Quips and Tips
The pithy sayings and shorthand words that passed from forecaster to forecaster - year to year. Gems of wisdom about aviation and severe weather forecasting. Shown below - Gary Mounsey and John Michner on the Convective Sigmet Desk.
• We always issue one watch too many - Clarence David - SELS Lead 65-79
• Step down and to the right - Hilmer Crumrine on issuing follow on watches - SELS Lead 62-77
• Neddy Eddy - Term attached to any small scale vorticty max in the imagery. ID'd by Ned Johnson of the . SFSS 70s
• Every thunderstorm is embedded in itself. Don Thomas - RADU analyst 80s
• Boxology - the art of laying out watches
• Expandogenesis - tendency for outlooks to "grow" as the deadlne nears
• Is the forecaster handy? No, it's Schirn. RAK (from Concordia) to the KC District desk - answer indicating Burt Handy wasn't on shift.
• It's not as clear to me as it was at the beginning of the shift. Leon Schirn - District 70s
• I might be working - all of us at some time in response to a query about upcoming school, church, family activity. Catch-all phrase widely used.
• Checking the inside of my eyelids for holes. - Roy Manka -comms room
• Goodness! - and - Oh Lord! - LFW through the years.
• He comes to work and talks about BBQ and he goes on a BBQ show and talks about the weather -Steve Henderson's wry comment following Mike Weinrich's appearance on a local talk radio program on BBQ.
• Leave me and the amendments in peace - Dick Kerr at shift change. NAWAU
• Bad haircuts and tee shirts that show -KC Star description of NSSFC personnel - I think they visited on a weekend.
• I've seen people die on the wrong side of the jet. - Jack Hales SELS/SPC
• Have you ever been to Bird City? - Roy Manka
• Is that right? -Ed Ferguson
• You've only got so much energy - Vern Nebergall on conserving resources - NAWAU 80s
• Goodo - Bernie Magor
• Dubarge - cryptic exclamation - Steve Corfidi
• When's this dud watch end? Don Thomas to SELS Leads - 70s and 80s
• If it's April it must be Texas. common wisdom around the SELS desk
• You're not forecasting for a Master's student in East Cupcake, NJ.
- Jim Henderson to Roger Edwards, in response to the complexity of the latter's outlook verbiage, and later repeated in a staff meeting announcement memo.
• I will forgive you making errors of transmission, but errors of omission are unacceptable. -D. C. House to new arrival Don Whitman 1963
• We had our first salt storm of the winter - attributed to Roy Darrah
• Map discussion is canceled for today...repeat...map discussion is canceled for today - Jane Parvin (welcome new for almost everyone)
• Oooooooohh - Sam Beckman
• It's like shooting fish in a barrel - Bob Johns after putting out a watch that was verifying well
• There once was a man from Nantucket, whose head was shaped like a bucket - Harry Gordon starting a limerick.
• I don't know who I am. - Jim Henley PSU/Radar - often
• Al Pearson was on the TODAY show and in five minutes told them everything he knew about tornado forecasting - Doug Barkley 1967
• You don't have 40 years experience. You've got one year's experience forty times. - Vern Nebergall
• Cancel that Sigmet. - Jim Hayes to the WST met - many times.
• If you don't know code 'em as middle sevens - Sarah McReynolds to RJW on coding middle cloud type for the six-hourly synopitc ob. STJ 1964
• Need a watch - Jack Hales - often
• Well, I don't know about that - who else but RAK - Richard Kerr
• Too bad, too bad, too bad - who else but SKB - Sam Beckman
• Pull your hand out of a bucket of water and see what happens - Vern Nebergall - on "irreplacable" coworkers.
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