The Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center · 201 North Findley Street · Punxsutawney, PA 15767 · (814) 938-1000 · info@weatherdiscovery.org

Recent News from the Weather Center

Weather Center inducts two into Meteorologist Hall of Fame

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Written by Tom Chapin

Punxsutawney Phil (center, handled by Bill Cooper) welcomes The Weather Channel’s Stephanie Abrams (left) and the National Weather Service’s Richard Kane into the Meteorologist Hall of Fame Monday. (Photo by Tom Chapin/The Punxsutawney Spirit)

PUNXSUTAWNEY — The two new inductees into the National Meteorologist Hall of Fame at the Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center both acknowledged that at young ages, weather freaked them out a bit.

However, they illustrated how they overcame those fears and used their knowledge of weather to help prepare and educate people.

The center welcomed its two new Hall of Fame inductees — Richard Kane, a warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, and Stephanie Abrams, and in-the-field meteorologist and co-host of the Weather Channel’s “Abrams & Bettes — Beyond the Forecast” and “Evening Edition” — during a ceremony Monday afternoon following Punxsutawney Phil’s prognostication of six more weeks of winter that morning.

Kane, a Baltimore native who first became interested in weather as a young child growing up on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay and during his teens working as a commercial fisherman and crabber, said he “foams at the mouth about weather.”

“I can look at weather radar for hours, then go home, plop in a chair and then watch The Weather Channel,” he said, gesturing to Abrams.

Kane said at first, as a child, weather scared him, but eventually, he grew to love it, getting up at night and looking for impending snow storms, which he said he loves.

He said he also learned to respect weather as a commercial fisherman, which helped further dissipate his fears.

“It’s something that happened, I think, when I was fishing,” Kane said. “What you do depends on the weather, and my interest went from there.

“Farmers, watermen and pilots — their lives depend on weather,” he added. “Our lives depend on it.”

Kane has served as the warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Pittsburgh since October 1996.

“Weather is great stuff,” he said. “It’s a common bond. You don’t have to be scared. You just have to be prepared.”

Abrams, a south Florida native who has worked with The Weather Channel since 2003, said Hurricane Andrew made a lasting impression on her as a child.

“I couldn’t understand how wind and rain could destroy so much,” she said.

The power of Mother Nature to impact people so harshly was again reintroduced to Abrams when she extensively covered Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

“Words can’t describe it,” she said.

Abrams also credited her father for opening her mind to math and science through various trips and experiences with hands-on activities — something, she said, the Weather Discovery Center is promoting well.

“You can tell somebody about Paris, but once you’re there, it’s a totally different experience,” Abrams said, noting that the hands-on approach can lead to a more positive experience than reading about weather — or any topic — merely in a book or a lecture.

Among the guests Monday was U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, making his first trip to the center and Groundhog Day.

He explained that he and fellow freshmen members of Congress are currently attending retreats and sessions to acclimate them to the workings of the federal government. While other freshmen were returning to their home districts Monday, Thompson said he was, too, but only to turn around and travel to Punxsy for Groundhog day.

“I didn’t have to tell them,” he said. “They all knew about Phil.”

Thompson said Punxsy Phil illustrates pride and promise: The pride that residents of the Fifth District have for him, and the promise of good things that Groundhog Day has created and will create in the future.