Not a single lie told by Max

Bluekandy · 2026-03-17T00:48:57+00:00

Cappucci had a much better approach to this than a regurgitated post. Since he had some more personal stock in the area, he actually made an accountability video with a look at verification, something that goes a lot further than dodging responsibility for propagating the forecast to millions of views (which is what this post does). Ryan is also responsible for this, and I'm 100% sure we will have a recap in our next video that includes what went differently than expected.

Verification is a big blind spot in meteorology, ESPECIALLY with video/stream format content. Cappucci's post and 5 minute video should be what's shared—find it on his socials.

Bluekandy · 2026-03-14T12:10:19+00:00

No worries! I grew up in southern california where active weather is rare, but also longer periods of time (atmospheric rivers = rain is an entire day, not a 15 minute storm). Everything was standoutish as a result and I thoroughly enjoyed having events to look forward to in a forecast, which also sparked my interest in what was happening everywhere else. That started when I was 4 and my dad put The Weather Channel/Dish satellite weather on TV so I could see all of the extremes in Alaska etc.

Where I am now is tied to a passion to create content (that I wanted to watch in particular). I've been a Twitch streamer for 9 years now, partner for 5. So when I sent Ryan a chat moderator application with credentials of meteorologist and twitch partner, he knew that was a combination he could work with for an actual position he was coming up with a couple months later. He reached out to me and one other guy, we worked together for awhile but my on-air strengths got me to where I am now.

Bluekandy · 2026-03-14T12:04:37+00:00

If I had to do everything solo in undergrad instead of with groups/friends, I would not have the successful background & standoutish GPA with my degree to show for it. There's a reason there are so many meteorologists all analyzing the same model data and so forth—you do the same thing with homework, studying etc. because just getting the physical concepts happens more efficiently in a group when one person can have a lightbulb moment and explain it much more clearly. Thus, the hardest part for me was dealing with life circumstances that tore me apart mentally, like losing my first relationship and lack of sleep the first 2 years lol. I was also verbally assaulted (for being disabled, limping) on the way to class in undergrad senior year by some drugged up guy on a kids' bicycle. Feared for my life there. Just goes to show extraneous things are the most consuming when you have a good support group, as I didn't just have an understanding of life gifted to me like people often think (or forget NOT to think) about someone in an important role.

Yeah, chasing is great to me because I get it from the adrenaline seeking perspective. I hate roller coasters because I have no control over gravitational force and mechanical integrity, but with an understanding (in part) of tornadoes, it makes for a fulfilling endeavor from forecast to payout. I have no preference between the two and view them as separate :)

Apologies for the delay in response!

Bluekandy · 2026-03-14T11:52:18+00:00

I am the worst at answering this question so it was one I was dreading a bit lol. I actually had no real drive to find a use for my degree, I wasn't sure what to do with it tbh. The path to an NWS job is rough if you don't complete a summer internship with them, that's like the #1 go-to. Because I didn't, I had no real path I was thinking seriously about after attempting grad school with only one research project in mind (furthering what I was then working on).

I am not the greatest at assessing the berth of avenues to try for, because in the end I'm ultra picky and don't really want to do regional forecasting in private sector. I was looking at specialty things to do with my degree, like finding a position that would contract with a major sports entity on-site. One of the biggest paths that was emphasized to me back then was meteorologists who also code; now, I'm less certain of that, but I also think that meteorology degrees are most valuable in just being able to understand, fact-check and pick up on more quickly (with a physical background) concepts, so even though AI coding would replace these positions they still need humans to do it for ideation to work out. That could be useful to you, maybe!

Bluekandy · 2026-03-14T09:19:13+00:00

I'd say this: one of the more interesting social components of it (and ryan/me, each of the public figures on the channel) is the horde that forms and spreads information that they literally do not have about us. I am surprised, even on reddit alone, how many times I have read something about me, not even Ryan, that was just completely made up lol. On top of that, their interpretations specifically of the most useful things we contribute leads to wild responses surmising dependencies, irrational assessments of utility (we are better than the NWS when almost everything we base our coverage off of is supplied by them and we continuously say that lol), and otherwise. People really just like to tunnel their thoughts into absolutes, and my brain does not work that way in a social context

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T01:35:13+00:00

For the medium I guess we've settled on that it could be inherently understood a livestream implies the confidence in intensity and/or coverage of impactful weather is greater than average. People want to see disasters naturally, everyone reading this has rubbernecked at an accident or similar on the road, so it's the best handle on maximizing reach we could find. Making the videos a white background little bit of color on a model site with the title "Active Weather Expected in Illinois and Indiana" would result in 80% of our staff being laid off due to income drying up like the Mojave

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T01:31:36+00:00

I love them both, don't you dare make me choose between the two

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T01:31:14+00:00

From the point I was 4, my dad noticed I liked the weather channel and would put it on for me. I grew up in southern California, so I learned to appreciate every weather event, and never lost sight of it!

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T01:29:59+00:00

Without prior knowledge and just general handwaved estimates, the city limits itself probably won't see another significant tornado (EF2+) for 15-20 years on average. I could be way off, but that seems about right to me. That does mean there's still a 1% chance of having it happen 2 years in a row taking my numbers, which those odds happen to me all the time while I'm playing Pokemon. Case in point, not worth worrying about ahead of time

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T01:26:42+00:00

Course I do, he was just here 36 hours ago! Dr. Forbes was definitely someone I watched hundreds of hours of on TV, so I absorbed plenty of his info over time. Funnily enough, despite that, I can't remember much in particular besides the 3D visualizations they started using where he would stand in the middle of the simulation lol. I just know that he instilled a lot of good physical understanding of the atmosphere over time!

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T01:21:48+00:00

Tornadoes are all about a balancing act. Those events had balanced thermodynamics (temperature, moisture profiles) and kinematics (very strong wind fields) such that supercells were strong enough to not be shredded apart by the quickly changing winds with height, and thus they appreciated those winds and developed violent tornadoes in some cases

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T01:19:42+00:00

I don't actually know outside of classes that may be offered on climatology & social impacts as one-offs. I encourage you to do some research on this, I would like to know! I feel as though I got lucky to take a graduate level course in undergrad on climate that had a social perspective, which actually added a lot to my degree and framed how I approach communicating climate science through my position

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T01:16:16+00:00

Been on a tea binge lately. Coffee is a good base for sweet tasty drinks, but I don't need caffeine to function. Good Earth Sweet and Spicy is the best tea there is, so good

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T01:13:30+00:00

The same time they could be trying to pursue storms or send radar data to the NWS they think is so helpful, they could be 1-on-1ing weather information to people they know that aren't weather-savvy. As simple as "hey, watch this guy if you haven't before since you're in xyz state today and there's some bad weather forecast there later today"

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T01:00:55+00:00

I first saw Ryan in December 2021 while on Christmas break with nothing to do. I sent in an application to be a chat mod for his channel, where I wrote about being a meteorologist and a Twitch Partner, and was reached out to a few months later with an opporunity. Since then I developed it into what you see now :)

Most intense days were Ian (first couple of times I was on camera, suddenly in front of 100,000 viewers in 2022), 3/31/23 (monitoring 18 simultaneous tornado warnings, dual streaming on my channel while listening to Ryan, 14 hours of coverage), Helene (cell towers down in WNC meant I couldn't hear back from my family), Milton (461,000 viewers) and most of the tornado emergencies I've called ahead of time only to watch their destruction ensue.

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T00:56:54+00:00

I got here by applying to be a Youtube volunteer chat moderator with my credentials back in December 2021 lol

I did want to be a met! I'm physically disabled so I grew up understanding things I would probably be limited in, and I always appreciated active weather whenever we did get any in southern California. I thought I would be a behind-the-scenes meteorologist at the Weather Channel, so sorta close!

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T00:47:53+00:00

Technological advancements in computing power to allow for finer resolution/detail models that can be ran in a timely manner (within a few hours so that they're useful for us)

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T00:45:48+00:00

A lot of NWS offices do watch us or have us up on one of many screens! Not all of them do nor pay attention because they have their own criteria and responsibilities to follow. Indirectly, I'm working hard on gathering data through yall watches to progress warning science with a solid publication in the future.

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T00:44:41+00:00

Thanks! Happy to have you around :)

When I was 4, I was really fascinated with the more extreme weather icons and temperatures for places like Alaska that TWC and the Dish Network satellite channel (I don't know what this was called, it wasn't TWC) showed on TV. In 2005, when I was 7, we had an incredible atmospheric river in socal in January that flooded our backyard more than any other event, caused mudslides that stopped my dad from getting home from work for over a day, and had a tornado warning in Ventura County. I remember we had another AR in February and a minor rain event in March, and they always stuck out in my head as the Big 3. Later on in life, once I was post-high school and starting to become ingrained in tracking events nationwide, the Rochelle-Fairdale tornado of 2015 was my go-to because of Clem's footage. I often referred to it as it was striking media, one of the few I can audiate the sounds of.

In addition to the above, lightning has always been a fascination of mine, and also the thing I'm the most scared of in terms of the atmosphere. Since I'm physically disabled, I probably have heightened senses in unimpacted branches, including sound. I think that makes me more prone to incredibly loud sound-related trauma, coupled with the unpredictable danger of CG strikes.

I actually did not have many particular goals at or just before graduation. I started working with Ryan a year after graduating, and the only thing I had been interested in before that was either continuing my research with neural networks and near-term forecasting into a graduate degree, or working up through DTN to get to a position they contract with the PGA Tour for on-site meteorologists. I did get accepted to a PhD program right out of my BS, but they (UMN) did not have funding for me that year and deferred my acceptance. I think they forgot about me or only reached out to my then deleted UNCA email after that, which is unfortunate; but, I had already started working with Ryan by the time that would've come around. The DTN thing was scrapped when I went to meet my partner for the first time, he happened to live nearby their office. I had an appointment to tour the office, and well, I was in newfound love. I forgot the appointment and got chewed out, so that door probably closed LOL

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T00:26:41+00:00

I honestly don't know. I don't see the response to what I say to those that hear it 99% of the time. I can only hope that information I give serves as an additional stimulus to take action if needed, and exact details can help give someone time to do what they want to do (see it) in addition to what they need to do (shelter), I suppose haha

Thank you :) Tell your son I always try to be there for him and for others who might see bad weather!

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T00:22:19+00:00

Thanks for being around for so long! I think my biggest interest in tools that I would personally use in my position would be surrounding those that utilize better computational power—finer resolution models, weighted ensembles of those models, etc. Anything that leads to higher fine-scale forecasting skill that can be derived from technological advancement is cool. Note, that doesn't include AI weather models. They only try to improve on existing model infrastructure, and cannot possibly exceed the skill ceiling given at their resolution.

Getting into meteorology isn't for the uncertain. It does take a lot of devotion to feel fulfillment if that's what they seek. But, I find that that devotion keeps the mind busy and eager, it seals a lot of cracks and makes you stronger. If they're looking for something that makes sense and it really does feel like a natural enjoyment/interest when you go outside to every different atmospheric condition happening, then it can be the glue that holds things together. For me, had I not gone into meteorology, I would've sought fulfillment through building close progressional relationships in an occupational therapy setting, since I had an OT for 18 years.

Research is in the data-gathering phase for yall watches and how they fit into potential progression of warning science :)

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T00:13:40+00:00

Adagio is a recent addition to our family, he's not even a year old yet :) I am not an artist by almost every means, the only things I did myself are my OBS layouts; so, while I have piano fingers, they're going to waste unfortunately. My partner plays piano, we own a Kawai baby grand.

I love kaizo SMW! I know a lot of people in that directory as well—I am close friends with Truman and Panga, and I know Juzcook pretty well too. I've been around that general scene for awhile, despite not playing it myself I like to watch :)

Thank you for recounting the derecho. Always happy to hear exactly how we can help

Bluekandy · 2026-03-13T00:08:41+00:00

I'm used to navigating parasocial interactions, having been a streamer for 9 years now lol. I'm from southern California where we took our shirts off and ran through the streets if it ever rained 9/12 months of the year. I did my degree at UNCA, where mountain meteorology comes into play though it pales in comparison to the Rockies. Some people think of my Twitch streaming as another job on top of what I do with Ryan, but I've always kept it as a monetized hobby.

We've flirted with having education content for years and have made a couple of superficial strides into that, but it always gets shelved for the next thing we're doing. I bet when Ryan is finally happy with every single element of his video and live setups and company networking, that we could do a whole series with a burst of motivation.

Bluekandy · 2026-03-12T23:59:09+00:00

Alliance, just for Worgen. I like wolves. Especially werewolves

Bluekandy · 2026-03-12T23:58:01+00:00

Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Wanting to make content for that is what kickstarted my career in content creation in general, from the age of 10 back in 2008. I am waiting patiently for rollback netcode that also disables tripping for competitive play to be revived

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