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'Everyday is Father's Day'
For Idaho Forecasters
Mike Huston says it's purely by chance that, just as his dad,
he's now a forecaster with NOAA's National Weather Service in
Idaho. Then he backs up a bit and provides a glimpse of how this
father/son team came to perform similar work functions but with
diverse slants.
Mike
with budding meteorologists?
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Mike typically develops "public products," the ones that broadcast
meteorologists use to tell their audiences that "highs will be
in the 80s," or that it will be "mostly cloudy with a chance of
showers." His dad, Darrell, typically prepares "aviation products"
that indicate cloud heights, visibility and other critical factors
for commercial airlines to use in flight planning. And they don't
work in the same office. Mike works in southeast Idaho in Pocatello.
Darrell works in Boise, 225 miles away.
Both talk about being great friends, weather observer buffs (both
are certified), and the benefits of understanding each other's
field experiences, despite the fact that these experiences are
viewed from somewhat different perspectives. Mike calls his dad
a mentor.
Both also admit to occasionally diving into work talk, sometimes
at a holiday dinner table. Mike dates his passion for forecasting
to his teen years, when he visited his dad at his Air Force forecasting
office. Mike recalls being fascinated by radar displays and especially
the colorful weather maps that covered entire walls. The airmen
used colored pencils to highlight special weather features, such
as cold fronts and strong winds. They used them to brief pilots
- who showed up the front door. Mike says they were like a foreign
language that he just couldn't understand.
Today one computer feeds data into another for easy display by
forecasters. When Mike joined the weather service in 1998 after
completing graduate work in meteorology on a research scholarship
at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, there were
still the colored-in weather maps and no satellite imagery at
his first duty station in Sheridan, Wyoming. Today he can access
many thousands of weather displays along with satellite imagery
covering just about all of the northern hemisphere. "And," Mike
says, "my dad's been there at every step."
"Dad"
Darrell
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"Dad" retired from the Air Force in 1983, attended college and
then began work at the weather service in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
In 1990, he moved to Boise as an agricultural meteorologist. Now
he's a general meteorologist who enjoys a "simple life with lots
of sun." Darrell relishes creating log furniture, mountain biking,
reading Louis L'Amour, dipping in his hot tub, and camping and
exploring with his entire family, including six grandkids.
"I am very proud of Mike," he says. The admiration is clearly
mutual.
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