.
They're trying to make us, you know, speak more in layman's terms so that you know how to respond. Is this a winter storm where I go and stock up on bread and milk? I mean, let's face it, if I was gonna stock up on something before winter storm, it would be something other than bread and milk. Fair. Totally fair.
So we're now trained and told to talk and speak more directly toward impact [00:37:00] versus just, well, this one's got 65 mile per hour winds, and this has got, uh, some very heavy rainfall because, you know, I, I don't know. With all due respect to people that consume the information. You know, what do I do with that?
Yeah. How should I respond? So even that in our world has changed since Katrina. I mean, that, that storm was just so fascinating. That one in Harvey Re, I remember very well, Harvey was the one that stalled over Houston for days and days. It just kept raining and raining and there again, you know, the, IM the overall messaging.
Probably had to change as Harvey came ashore because it looked like it was not gonna go anywhere. So that's, it is fun to hear some of that stuff and you think, oh my gosh, the world's gonna end based on this language here. The only trouble with that is if you're gonna start using language like that, the storm better live up to that.
Right. Exactly. Or else [00:38:00] people start. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's where we have to be careful with using impact. Versus sticking to the science, because if you're telling people, look, Salina's gonna get wiped away by this tornado, and it doesn't. Mm-hmm. You're in big trouble for that one.
Gus Applequist: Yeah, man.
Ross Janssen: Gotta be careful.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. Yeah. It seems like you, you walk a tight rope a lot of the time.
Ross Janssen: You do. And you have. That's why you have to pick your, pick and choose your words carefully and stick to the information. That's why I don't try to get overhyped or over exaggerating. It's like, look. We've had a tornado reported at X, Y, and Z.
You know, is it daytime? Is it nighttime? Because nighttime, you know, we get a lot of funny reports. Oh, it's a tornado, is it a tornado? Or is it a scary looking cloud? 'cause there's a very big difference. Yeah. So we have to be really careful in that. And I, I'm very, very, uh, careful and mindful [00:39:00] of that before.
You disseminate that to the public 'cause it could be taken in all the wrong ways. Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: Is working in an environment like Kansas that is prone to severe weather and thunderstorms. Um, you know, obviously a forecaster that's trying to talk to people about Katrina, they had, you know, probably hours to, to shape the language that they used in that report.
Right. Whereas you may only have minutes or sometimes even seconds to impart a message to somebody. So, you know, is, is this a bit of a specialty within your field doing the kind of work you do?
Ross Janssen: I think it's something that you learn over time. Because there's no class in college that teaches you about any of this stuff.
In fact, I, I am sad to say that probably 40% of what I use every day, [00:40:00] maybe I got from college, the rest of it was learned on the job. Mm-hmm. All the computer technology that we use on television, none of that was taught in school. There in school. In college, they're teaching you. You know how to understand and interpret the atmosphere.
How do we model the atmosphere? But oh, if you're gonna do broadcast, well you'll learn that at another time. Mm-hmm. So learning that vocabulary that you're gonna use as a broadcaster is something that you learn on the job and you probably learn from veterans of the business who have done it for a very long time.
And I like to tell people that, come an intern or starting out, you have to build your bag of vocabulary because if you're gonna be on TV for hours and hours. Yes, the message might remain the same, but how do you pick different words? How do we say cloudy? Four different ways. Well, overcast, gray sky, you know, maybe gloomy.
Uh, so you've gotta work on that vocabulary because there will be those times where you're on TV for a very long time and you need [00:41:00] to make this interesting, but also convey the same message. So that's, that's ACEC challenge for broadcasters. But that's something that's definitely learned on the job.
Gus Applequist: We have our photographer, uh, Tanner is a storm chaser and, um, and knows a lot about the weather. Mm-hmm. And so, uh, I was talking to him the other day and he was talking about how there's a lot of these online streamers that people watch that are tracking severe weather. And uh, one of the challenges he pointed out that I hadn't really considered is that they're gonna follow the most interesting weather across the country.
Yeah.
Ross Janssen: Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: And so. What kind of strikes me about that is there's a lot of younger people like us that don't have cable. They're not gonna get a news station like age 12. And so, um, I guess, you know, how do you respond to that? How do you make sure that people are aware of what's happening?
Ross Janssen: That is the, I would say that number one challenge that faces, you know, not just a broadcast [00:42:00] meteorologist, but TV stations as a whole right now.
Because first of all, the people that are paid very large chunks of money to measure who's watching what, I don't think that stuff is very accurate anymore. Mm-hmm. So we really don't know who's watching and consuming what. Hmm. I will say a lot of those YouTubers, you know, almost none of them are meteorologists.
So they got this idea that, I'm gonna start this. Uh, broadcast and I'm going to pay these chasers to go out. So now in our line of work, it's all about having chasers and having video of the storm. If you go on in continuous coverage of a storm, yes, I need the radar, but I need to see live video because the live video wins.
We live in a video heavy world now that if you don't have that, you're not gonna win the day. So, for example, we have a group of nine storm chasers that work for us. Wow. And they all have full-time jobs, but they have the ability to break out of that [00:43:00] job and go chase a storm. And then our agreement is if we bring up their live stream on television, they get paid even if we're on it for six seconds.
So, you know, they're, they're compensated for the work that they do for us, but also their video lives in a platform that. The YouTube streamers can get ahold of. So we're in a really interesting scenario that's playing out right now. We know that people are still consuming a lot of our information.
Nobody really sits down to watch a newscast anymore. Everybody's busy. Nobody wants to do that. We have all of these options out there. There's so many different options for if I sit down to watch tv, what am I gonna choose? But where we can succeed as local broadcasters. The YouTubers don't know much about how to, is it, you know, Saline County?
Yeah. Is it Salina? They're gonna get the town names wrong. Yeah. They don't know the local areas like we do. Mm-hmm. And that's where we [00:44:00] have a leg, you know, we have the advantage to them. And you know, fortunately a lot of people talk about cutting cable and I, you know, I don't have this or don't have that, but.
Truth be told, uh, on a smartphone, everybody can watch our live news right through the app. Mm-hmm. You know, people can watch, there's so many various platforms, but if you're watching our news or watching our severe weather coverage through the app, we don't always have a good way of measuring who's consuming our product.
Yeah. Through that method. So, you know, who's the number one station in Wichita? Well, we still have a bit of an advantage there. But how many people are actually watching the six o'clock news tonight? I don't think we have any idea. Mm-hmm. It's just too hard to measure that. 'cause some people are watching on a desktop.
Some people might be watching through an app, some people might come back 12 hours later and click on a clip. You just don't know. So broadcast goes lots of different places.
Sydney Collins: I watched the Super Bowl on TikTok because [00:45:00] Hulu would not do its thing. It kept crashing, or I think it was Hulu something, whatever.
I was watching it on, just crash. And so I found someone who was broadcasting it live on TikTok and watched Super Bowl on TikTok.
Ross Janssen: Well, and I had this 82-year-old lady stop me at the, at the. YMCA one day and she said, is it my imagination? Or you're just not working as much anymore? And I said, no. I said, it's been a full week.
Like I've worked this as many hours. And she said, okay. She said, well, I recently went into the streaming world and all, she's getting her clips. Like I don't, I don't know. Like I can help you if I was in your living room. Yeah. To try to get to the right stuff. But she's recently in the streaming world, so she's just picking up little bits and pieces and.
I, I don't know. It, it's, I feel for that, that's like, we're in a, we're still in the infancy, I think, of all of this streaming and eventually it'll all kind of get worked out. But, you know, it's, it's very interesting to think about the future of [00:46:00] our industry because. Weather aside, meteorology taken out of it in the broadcast world.
We've got some stations now that are owned by our corporate office and they're breaking away from affiliations. Mm-hmm. Like the group down in Atlanta is no longer ACEC VS affiliate. Hmm. So if that happens to us in Wichita, we're gonna have to fill all those hours of
Gus Applequist: content Yeah, yeah.
Ross Janssen: Of content. So. The price is right and who wants to be, you know, all these game shows that are on our network now, all those hours of TV are gonna have to be filled by us because we're not affiliated with CBS anymore.
That could be coming, I don't know when, but TV is going to continue to evolve and change and it's gonna get interesting. Mm-hmm. Man.
Gus Applequist: thank you so much for all the time today and for discussing what you do and, and bringing May here to join us. It's been a joy.
Ross Janssen: She's checked out the place already and decided that
Gus Applequist: some comfy spots.
Ross Janssen: Yeah, I would just say, [00:47:00] you know, it's, it's a passion of mine even all these years later and, um. Meteorology is not an easy science. And I would also say to any, any young people that are listening, yeah, work hard in school because I was not a good student, but there was only one thing I wanted to do and that was weather.
So. Give it all you got and you can do whatever you want.
Gus Applequist: So, so yeah, if there are kids out there that are like, this is me. Yeah. I want this job that you've got.
Ross Janssen: Yeah. What,
Gus Applequist: what are some concrete things they can do?
Ross Janssen: Well, I mean, we probably all heard it in school about, oh, set goals. Set goals. But I, I can honestly say I am a living example of that because I knew what I wanted to do and in high school I was not very good at math.
And when I took the ACT test. You guys remember your scores?
Sydney Collins: Yeah, I took it twice and I got a worse score the second time. So me too.
Ross Janssen: And I took it a third time and got a 19. So when I went to enroll at at ku, I feel much
Sydney Collins: better about myself. See you go because I got [00:48:00] 19.
Ross Janssen: Well the advisor at KU told me no math is gonna be the death that in in meteorology.
Yeah. And I was heartbroken. Hmm. I mean. I, my parents were like, well, you don't know. And I, and I knew nobody's gonna tell me that I, this is all I want to do. So that's where having a goal was my roadmap to where I'm at today, because I, and there were a lot of moments where I thought, I don't know if I'm gonna make it 'cause math is so hard.
But if you set a goal and think, I can get there. I don't care what's, what hurdles are along the way, I'll get there. You can do it. So that would be, I try to remind young people of that, that don't look at the curriculum and say, I can't do all that math. You can do it. Mm-hmm. You just are gonna have to give it all you got.
Yeah. It's hard. 19 club 19. Yes. The second time
Sydney Collins: was a 16.
Ross Janssen: No, that's fine. No judgment here i's telling you that's fine. You following's fine [00:49:00]
Gus Applequist: that these tests aren't good judges of everything.
Ross Janssen: Correct? Yeah. I was not a good test taker and that was proof of that.
Sydney Collins: I just wasn't good at school, so I probably just actually did care, to be quite honest.
I took it. 'cause my mom's like, you have to take the ACEC T. I'm like,
Ross Janssen: yeah, we were all told that fine. And I just don't think it's a good measure of how hard a student is willing to work. Mm-hmm. But yeah. Yeah, there you go. Anyway, Ross Jansen is not good at math now. You know, it's gonna
Sydney Collins: be the next t-shirt that we make.
Yeah. I love it. I love it. It's gonna be part of our, our merch line. It's just Ross Jan
Gus Applequist: Math, but he's good at weather not so that's, yeah.
Sydney Collins: And
Gus Applequist: on
Sydney Collins: the back it's, but is good at weather.
Ross Janssen: Yeah. I am passionate about the weather and even, you know, on my days off, I'm always looking. In fact, I was looking at weather maps just 10 minutes ago, so.
Cool. I, I love the weather.
Gus Applequist: Well, thank you so much, Ross.
Sydney Collins: Yeah, thank you.
Ross Janssen: Thanks for having me. It was great.
[00:50:00]
Sydney Collins: Thank you for joining us, uh, for that interview. Um, we have kind of switched seats a little bit, so we did put Tanner in the hot seat 'cause Tanner is, um, kind of our weather guru as we mentioned, uh, in the beginning of this podcast. So, um, we put Gus back in the booth and we brought Tanner out. Um, so Tanner did, um.
I guess you, you had some very specific questions for Ross. I, Gus was, uh, able to, um, uh, talk about what were kind of your takes from that conversation.
Tanner: I think it's great, um, just to hear him, his Kansas story, um, and how he was [00:51:00] immediately interested in weather Yeah. And how he's followed that passion. Um, even changing schools from K State to ku.
So that was really cool. And just, just hearing his talk on, on Kansas. Um, in general and, and our weather patterns and things like that. So I definitely, um, you know, the previous episode with Frank, you were, you were nerding out. Oh, yeah. Uh, this was, I, I nerded out on this episode, so it was cool. Um, Ross is always somebody that I've, I've watched, um, uh, you know, the, the nightly news.
He said Nobody watches the nightly news. You're an 80-year-old man. Yeah, I go home and watch it. So, um, somebody that, you know, I tune into and, and listen. So it was cool to have him on.
Sydney Collins: I really appreciated that he brought May. Yep. Um, I come to find out that everyone in the studio knew except me, so,
Tanner: and we've got some great photos.
Yeah. So,
Sydney Collins: um, I am a huge dog person, especially Corgis. Um, uh, okay. So while we were, um, chatting about in [00:52:00] the intro, uh, Gus mentioned Microburst. Mm-hmm. And you managed to uncover this photo
Ross Janssen: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: Of Gus that I'm dying over. So for those who are listening, we'll put the photo up, uh, uh, here on the bottom of your screen for people watching.
But if you're listening, it is a photo of Gus El Presidente, sitting I somewhere on the Kansas Wesleyan campus at a table. With it looks like, you know, when you print, it's like a club
Tanner: fair. It's
Sydney Collins: like a club fair. And you know, when you print really big font on like 11 by eight and a half, um, paper, and you have to tape them together to make a really big sign that that's the sign that just says microburst.
And then what looks like, I'm fully aware that it is a weather balloon, but if you were glancing at this and you did not know what it was. It looks like your mom's prom dress that has just been shoved in the corner for 20 years [00:53:00] just now laid out on a table. It's a parachute, isn't it? It's a parachute.
Yeah, it's a parachute. Um, so really funny. Hilarious. Was
Tanner: not one of the more well-funded clubs. We very niche club. Yeah. It was, uh, Andrew started it and then when he graduated, I think I stepped in for a year and then. Gus also stepped in for a bit and, um, it was a very small club, but, um, it was cool to see Wesleyan, uh, they don't have a meteorology degree by any means.
Yeah. Um, but it was cool to see them at least, uh, support it, give a room, support it. And um, you know, they had a weather station on campus. I believe they're still one up there that, that Gable had set up. And, um, it was kind of cool to see that. So
Sydney Collins: I think I've been up there. It's. Like in the top floor, the science building, isn't it?
Tanner: Um, that's where the amateur radio station, oh, amateur radio station was, was, um, this was down in the, in the basement. Um, and that was actually the problem was you were going through five floors of concrete to do anything. Yeah. Um, so, um, yeah, I think they figured that out by, [00:54:00] by now. Mm-hmm. Over there. But yeah.
Kind of where, uh, where I started getting involved with weather and things like that. So,
Sydney Collins: but you are a storm chaser? Yes, to a degree. Yeah. Storm, storm spotter enthusiast,
Tanner: uh, storm enthusiast. I, I, I consider a chaser. Somebody that goes to multiple states. Yeah. I don't have the time or, um, capacity, the energy to, uh, go travel to Texas and maybe, or the windshields.
Uh, hey, the windshield's fixed. Um, but, uh, I don't have the, the energy to drive down to Texas to. To have a blue sky bust down there anymore, so.
Sydney Collins: Um, but you gotta go actually actual, like, storm chasing in Texas or Oklahoma.
Tanner: Yeah. So in college, had a group of friends that, uh, we, we'd chase and, uh, went Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska, I think maybe one in Missouri.
Mm-hmm. Um, so yeah, I've had a chance to travel a little bit and do that. Um, uh, not a meteorologist by any means. Um, uh, I, you know, Ross spends. Tons of time making sure he understands [00:55:00] what the day setup is like. Mm-hmm. Um, storm chasers do for the most part. Um, but, you know, theirs is more how do I not get hit by this storm?
Yeah. And how do I stay safer on the storm? And, and that, that relationship between meteorologists and rostered on this a little bit relationship between meteorologists and storm chasers or storm spotters and local media to pass that information back on. He talked that he was, you know, he's in those four walls and he can't see outside those four walls.
So the radar might be showing one thing like that Andover tornado didn't look that impressive. Mm-hmm. But once you get that ground truth, it, it probably changes a lot for how he reacts and, um, puts a new warning. He mm-hmm. You know, puts a new warning and stuff like that out. So
Sydney Collins: I remember, so my dad was, uh.
Chaser spotter growing up. cause he was a Hammer radio operator. 'cause that's just normally what Hammer radio opera operators did. Um, KB zero, YGL, um, was his call sign. And I [00:56:00] remember, and I don't know why he took me, I don't remember if my mom even knew, but we were in this tiny fricking truck and. We were out in the middle of nowhere, just chilling, and there's like a lightning that struck like maybe 20 feet away from the truck, and I was underneath the fricking floorboards at that point.
Like I was done. Yeah, I was probably, I don't know, maybe nine.
Tanner: Yeah. Lightning scares me the most. Uh, I just, I had one, uh, this year coming back into Salina that. I just, as soon as you can feel it before it hits and then it hits just instantly and it was, you know, everything kind of released off the ground for a little bit.
Just kind of hair stands up and it just, uh, um, so yeah.
Sydney Collins: Yeah. What, um, have you ever had any close calls?
Tanner: Um, if my mom's watching, no. Uh uh Yeah, uh, I've had, I've had some learning moments. We'll put it that way. Um, [00:57:00] uh, you, you definitely have, and I think Ross spoke to this as well, you definitely have to have a, a, a respect for that storm.
And there's a lot of people that, that go out and just. You know, they've seen the movie Twister and mm-hmm. Um, you know, they've seen other chasers that are doing it online and, um, not saying they can't do it, but, you know, I I, I often say I'm less worried about the storm getting hurt by the storm. I'm more worried about getting hurt, uh, hurt by someone that's filming out the window trying to get their stream restarted and driving with their knees.
Yeah. Um, all while, you know, there's wind and hail and rain and, um, it, it is becoming. It is becoming tough and, uh, you know, as a storm chaser, I can't really say good or bad 'cause I'm out there doing it too, so. Mm-hmm. Um, but just staying safe, staying smart. Don't stand in the middle of the roadway, things like that.
Um, but it, it is, he was right. It is becoming a problem.
Sydney Collins: Well, if any of our listeners or watchers, if you have any cool storm photos, I kind of [00:58:00] wanna see 'em, um, drop 'em in the comments, send them to us. Um, we can have like a little storm chasing, I don't know, montage maybe. Yeah, that'd be cool. But I'm just curious to see, especially like different corners of the state of like what storms look like in your area.
'cause obviously storms look very different, um, here 'cause. Salina, we're, we're not, we're not like flat, flat, but, it probably looks a lot different when you get up into the Flint Hills and Western
Tanner: Kansas. You know, they, uh, they get those, uh, big motherships. Yeah. In Eastern Colorado, you know, the, the, the dew points and everything are a little different and they get those huge motherships that are really cool and mm-hmm.
Typically don't see those. Um. Further east. Yeah, not always. But yeah,
Sydney Collins: so send us your weather photos. Um, if you have any questions, comments, um, feel free to send 'em our way. Um, but yeah, send an
Tanner: episode to a friend. It helps us greatly. Yes, please
Sydney Collins: share with at least one other person. Um, and yeah, likes subscribe.
Uh, check us out at [00:59:00] www.askakansan.com. Make sure to sign up for the newsletter, um, 'cause Tanner goes out and shoots a lot of really cool things. Um, and then we put that on the website and we can send that out directly to your inbox as soon as those get released. So, um, other than that, we'll see you next time.
All.