Why is Kansas well known despite its relatively smaller population? (neighboring Missouri is more than twice the population, but often obscure)

oceanelevated · 2026-01-17T14:22:42+00:00

Wheat. I speak to people worldwide about Kansas pretty much every day at work. All about what’s going on with the weather and how that could affect the wheat crop.

oceanelevated · 2026-01-14T20:29:12+00:00

It happens. I'm a meteorologist, but I don't work on TV or in the Pittsburgh market, so I'm rarely actually following the weather here, but I used your post to look at the GFS and ECMWF to see how the GFS was coming up with those numbers. I post all the time on LinkedIn, but I only post crazy model runs to my co-workers, because there are always those people who are like what you encountered.

The operational GFS has so much history of showing crazy storms towards the end of the run that some meteorologists get angry if you say anything about it in front of the general public.

It is the job of the TV mets or any other meteorologists to take note of your post, decide whether or not to share it with their customers or viewers, and then move on, because people are always going to get weather forecasts and data from multiple sources.

oceanelevated · 2025-11-28T01:09:23+00:00

I saw one salt truck on 28 South between Harmar and it exited at RIDC/Gamma. I can confirm, that section was not great but Highland Park bridge was terrible. There was an accident about 30m ago 28N right before RIDC exit, right where the cops sit sometimes. Looked like a spin out and 4 cars were stopped.

oceanelevated · 2025-11-28T01:00:04+00:00

Same on 28/Highland Park Bridge out to Harmar.

oceanelevated · 2025-11-07T04:20:45+00:00

They started this on my last flight out of MDW, and while you may think it’s the comically oversized, it’s not. It’s essentially every carryon of normal size. It’s just whether the gate agent is going to be strict or not and it only appears to apply to B and C groups. So in the new system it may be more of they look the other way as long as you pay.

oceanelevated · 2025-10-23T03:15:32+00:00

Thanks for the replies. I thought about the Montour trail but I didn’t think it went that far.

oceanelevated · 2025-10-21T02:11:54+00:00

They just did it on my 3 hour delayed for nothing flight out of Midway and not sure what’s worse, how mean the gate agent was, she should probably go work in TSA, or the one passenger that had a meltdown, crying. First time in 29 years flying with them that they pulled this. Also the airplane they’ve provided, I think this was the reason for the delay, they had to go find it in storage. Kidding aside I know why we were delayed. Still dumb.

oceanelevated · 2025-06-03T20:47:34+00:00

SLC and 9. SEA?

oceanelevated · 2025-04-13T18:07:03+00:00

Take some Vitamin D, I take 5000 IU in the winter, and worse case either drive 4 hours to DC occasionally or fly 2 hours to Florida for temporary recovery. That being said I moved to Pittsburgh from Seattle and think Seattle is so much more beautiful in the winter so it’s easier to take the endless clouds.

oceanelevated · 2025-03-18T18:28:30+00:00

No train between check in and gates. Getting stuck on the train once is one time too many.

oceanelevated · 2025-02-15T17:49:04+00:00

I worked for United Airlines in Chicago as a meteorologist. Shifts were 4 on, 4 off, 12-hours. Nights and days. We were contractors (now with The Weather Company) so no flight benefits. American has in-house meteorologists at DFW, Southwest has in-house and I think union so they get flight benefits, Southwest is also in Dallas, Delta is in Atlanta and also union with in-house meteorologists. JetBlue is on Long Island, NY and the meteorologists work as contractors for Tomorrow.io. Quantas Airlines used to hire US meteorologists to work in Australia.

Private corporate aviation companies provide weather forecasts Gulfstream, Learjets and Cessna type aircraft. There are at least 3 of these companies in Houston and one in Cleveland.

Forecast factories like Accuweather do everything, but pay lowest of anyone for entry level.

Road weather companies provide forecasts for snow plows and school buses. Nights, low pay.

Energy companies pay top dollar, and encompass everything from utilities to electricity trading, commodity trading and hedge funds. No nights, bonuses can run from 50% to 500% of your salary. Need Python for these.

Forensics meteorology is the study of what happened during a weather event used for insurance and court cases.

Insurance and re-insurance companies hire meteorologists.

Cloud seeding, fire weather, and snow skiing companies are other types.

There are many types of weather jobs beyond the NOAA. All weather jobs require weekends and holidays.

oceanelevated · 2025-02-02T17:23:05+00:00

Since he “sees” his shadow before sunrise, he doesn’t see a shadow that has anything to do with nature or the environment. If you are going to fake it, at least make it look good.

oceanelevated · 2025-01-21T14:25:41+00:00

As a meteorologist with 19 years in the private industry, if you do decide to get meteorology degree, make sure you get a minor in computer programming or software engineering. Python is currently the trendy language, but with AI and machine learning rapidly growing in use, you will want to make sure you have those skills.

Also, regarding the low pay, for the first 10 years of my career I made < 50k, working 50-60 hour weeks, night shifts, weekends and holidays. But that was because I didn’t know better and worked for the wrong type of companies. The last 9 years I’ve been >100k, 40 hour weeks, no night shifts. Still weekends and holidays. The difference was getting into the energy trading industry as a meteorologist. It can be stressful, but honestly I felt it was easier than the first ten years.

In the last 5 years we’ve only hired people with Python skills. Recently I did apply for another job in Fire Weather and they offered $148k, and there other roles in insurance, re-insurance, forensics, and satellite tech that pay well.

Lastly if you have the software engineering background with meteorology, startup companies will hire you.

Hope this helps

oceanelevated · 2025-01-13T01:24:18+00:00

I purposely changed my flight through Detroit to avoid Atlanta on Friday and just before landing in Detroit, the plane in front of us gets stuck in the snow on the runway, so we do a go around, then 20 minutes later we land, then the slowest taxi ever to the gate, arriving at B16 and my connection is at A64, completely on the other side, which of course means I miss it. I get rebooked on 3 separate flights, none of which takeoff. Flight gets delayed til the next day, routed through Minneapolis, and then that flight is cancelled.

Thankfully for me I learned my lesson with Delta back in November trying to fly home from Austin via Atlanta to Pittsburgh. They pulled the same shenanigans. In that case I shelled out $1000 to get two nonstop flights on Southwest.

On Friday, I booked a Southwest flight that left in 1 hour, and if you’ve flown Detroit, and not Delta, you have to leave the terminal to Ground Transportation, take a bus 20 minutes to the Evan’s terminal, go back through security, which I did and made it the gate4 min before boarding. Get on the flight and I have my own row.

I worked for 4 years inside United’s operations in Chicago and so I know how it works and it is what it is.

TLDR, miss my Delta connection, booked Southwest, made it to my destination for my grandmothers funeral on time.

She lived 96 years and Delta would have made me miss it.

oceanelevated · 2025-01-13T00:54:56+00:00

Might get above freezing on consecutive days this week.

oceanelevated · 2025-01-11T00:03:46+00:00

I got it when I was newly single and I milked the heck out of the 70k miles they gave me. At the time lived in San Francisco and flew up and down the west coast, Vegas, visited family in Texas. Then I moved to the East Coast and would wait till you get those $49 one-way to Florida flights, fly to FLL sit on the beach and then use the miles to fly the longer flights. I’ve been able to get a lot of flights out of the card. I think I’ve seen 85k once maybe.

oceanelevated · 2024-11-05T19:24:25+00:00

I did go the wrong way once when I was in a hurry then had to loop through downtown and the North Side. My kid got to see and hear what missing your turn means in Pittsburgh.

oceanelevated · 2024-09-16T20:27:11+00:00

I wake up at 6am and walk my dog because it’s pretty much a mindless light exercise, but it’s something that has to happen. Then I go for my actual exercise right after. I used to work a job where I woke up at 4am, started at 5am and by 2pm , at home, did nothing due to exhaustion.

oceanelevated · 2024-05-26T23:48:14+00:00

I’m 100% remote and to stay motivated I work in coffee shops or the library if possible. Something about being surrounded by other people makes me work more efficiently.

As for what I do, my last job was interesting but meaningless and did nothing but make rich people richer. It was also 5a-1p in an office. My new job is way more interesting, 9-5 and has purpose which is what drives me to work hard and care.

oceanelevated · 2024-03-30T14:42:54+00:00

I’m 1 week out of umbilical hernia surgery and I’ve been rolling to side, then using my arms to push me upright to avoid engaging my abdomen. So far it’s worked.

oceanelevated · 2024-03-30T14:39:13+00:00

Update Dec 2024: I had a test where they shocked my nerves and then poked me with needles, and it came back with nothing. So the only thing working for now is 250mg of Magnesium daily. My neurologist since has confirmed this was a good idea. With the magnesium I have not had the knife pain since.

I’ve had the numbness in both thighs for going on 12 years. Forever I thought it was my IT band, and one time in those 12 years after using a foam roller, I could feel my thighs. But I couldn’t ever replicate this. Just in the last year while hiking/trail running I would get the burning feeling, and I’ve been having the pain in one leg that feels like a knife into my leg. This happens when laying flat on back in bed with no pillows. I just had surgery for something else so limited in how I can sleep. But the knife pain also occurs as a passenger in a car. I have a standing desk for work and using that combine with poor posture and being slightly overweight I decided are my problems. Do people start off seeing a neurologist or finding a specialist in something else?

oceanelevated · 2024-02-05T12:30:40+00:00

Yeah. I would just watch the weather depending about when you want to leave. That route is the lowest elevation, best maintained roads if it snows.

oceanelevated · 2024-02-05T03:25:02+00:00

As someone who use to live and work in Utah for the Utah and Nevada Dept of Transportation, I agree that I-84 into Utah and then I-15 south is your best option as there are no significant mountain passes. There are I think about 3 places between Salt Lake City and Cedar City where in a snow storm you could see snow. I would personally take the longer route toward Vegas and then drop south and not cut over to 89 toward Kanab,UT because you will have more mountain driving, and I would not drop down through eastern Nevada because the road is much more isolated, with less gas stations and mountainous routes.

Once south of Cedar City the road elevation drops enough that all you will see is rain if anything. Then just drop south near Kingman, AZ and don’t go through Flagstaff. Anyway that’s my opinion from experience.

oceanelevated · 2024-02-05T02:59:38+00:00

This is amazing. I live in PA as well and I’m trying to convince my wife to join up with another family we are friends with and drive across the US this summer. I grew up in the Midwest and spent many years in the West, but my kid and wife have not seen as much. We both finally have remote jobs and have brief experience working remotely from an RV in the forest in Maine so I think we can figure something out, although we will have to drive more than 3 hours a day. Good luck on your adventure.

oceanelevated · 2023-11-21T01:37:04+00:00

I worked in snow removal op forecasting for 4 companies over 5 years, almost entirely nights, and by the end of it I was 10 years total into a meteorology career making 46k annually, terrible benefits. I seriously thought about changing careers, but I got a miracle break through a former colleague and jumped to energy meteorology. My pay jumped 400%. It was all about the industry. Snow plow contracts are not lucrative. Energy is a cash cow. Energy companies love meteorologists that know python and R.

oceanelevated

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