Happy new year! Today (1 Jan 25) is my first day of retirement, after 35 years (minus two weeks) of continual rotating shifts as a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami, National Severe Storms Forecast Center in Kansas City, and Storm Prediction Center, now in the National Weather Center in Norman. Before all that, while a student at OU, I spent over four years as a part-time federal research aide at the National Severe Storms Lab, also in Norman. An amazing, deeply rewarding era as a full-time storm forecaster and researcher truly came full circle, living the dream of a storm-obsessed kid of long ago! The sun set on my convective career in this facility yesterday. Yet today, and for as long as I last, that dream lives too. I will keep involved in the science on a part-time basis, while devoting even more time to storm observing, photography and travel. Image of the Week rides on, over new horizons, to many more storms and places, and it’s going to get even better than ever. Stay tuned…
