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Everything Weather Podcast
A conversational, educational, & educational weather podcast about everything weather. Exploring the world of weather, now every other Monday.
Everything Weather Podcast
To Antarctica, Weathering the Rain, & Back Again with David Tedesco
Join Kyle David as he talks with David Tedesco, a meteorologist at IBSS who collaborates with multiple government agencies. David shares his journey into meteorology, inspired by Storm Stories on the Weather Channel, and discusses his career transition from Costco to working at the Ocean Prediction Center and later at the South Pole. He provides insights into his current role as a Hydrometeorologist working on the Atlas 15 model, which predicts precipitation estimates.
David Tedesco's Contact Info:
davtedesco11@gmail.com
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About the Everything Weather Podcast
A weekly podcast where we talk with people about the weather world, explore and discuss everything weather and the many things that connect to it, and have a little fun along the way. The podcast is hosted and produced by Kyle David, a meteorologist and digital science content producer based in New Jersey.
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Hello and welcome to the Everything Weather podcast, where we talk with people about the weather world, explore and discuss everything weather, and have a little fun along the way. I'm your host, Kyle David, and today we're excited to have on the podcast David Tedesco. David is a meteorologist at IBSS working with multiple government agencies. Hi, David, and welcome to the Everything Weather podcast.
David Tedesco:Hi, Kyle. How are you doing?
Kyle David:I'm doing good. How are you doing?
David Tedesco:I'm doing fantastic. It's just excited to be on the show.
Kyle David:Absolutely. We're looking forward to having the conversation with you about your different weather experiences, what you do right now, but first, as usual, we have our first fun game for you. We have weather. Would you rather, so I'm going to give you some weather. Would you rather questions? And you get to pick one or the other. Would you rather live in a place with no seasons, so the weather is constant year round, or live in a place with extreme seasonal changes? Ooh, good question.
David Tedesco:I guess it really depends. Would I live in a place like, eastern Colorado, where you have these extremely cold winters and then these extremely hot summers? And then everything in between where, you could see temperatures drop by 40 degrees and, a few hours even, or something maybe like in the tropics where it's always like a solid 82 degrees. but then again, you always have that rain and then the rainy season and the dry season. So I don't know if we'd even consider that part of it. Maybe. Maybe that would be more of just like a, tundra where it's always just cold and you're really not getting anything. I would have to say the, one with the more variable seasons.
Kyle David:The more extreme changes each season?
David Tedesco:Yeah.
Kyle David:Okay. I like your thought process with that too. Like you're thinking like there's Colorado and then you have somewhere near the tropics, 82 and constant all the time.
David Tedesco:Yeah. It gives you different things to do throughout the year and stuff to look forward to. I like winter activities and I also like summer activities. And my favorite season is fall. So you have fall activities and then, the spring for me is allergies, but you have that to look forward to once you're sick and tired of winter.
Kyle David:I'm just curious. Are you
David Tedesco:a pumpkin spice fiend? No, no, pumpkin spice. I don't actually drink coffee either. But
Kyle David:what's your beverage of choice then? Just, curious,
David Tedesco:a caffeinated drink might, I stopped drinking those monsters and everything like that, but I would probably have to say tea for a caffeinated drink. I don't really drink soda either, unless it's like a special occasion, for example, new years. But other than that, I'd probably say like tea, if I'm going to like a. Dunkin or Starbucks or something like that.
Kyle David:T's a good pick. T's definitely a good pick. Alright, back to Would You Rather. Would you rather face a severe thunderstorm with softball sized hail or a blizzard with 100 mile an hour winds?
David Tedesco:Now, I'm interested more in the thunderstorm with, this softball sized hail. I've never seen hail that big before. Heh However I really don't want to die. And if I'm there, then that probably means my car is there. And I just got a brand new car. So I really, would like to not have to bring that to the shop. It would be interesting to look at through a window. But all of the property that I own and including my own head might be damaged and we don't want that. So I would take the blizzard. I think I'm, I love the snow. That might be my favorite type of precip in general. So having a hundred mile per hour, you said a hundred mile per hour wins.
Kyle David:Yes.
David Tedesco:Okay. I think it's a perfect day to stay inside, heat up some hot cocoa, and wrap yourself in some blankets, and just enjoy that. Sit back and relax.
Kyle David:Would the answer change if you did not have the ability to go inside? Would your answer change?
David Tedesco:No.
Kyle David:No? You're gonna ride out the blizzard outside too?
David Tedesco:I would Assume that I have the equipment needed to survive a blizzard with 100 miles per hour winds. I did live at the South Pole for four months. I, if I had, the jackets and the, the goggles and the boots and everything, I could, I think I could tough it out.
Kyle David:All right, next one. Would you rather be stuck on a deserted island during a tropical storm or in the mountains during a whiteout blizzard? Deserted
David Tedesco:island during a tropical storm or the mountains during a man, you're setting me up. You're setting me up for some damage. Okay, so Benefits of being on a tropical island, deserted tropical island, during a storm. I guess the benefit is that it's warm. And I don't really, I can't really think of any other benefits exactly. shelter
Kyle David:for both of them.
David Tedesco:I have shelter for both. Yeah. Okay. then the answer is going to be in the mountains a hundred percent. And that's only because of that storm surge. I'm on this little Island, this deserted Island. And, a tropical storm comes through, storm surge is going to erase that cabin or whatever shelter that I might've had, and then I'll be washed out to sea and then a shark will eat me. If I'm in the mountains, then I at least can huddle up and. Try to make a fire or just try to stay warm and be protected or for that event,
Kyle David:All right. Would you rather spend a week in Antarctica's coldest temperatures or a week in Death Valley's hottest temperatures?
David Tedesco:Antarctica's coldest temperatures. I haven't experienced the coldest, but I've met plenty of people who have and they do some crazy things when it is below minus 100 degrees. I think it would be pretty cool to experience those things too.
Kyle David:Alright, got a couple more for you. Would you rather work as a hurricane hunter flying into hurricanes, or as a storm chaser tracking tornadoes?
David Tedesco:This is hurricane hunter. 100%.
Kyle David:Okay. And would you rather experience a volcanic ash fall, or a dense fog that lasts for weeks? How
David Tedesco:far away am I from this volcanic ash?
Kyle David:That's a good question. You've seen Dante's Peak, right? Okay, so let's say you're a fair enough distance away from the said volcano, but you got dense ashfall coming down for weeks. Or, the other scenario is you got dense fog for weeks.
David Tedesco:I think dense fog would be Better because then I could do like a whole silent hill thing and start scaring people.
Kyle David:I was thinking the mist with The silent hill though. That's a good pick. I'd say.
David Tedesco:It'd be great. Just walk up to people after weeks They're so confused and you see this giant pyramid face Pyramid head.
Kyle David:Yes. That pyramid has his name. I would probably run as fast as I could if I saw pyramid head in the fog, or I would think it was, if that actually did happen, I would think, Oh, it's just David Tedesco.
David Tedesco:Yeah, one
Kyle David:or the other. Alright, that is the last of Weather Would You Rather. So let's get into the conversation, David, about you, your weather experiences. Everybody I have on the podcast, I ask them, what's their weather story? What got them interested in the weather? So David, tell me what your weather story is and what got you interested in everything weather.
David Tedesco:So I would like to start by saying I wasn't born a meteorologist or anything like that. What got me into weather was that when I was maybe, like middle school or, high school, I would go to bed around like 10 o'clock and before that I would sleep with the TV on. And around that time, they had storm stories on the Weather Channel. Tornadoes always interest me. I first did want to be a storm chaser because, looking at those giant storms, they're great. They're cool, but alas. You'd have to move to the Midwest and I'm not really that big of a fan of Kansas or Oklahoma or wherever, but I digress, but anyway, so as I'm sitting in bed, I'm becoming more and more interested in the weather, like looking at maps, understanding geography, weather patterns, and everything like that. So that really got me into it. And also they had the local on the eights. So the local on the eights, it was just the forecast for the week, but it was really helpful because they played this soft elevator music. And that was perfect to fall asleep to. So when I'm sitting in bed, I'm just like, Oh, okay. Let me just rest my eyes to this music. And then that got me hooked. So I'm like, all right, I want to fall asleep. Let me turn on the weather channel. And it wasn't that it was boring. They had interesting shows and everything, which got me hooked more and more. So then that led me to ultimately pick meteorology as a career. And, I'm happy I did. It led me to. Many different jobs and adventures that I can't say I would have if I picked anything else.
Kyle David:Now, what's interesting, you mentioned Local on the 8th and the Weather Channel and Storm Stories. These are all things that I know a lot of people have said. This is what got me interested in the weather and I myself am one of those people because I had the weather channel on my house almost religiously because my mom was a big weather nerd and I picked that up and I, my love for the weather from all these people that I saw on the weather channel, but the fact that you mentioned that you like turning on the weather channel because of the local on the eights music that I think is a first, but I know people have talked about the music, which is, it's somewhat related to that.
David Tedesco:Yeah, for me. That's just what got me. I know some people when they're born, they're like, yes, let me be this meteorologist on TV or, but I have no such story, but that is okay. If you don't have a story like that, or if you have a story similar to me. It's okay. Not everybody was born knowing what they want to do in life.
Kyle David:Absolutely. We're going to get a little more into that. And also side note, you'd be happy to know that there's, and I've actually discussed this with two prior guests, the people at WeatherWorks, there's actually a Spotify and Apple music playlist with all of the classic local on the eights music. Yeah. I don't know if you didn't know that, but if you ever have trouble falling asleep, now you can pull that. Playlist up and just
David Tedesco:go and fall asleep. That's actually fantastic to know. Cause I have a Spotify, but I mainly just listen to music, downloading stuff to my iPod. and then, yeah, just going through iTunes and everything.
Kyle David:Yeah, I'll have to send it to you. And I'll also link it for. Our listeners as well, because this is not the second time I've mentioned it. I'll link the playlist if you're interested in the show notes for this episode in particular, but going back to what got you interested in the weather, you got it from the weather channel, you'd watch storm stories, and you had said that you wanted to become a storm chaser, even though you'd have to move to the Midwest for that, the central Plains, when did you eventually realize? Okay. This is something I really want to make a career out of.
David Tedesco:yeah, before I got to the realization where it wasn't going to happen, I think what got me into it was. Just seeing these giant tornadoes and it just fascinated me. Like every new episode that came out, it was just unbelievable. The sheer magnitude and the sheer destruction that these storms could cause, and then when you, actually learn that people go out and they. Chase these things to measure what's going on inside of a funnel cloud. And that just got my adrenaline pumping. This is the coolest thing in the world. I don't know what else could beat that. And sometimes they even had hurricanes where you'd fly over the hurricane and drop a drops on into that and measure it. And just seeing the sheer scale of hurricanes is magnificent. And, I think that was really. What it got me into it and the ominous tone, that's the sound of the horns, the sirens going off when there's a tornado around. So
Kyle David:tell me about what eventually led you to go and study the weather because eventually you watch the storm stories, you watch the weather channel, you got. That passion from that, where did you eventually go? What was your journey like? So I went
David Tedesco:to college at Ramapo in Mawa, New Jersey at first for two years. And I was on track for an engineering physics major there. But then I always knew like my passion, I really enjoyed meteorology. If I had to pick a major that was in, that was given by a college, like it would be meteorology. And I kept on applying to Rutgers to get into their meteorology program for that. Cause it was just something that at that point, I thought that stood out the best for me. Looking through a list of all the, majors that I could. Go for Meteorology was just the one that stood out the most. I just kept applying and sophomore year, I got accepted into Rutgers. luckily, I came through, I transferred, and, then I got my Bachelor's at Rutgers, with a degree in Meteorology.
Kyle David:You said Engineering Physics was your original track and then you transferred to Rutgers for Meteorology? What was that transition like? I'm just curious.
David Tedesco:It was similar cause a lot of physics and a lot of engineering take math and, the same calculus courses and the same physics and everything like that as it's very similar. So you basically just transfer over, see if all those other extra curricula classes could transfer. I had to spend an extra year trying to get some other stuff to transfer over. But honestly, it worked out really well, I would say that. I enjoyed taking like my first year of Calc, because I know that's strange to say to some people, I hated Calc 2, don't get me wrong, but the first Calculus course was fine, that was good, and just keep pushing through, if you're in Calc 2 right now, and if you're having a horrible time, just trust me, go through Calc 2. Calc 3 and Calc 4, personal opinion, I think are way better.
Kyle David:I think the hatred for Calculus 2 is universal for everybody across the meteorology world. And for those who have no idea what we're talking about, Calculus is just basically a math that maps the changes with respect to certain variables. So each level of Calculus you take in college is just basically a one level up on that until the point you get to Calc fours, and which is called differential equations, that's changing of multiple variables over time. A lot of people avoid the weather world because of the math and stuff, and I don't blame them. I hate the math. I digress from that. So you graduate from Rutgers. You Finally got that degree in meteorology. Where does life take you next?
David Tedesco:So then I spent a year working at, I worked at Costco throughout the time that I was at Rutgers. So after that, I went to, I just continued for a year working at Costco. I was doing a little bit of an internship at Rutgers, helping one of the grad students out, and then was lucky enough to land a job. Straight out of college, it's rough because you really don't know anything if you don't know anybody. But every day or every week I would be applying to 20, 50 jobs, wherever I can. And at first, you are very set in where you want to be. For me, I wanted to be solely in New Jersey. that was, my home. That's where I knew everybody and my family and everything. So I said, okay, let me stay in New Jersey. Then sometimes these things just don't work out. So you expand your horizons and that's exactly what I did. So luckily I was able to land something in College Park, Maryland, working for a contractor called IMSG that was supporting the NOAA's Ocean Prediction Center, and I was very thankful I landed that job.
Kyle David:That's a big transition from Costco to the Ocean Prediction Center. What was that transition like from straight out of college right to the Ocean Prediction Center?
David Tedesco:It's definitely a serious It's changed because one minute you're making chicken bakes and the pizzas. And then the next year buying, leasing a new car and then going to find houses to live in down in Maryland and trying to research the area to make sure you're in a good area and just brushing up on everything that you need to get ready for this new job. I wanted to make sure I was the best. So I started taking a new. Python course to prepare myself for what I would have to do or what they posted in the job description. It's a lot of stress to get to that point, but it's nothing that isn't possible. If you put the work in and if you do that, then you yourself can do it. But the change is definitely a dramatic one.
Kyle David:And what does the OSHA prediction center do? What did you do at that agency?
David Tedesco:So the Ocean Prediction Center forecasts for the Atlantic and the Pacific, and they give out these wind and wave warnings for mariners that are sailing across the oceans. And a very general, that's a very, general description of it. The warnings that you see off the coast, or storm warnings you might see. Those all pertain to the oceans and most of the economy is based on the seas, the high seas. So we need forecasters out there, drawing surface plots or, issuing these point forecasts to these boats at sea. And, it's, very important. And then cooperating with. the tropical analysis forecast branch and, just all of the world really to make sure this is concise and correct. So those are what the forecasters have done. My job in particular there was to assist them. So they would use a program in AWIPS called GFE and I'm not, there's so many acronyms around here. I'm just going to. Say an acronym and just go forward, but I was using Python to create these tools to help them forecast. I'm trying to think of an example of one of them for you. So one could be, you highlight this time range, right? And in this time range in this program, the code will sort out and highlight these ranges where storm force winds will happen in this specific zone of the ocean, and then we'll highlight them. So based on the model data that comes out, you could run it and say, Oh, okay, in these zones off of the Atlantic, there's going to be storm force winds. Or this sea surface heights will be pretty large. And that's where it gives you an idea of where to look out for and where to make that official forecast.
Kyle David:Interesting. And this can tie to any of your other experiences we haven't talked about yet, but what's been the most interesting weather experience that you've had to work around and forecast for? Good
David Tedesco:question. So I would probably have to say, I want to tie this back into the Ocean Prediction Center. there's, been times where hurricanes have come through. I think it was 20, 2018 where we just had like a hurricane after another hurricane that we just had a forecast and our forecasters were nonstop during the hurricane season, and it's just been a heavy workload of creating these tools. Helping them out in any way as possible. But
Kyle David:I'm sure the 2020 season was just as busy for you in that role.
David Tedesco:Yeah. A big thing is a lot of the hurricanes at first get managed by Taft B tropical analysis, forecast branch, and the hurricane center, national hurricane center, but they move into our zones. that we primarily control. And then on top of that, storms happen year round, storm force winds, they happen year round. There's our forecasters. There are pretty much busy a lot of the time and I give them a lot of credit. For doing everything that they have done.
Kyle David:Yeah, they do a lot of different forecasting, and I give kudos to them because I'm not doing any of the forecasting stuff, I'm just talking to people who are doing that sort of stuff. Yeah. And, on that note, has there been a moment where it's been Incredibly challenging for you in this role or in another role?
David Tedesco:Oh, of course. There's been plenty of times where I've faced adversity right at the beginning. I w I was talking about taking Python courses. I did a little bit of Python when I was helping out a grad student at Rutgers, but I didn't know Python. So I'm going into this role and, presented with. Python and I'm presented with Pearl and I'm like, wow, I really don't know that much about it, but that's discouraging. You're like, whoa. I'm not qualified for this role. That's anybody who starts a new job and they feel like that. I would say that's normal. Even the other jobs that I've started, you feel like that at first, but once you warm up to it and once you start like learning, things get a lot easier. In this case, I was learning Python through Codecademy, researching and getting ready for that. So while I was. At work, I'd come home and just do some more lessons on Codecademy. And that kind of just keeps my brain refreshed and just ready to go. So there's definitely been some other hard times, but I think that's like the biggest that I could think of.
Kyle David:Yeah. It's interesting. You bring up the coding because not a lot of people think coding when it comes to the weather, but a lot of things do involve coding. Yeah,
David Tedesco:pretty much everything nowadays involves coding. So really understand it, be the best at coding. Is my advice. And just keep going, keep practicing. Once you understand the logic for one language, it's so much easier to understand. The rest of them
Kyle David:interesting. Yeah, I don't have a lot of coding experience, so I can't say that for sure. But we're already dropping nuggets of wisdom in our conversation. But actually, I actually want to transition to something you said earlier. you had mentioned that you had worked in Antarctica. So first off, how did that become to be?
David Tedesco:So as I was working at the Ocean Prediction Center, I made friends with one of the people there who, he worked for the NOAA Corps. and I just, in passing, he mentioned that he went to Antarctica and he worked down at McMurdo Station. And I'm like, Oh dude, that's really cool. Tell me more about it. And I had some of the happy hours we went to. And I just one day said, Hey dude, you know if there's any job openings there? And said it half heartedly, just joking. And he's Actually, I'll put you in touch with my manager, my old manager. And then I remember that day very well. I was downstairs at my job, at the gym, and he, this guy, this manager calls me. And I'm like, okay, so this is just to get to know. He's asking me what I do and everything. The next thing I know, he's alright, you're hired. And I, was just so caught off guard. I'm like, really? Because if I knew this was an interview, I'd probably be a lot more nervous. And fumble my words a lot more, but I thought it was just to get to know so I was talking to him like I'm talking to you like a regular human being and he said, Okay, you are going to be a meteorologist down at the South Pole. What? Really? So that's how I land into that. And it's the most insane thing that I don't even have the right words to describe the feeling that I felt at that moment. And secondly, what did you do down in Antarctica? Go. what I did was my every day, I had to take hourly METAR observations, I needed to launch weather balloons, which is really fun, communicate with pilots coming through, flying from McMurdo, or even all around the continent, landing at South Pole to drop off things, people, whatever it may be, I did climate reports, filling out snow stakes and everything like that, and Dealing with any other, the work, weather workings on our computers that we've had to work with. So it was a three person job working eight hours a day, every day. And I tell you, there's always something to do.
Kyle David:Try and describe it best you can, because not many people can say they've gone to Antarctica and experienced an entirely different world.
David Tedesco:It feels like you're given an opportunity of a lifetime. Like you see in all those movies where these people go on these crazy journeys and you feel like you're not on Earth. It really feels like you stepped on a new planet. Once you put your two feet on the ice, it's something that everybody should experience. And not in the sense that you need to go to Antarctica to experience it, but once you put your two feet in a place which makes you feel like this is so beautiful, this can't be real, it can't be. Earth and have that feeling that is everyone should really. Strive to find.
Kyle David:Yeah. And I'll, bring something that you and I have talked about off of the podcast, your big Lord of the Rings fan, which has a lot of different settings. Some of them being otherworldly from climbing the misty mountains, this Arctic freezing mountain setting to the minds of Moria. Can you tell me about a moment? At Antarctica, where you felt like you were really transported to another world, perhaps a Tolkien world?
David Tedesco:Yeah, I feel like every moment was really the Misty Mountains, to be honest with ya. The first moment that I landed at the South Pole. We walked off the plane. I was carrying a water bottle, like a see through water bottle. You have to walk, maybe like a few minutes to the station. As soon as the door opened to the plane, your lungs just, because of all the cold air rushing in, you're like, whoa, because it jolts you back. You're like, this is, real. This is something that you've never experienced before. I think when I landed temperatures were maybe around minus, minus 40s, 45, minus, the coldest I experienced before that was maybe like minus. So once you have that hitting your lungs, you're like, this isn't real. This is something that is, is surreal. It's, a dream. And then as I'm walking, I have this water bottle. And the water inside of it froze before I even got to the station. It was unbelievable. I'm like, I'm living. This is not real life. This can't be happening right now. And it does remind me of how, walking through the Misty Mountains, all the Hobbits and the Fellowship and how they even survived that. Tolkien had to pull some strings there. But yeah, going back to it, there's so many other moments that were just so Surreal and quite calming. I would say too. It's another moment that is pretty cool is on my way back. I was excited to see dirt and to hear birds and to see the ocean. Those are things that a lot of people take for granted because once you're at the South pole, you're on ice, you don't see dirt at all. there's no animals at the South pole. They're all on the coast. And so you don't hear that or anything and everything's frozen. So there's no water and just completely quiet. So you miss those things. I could relate that to when Frodo and Sam are on Mount Doom and Sam's trying to encourage them to hear the Shire or to remember the taste of the strawberries. When you're deprived of that for so long and you actually get that sensation back. It could be overwhelming, but it's such a good feeling to remember everything again and it just makes you not take things for granted.
Kyle David:Absolutely. I don't mean to keep connecting Lord of the Rings to your Antarctica experience, the Fellowship were deprived of all the creature comforts and things. And in a way, you were deprived of those creature comforts when you were down in Antarctica. What was the most challenging thing that you had to let go of to survive and work down there in Antarctica?
David Tedesco:Ooh, good question. I had to get off of social media for, and the internet for most of it. We, had the, satellite pass over once every 24 hours. And in that range, we'd have maybe two hours of stable internet. But during that, we weren't allowed things like YouTube or. We weren't allowed to make any phone calls unless they were through a specific way. And yet you can't really send messages. You could send some emails and, maybe a quick chat. Giving that up at first is, it's so hard because what are you going to do? But then you learn to adapt to that and you learn to bond with the people, the strangers around you and get to know them. And there's a lot of other things to do when you're down there. Play basketball. I got really good at basketball down there. Am I good anymore? No, and then I was playing pool, so I got good there. Cause you, what else are you going to do and how to spend your time? But yeah.
Kyle David:Wow. That's a big adjustment. Not being able to email, call, text people.
David Tedesco:Yeah. You miss all your loved ones and you feel lonely and that, that could definitely eat at somebody's mental health. Tremendously. And then when you're down there for Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's, you miss that, but it's something that you have to adjust to and you have to adapt and just keep going and then find the pleasures in being alone and then find pleasures in making new friends and enjoying that moment the best way that you can. I've definitely taken that, Learn from that.
Kyle David:It's a very good. We're dropping more nuggets of wisdom here before we go to our break Let's go out on a lighter note. what's your favorite story? You like to tell from your time in Antarctica?
David Tedesco:Okay, so on Christmas Day 2019 we had a race and it was a race around the world literally a race around the world So it's a two mile race from the station. And then you run all the way to the South Pole telescope, and then you run a run that, and then you run all the way back around the ceremonial South Pole, which has many different flags around it, but that's not the actual South Pole. Then you run past the geographic South Pole, and then you go back round to where the start was. And all in all, it's maybe two miles long. And I think the temperatures were around with the wind, maybe minus negative 40 degrees. And if you weren't running where everyone else was running, the snow was maybe like, you sunk a little bit into it. I can't tell you the exact snow depth for everything got too compact. But it was crazy. I thought that, I could easily run, five miles, but I was dead after like half of a mile because of how cold that was, how much it takes out of you, and then I brought these goggles and they fogged up instantly because I'm exhaling and. Yeah, that's going right up some of these lenses and fogging them up. I'm like, now I can't even see, but just doing that in such extreme temperatures and weather, I literally ran across the world, circumnavigated across every time zone. And that just adds to a level of thrill. Like you really just ran across the world. It was fun. It's something that I will absolutely never forget.
Kyle David:Wow. That's a story to tell for everybody and hopefully to tell that story a little bit more. To everybody listening on the podcast, we're going to take a quick break right here, but don't go anywhere. We've still got plenty of more Everything Weather podcast with David Tedesco. On this day in weather history, we go not so far back to February 3rd, 2023. From February 3rd to the 4th, a deep surge of arctic air plunged over the northeastern United States. This arctic surge brought frigid air and strong winds to the region, resulting in dangerously low temperatures, multiple power outages. flights for much of the region and surrounding area. The surge of frigid air broke multiple low temperature records across several cities and locations across the Northeast. At Mount Washington, New Hampshire's highest peak and location to some of the earth's most extreme weather, temperatures dropped to as low as minus 47 degrees Fahrenheit. And while the observatory at the top of the 6, 288 foot tall mountain often sees dramatic weather. Winds whipped at more than 100 miles per hour with gusts up to 128 miles an hour being recorded. The winds were so strong that a door hinge at the summit buildings broke under the stratospheric winds. The strong winds, combined with the extremely low temperatures, produced a feel like temperature of minus 108 degrees Fahrenheit. This observation broke the Mount Washington Observatory's. Previous record for the lowest wind chill recorded at the observatory and across the entire United States. The previous record was minus 102. 7 degrees Fahrenheit set in 2004. Also recorded at the Mount Washington Observatory. If you want to learn more about the Mount Washington Observatory and what it's like to collect weather observations in one of the Earth's most extreme weather places, go and check out our podcast episode, Summiting Mount Washington. And STEM education with Mike Carmen. Hello and welcome back to the everything weather podcast. I'm your host, Kyle, David. And today we're joined by David Tedesco. He's a meteorologist who's worked with a whole bunch of different government agencies from the ocean prediction center to down in. He's still doing work with government agencies and all of the different weather things that they have going on. We're going to get back into that conversation, but first, I've got another fun game for you, David. So I've got, guess the top five largest deserts by area. So I've got the top five largest deserts by area. Your job is to guess. The top five.
David Tedesco:Okay, so first I'm going with the Sahara.
Kyle David:The Saharan Desert is number three on this list. Okay, Antarctica. Antarctica is number one on the list. The biggest desert in the world. That's a good trivia question. It is, definitely. Let's see, the Gobi Desert? The Gobi Desert is not on this list. I think it's within the top ten though.
David Tedesco:I'm gonna name all the deserts by this point. I'm forgetting the name of the desert in Southwest United States does. Starts with an S.
Kyle David:I don't know the name of it, but that is not in the top five.
David Tedesco:Dang, and I even chose geography. I can't even name you the top five largest deserts. The Kalahari? Kalahari
Kyle David:is not in the top five. I give you hints for the other three that you still have to go. Okay. one is in the same category as the Antarctic Desert. One is I believe neighboring the Saharan desert. It's close to it in proximity. And the other is on a different continent entirely.
David Tedesco:I honestly,
Kyle David:the Arabian, is number four on this list. You have Antarctica number one, Sahara number three. And Arabian number four. So you have number two and number five left.
David Tedesco:Okay. The name of the Australian outback desert. I couldn't know what the name was.
Kyle David:So the great Australian desert is number five. You have
David Tedesco:number two left. Okay, and this is related to Antarctica.
Kyle David:In the same category, I'll say. Like a coal desert. You could say, maybe. Can't give it away too much there, can I?
David Tedesco:Would that be somewhere Would it be somewhere in Northern Canada? That's what I'm trying to think.
Kyle David:So you're close. You know what? I give up. It is the Arctic Desert. So the other side of the pole, or the globe. Which I actually didn't know that was a thing until I did research and found that out. That's
David Tedesco:actually good to know.
Kyle David:Alright, so that wraps up our fun game. Let's get back into the conversation about your story, where you're working now. Because we haven't even talked about What you do for work right now, we were talking about your story in Antarctica, working as a meteorologist there. how did you eventually end up at your job from your role in Antarctica to the job that you have now?
David Tedesco:my job ended in Antarctica. It was around March of 2020, and we all know that's when COVID started. I had to leave my position at the Ocean Prediction Center to work in Antarctica. So after that with COVID for a little bit, but then I was able to land a gig as an adjunct at the County College of Morris. So I taught an Intro to Meteorology course, and I give my biggest respects to all those teachers out there. Because I, had zero experience being a teacher in any form. And it's hard, to really connect with your students and you really want to teach them and everything. So I give a lot of credit to them, but because of that job, it led me to work with another contractor of NOAA called IBSS and they work for the NOAA's office for water prediction. So that's how I got my job. I got hired as a. Hydro meteorologist. That is my current title.
Kyle David:So go into a little more about what a hydro meteorologist does and in short, what do you do as a hydro?
David Tedesco:So hydro meteorologist is basically just a meteorologist with a specificity with towards water and flooding and everything like that. So I'm part of a team and we're working on a model called Atlas 15 and to kinda give you guys a little info about it. It's this new National Precipitation Frequency Atlas of the United States. And this provides these estimates of expected precipitation, depth, or intensity, for a specific, storm duration, and for a specific given location. These estimates are presented as Exceedance probabilities. So to give you an example of what I'm talking about here is if I took my hometown of Old Bridge and I, we looked at a storm that lasted 30 minutes and it dropped two inches of rain, that would signify that storm event, what happens once every 50 years, thus it's pretty rare, those things, that info that I just. Gave you was based on Atlas 14 or previous, the previous, the predecessor to Atlas 15, but as you can see, that kind of information is useful for a wide variety of industries. if you look at construction and you want to have a structure built, you need to know how frequent it floods in that area, because then you could build and adjust your. Materials and everything that you need for that to withstand that one in 50 year event, or that one in a hundred year event, then that just, you talk with environmental consultants about it. And a lot of people in the construction industry have heard of Atlas 14 being used in the way that they monitor things. And it's. It goes beyond construction. There's logistics and all other environmental sectors as well.
Kyle David:Interesting. And I'm curious now, what is the most surprising connection or use case of Atlas 14 or 15? Because you've mentioned logistics, you've mentioned construction. What's one sector that connects to that, that surprised you the most?
David Tedesco:honestly, it was construction. It really was because my stepdad works in construction and I got home and I was telling him about my new job and he was saying, I know what you're talking about. And that was the biggest surprise for me. I thought Atlas and the whole weather world is in their own bubble. And yes, it does relate to the consumer being, the average everyday human, but to know that my work is and the models that I'm working on are actually used. in that way, surprised me the most.
Kyle David:And it's interesting that you're, you had a family member say, Oh wait, I know what you're talking about.
David Tedesco:Yeah. It blew my mind.
Kyle David:They just happened to know Oh, I know what you're talking about because you threw in some stuff that pertained to construction with that model. Yeah. Interesting. So I'm curious about a little more about the, your work with the Atlas model. You had mentioned that. works to predict what conditions will be like in certain areas. How do you work to adapt the Atlas 15 model to changing climates and the climate changing the next 10, 20, 50 years, we'll say?
David Tedesco:Yeah, so first, great question. Secondly, I, unlike Atlas 14, the previous model, Atlas 15, It provides these estimates for future time periods, using these global warming levels derived from the points in time that specific climate models have warmed to different benchmarks. And then we look at also emissions scenarios to provide these estimates. So some of these models are like SSP2 and SSP5, and we're using that to, Move forward and, provide these exceedance probabilities using, climate models. And that's something that's becoming more and more important as, the globe gets warmer.
Kyle David:So in a way you can look through the looking glass at different scenarios depending on how the climate changes and how different things change down the road.
David Tedesco:yeah.
Kyle David:Interesting. Speaking of looking through the looking glass, I'm curious, how has this work changed your perspective of the weather, because you, we talked earlier, you grew up watching the Weather Channel, you watched Storm Stories, and now you're working with different models predicting the future, how has that work changed your perspective of the weather and how you view the weather itself?
David Tedesco:Oh, it just makes it all so much more real to me and it confirms my passion for the weather I would say when you see any insignificant rain event It doesn't even happen in my backyard or it could happen anywhere across the country where you see these huge amounts It's falling and you're like, that's another one in a thousand year event. I remember a few years back, there was a huge storm that flooded Ellicott city, Maryland, and you're like, that doesn't happen often. And it just makes your work that much more valuable to the everyday person and dealing with flooding damage. the more work that we do preparing this model, the more informed the public will be, and that will help them make better life choices. For example, if you want to search for home, you might want to search in something where it's not in a flood plain, something that you don't have to worry about these major flooding impacts or anything like that. So it's definitely provided me a sense of like. Purpose and I really enjoy that
Kyle David:and on that note. I want to explore a little bit more of Possible situations where it has been used in the real world Can you share an experience where you felt your work was the most rewarding?
David Tedesco:There's so many different times where i'm so happy to be a part of the team that I am And Atlas 15 is still in development. So I get a lot of the reward from, coworkers and managers and everything like that. I would probably like for the public itself. I'm thanked a lot when I was down in Antarctica by these pilots who would come by and they would need my advice. Cause I would give. METAR out and launch weather balloons and deal with them flying, like a pseudo air traffic control, speaking with them and, guiding them and making sure everything is okay. So dealing with non meteorologists in that sense and getting their approval and saying, have everything being great. is so rewarding and once atlas 15 comes out, there's going to be plenty of that in the future. So I'm definitely looking forward
Kyle David:and hopefully not just that, but people making informed decisions based off of that model as well, cascading into even better benefits for people and society as well.
David Tedesco:Exactly.
Kyle David:So you mentioned a little bit about your work with. The, Atlas 15 model and it modeling precipitation estimates these one in a hundred year, a thousand year events. I'm curious, what are some of the biggest challenges for you in that role in modeling the future, in essence?
David Tedesco:So the biggest issues that we have right now is collecting all of that data. So we need to find data from priority one data sets, which is, NCEI, where we could. Look at these automated stations and get the info easily from that. But a lot of other times we have to look at data sets that aren't really related to the government and quality control these stations to make sure outliers where we have huge amounts of precip are valid and make sure that they're not bogus because if we incorporate all of these things into the model and the data is terrible. Then our model is worthless. So going into manually quality control, these very, niche data sets is definitely one of the more challenging of Atlas 15. There's always coding and coding But the more that you do, the better you'll be at it.
Kyle David:And I thought of another potential challenge and, correct me if I'm wrong, if it is a challenge or if it isn't a challenge, there's a lot of different geographical areas that you have to work with. And there's a lot of nuances with the weather and climate and geographic areas. How do you navigate that?
David Tedesco:You basically need to have a understanding of the weather and the climate around different parts of the country. You need to know when the rainy season is in California. And if a precipitation event even makes sense around that time, you need to take so many things into consideration when, for example, when you're looking at outliers, if you're looking at Florida and it's August and you see a precip amount of 15 inches. maybe you could relate that to a storm, a hurricane that came through or a tropical storm or whatever it came through, if you saw that in. New Mexico, you'd be like, this is wrong. There's something that has to be up. So you really need to geographically know what is possible in different areas and pay attention to temperature readings as well. Cause if you have, let's just say 10 inches of rain that happened in upper panhandle of Michigan, you're just like, okay, in, in January. Is that really 10 inches of rain, liquid water, or was that a 10 inches of snow, which, if you did a one to 10 ratio, that would be one inch of liquid presale. So these are all different things that I would have to figure out, and that's where you really get that meteorology background.
Kyle David:Interesting. And the 10 inches of snow and 10 inches of rain is a huge difference in terms of Yes. All the data that you work with. And on the note of geography, can you tell me a moment where in your current work, your geography knowledge helped you with your role?
David Tedesco:I, think that helps pretty much every day. For example, in New Jersey, I would know when an event would be on the borderline of a snow event and a rain event. Or if it's going to be during spring, we have a lot more thunderstorms, so we could see isolated high precipitation amounts. But, yeah, honestly, in California, if you're in the mountains, expect high a Amounts of snow and then near that it's just green in the valley over there in that central valley But yeah, geography is a huge It's huge to really know when you're looking at these outliers
Kyle David:definitely and To go back to earlier on in our conversation, could you have imagined at a younger age working in this position right now, working with all this different data and, heck, connected back to Antarctica, could you imagine doing that as well?
David Tedesco:No, I, can't believe the opportunities I've been presented with, but I'm still thankful every day. some people. Could be lawyers or doctors or whatever, but it's important to, once you have a passion, just stick with that and be open to new adventures and speak with people. Foreign bonds and things just happen
Kyle David:now in the spirit of going back in time because we were talking about your younger self Let's say you could talk to your younger self or talk to somebody Today who's in a similar position as you were what would you say to them?
David Tedesco:The first thing that I would say to him Or them would be to take all of your money and invest in Bitcoin.
Kyle David:No, that would only work if you have a time machine to go back in time. But then you got paradoxes and whatnot. But
David Tedesco:we could worry about that later. Just first take all your money, then put it into crypto and don't forget your password.
Kyle David:That would suck if you invested it all and forgot the password.
David Tedesco:But for real, it's. If I had to go back in time and give some advice, do what you love, because that's the most important thing in the world, having job security and finding something that pays where you could survive off of is. Also extremely important. If you could take some, a job that you don't hate and at pays decent and you have good job security with it, do it. And then see where that goes. You are not going to necessarily start with the place that you like or work the hours that you want. But. Getting your foot on the ground somewhere is better than not having it there at all. And then from there, work up, talk to people, network. The most important thing is really networking and then build something of yourself. Then you could lead to so many more possibilities, so many different ways that you can go.
Kyle David:And on that note of doing what you love and navigating the hours that you may get thrown at you, what's the best thing that you've learned about navigating doing what you love and also your life as well, things outside of work?
David Tedesco:Yeah. Staying organized is really important. Have a set list of goals that you want for your work and for your personal life and stick with them. It's really simple, at least for me, just if you have an idea and if you have a dream, then just jot it down and, just keep at it.
Kyle David:Jotting down, best thing that you could do, then it manifests in a way if you write it down. And I want to go back even further in our conversation because you had said you'd worked at Costco and right out of college and that was like a transition gap for you. You went from college, you had Costco and then. You went to the OSHA Prediction Center, what's the best piece of advice you could give in terms of the interview process, the transition process going from a job that's not related to what you're studying or what you want to work in, to eventually getting that job you want to work in?
David Tedesco:Okay, so some tips that I would probably give. Preparing. Preparing for interviews is important. I started with no weather background besides a little bit of an internship. But you can use something like that as a golden egg. Something that can stand out and just make you look good. So come up with a list of strengths and weaknesses, but at the same time don't sell yourself short. On the weaknesses thing, talk about learning in the field and growing. And employers like to hear that you're willing to really give it your all. And you're willing to try to be one. And employers really like to hear that. Any questions that they ask you, if you could reference back to, your golden egg, do it. If you could think I'm a fly or practice that if. You have a family member or a friend that could give you a interview question that you could find online. Try to relate it back to that and practice. Also, ask really good questions. That first job at the OPC that I got, they really liked me because I asked good questions. I don't remember particularly what questions, but I think they were along the lines of, What would you believe employees can learn in this position? Or, what types of skills are important? And obviously find some questions about whatever company you're looking to apply for, or if it's the government, if it's a sector of the government, find some really good specific questions for that and show them that you're interested and just be honest with them. Say, look, this is what I'm passionate about. These are my credentials. I really think that I'm a good fit for this job and sell yourself.
Kyle David:That is fantastic career advice, not just for any listeners who want to get into the weather world, but for everybody else just navigating the career landscape as well. Since your work pertains to forecasting the future, modeling the future, in that same spirit, what excites you the most about the future of weather, modeling, and the world of weather in general?
David Tedesco:It's Very easy to fall into the trap of being upset about climate change and stressed out about it. So you need to look at positives, at least that you need to look, with a glass half full, just, to help yourself out. There's a lot of new technology coming out that could really help with coding in general. So that's, a plus. I would also say we get to, because of climate change, we get to witness a lot more extreme precipitation events. They'll happen more and more frequently. So if you're a severe weather lover, it's only going to be getting better. I would say, the weather, the climate, it's always changing, so it's just to keep your mind busy, but yeah.
Kyle David:Absolutely. You definitely have to look for that positivity, the negative, there's always a silver lining to everything. There's been a lot of talk about AI and stuff. I'm curious about your thoughts. What do you see? AI getting into the world of weather. How do you see that getting in there?
David Tedesco:AI is always useful, but it's not something that can be relied upon. At least now, if you've got general questions or anything like that, then yeah, sure. Chad, GPT or other. AI software could get you on the right track to helping to solve your question, but there's a lot of particular components to meteorology and not everything is going to work, especially presented with AI technology now. So in the future, I have hopes for helping meteorologists out. Right now, it's just something to guide you in the right direction. But, yeah.
Kyle David:Hopefully it's not going to take us the route of 2001 A Space Odyssey with Hal taking over all the systems and stuff. Gotta make that joke in there, of course. Because we're talking about AI and stuff. It's an interesting thing, but it's also an unnerving thing because we don't know what comes up next from that.
David Tedesco:Absolutely.
Kyle David:All right. David, that is the end of the interview, but is not the end of the episode. We've got one more fun game for you, and that is whether or not trivia. So we've got some weather themed, non weather themed trivia questions based on things that interest you inside of an outside of the weather with that said, are you ready, David?
David Tedesco:I'm ready. Let's go.
Kyle David:Alright, this is whether or not your question is related to El Nino. El Nino is a warming of surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean caused by what? Is it A. Strengthening of trade winds, B. Weakening of trade winds, C. Increased volcanic activity, or D. Decreased solar radiation?
David Tedesco:The weakening of
Kyle David:trade winds. Final answer?
David Tedesco:Final answer.
Kyle David:You are correct. It is the weakening of trade winds. This is whether or not your next question is related to geography. What African nation with the word green in its name is a group of islands off of the west coast of Senegal with a population around half a million people? Is it A. The Azores, B. The Canary Islands, C. Madaria, or D, Cabo Verde. Cabo Verde. Final guess?
David Tedesco:Final
Kyle David:guess. You are correct. It is Cabo Verde. Alright. This is whether or not your next question is related to the 1993 Storm of the Century, which happened in March of 1993 for our listeners. Archived footage of the 1993 Storm of the Century is used in which natural disaster film? Is it A. The Day After Tomorrow, B. Dante's Peak, C. Geostorm, or D.
David Tedesco:Okay, I haven't seen Geostorm, and I haven't seen Dante's Peak. And I guess these are ones that I definitely need to see. I'm gonna base this off of the other two. Twister, Midwest, and we have the tornadoes out there. But, the 1993 Storm of the Century, it did have tornadoes too, and, but it was also a really big event for snow. The only reason I, know that is because, I, was born in March of 93, and there was 10 inches of snow on the ground. And from this storm, and day after tomorrow has a whole bunch of snow and cold temperatures, and I'd probably have to just go with the day after tomorrow.
Kyle David:File guesses the day after tomorrow? Yeah. You are lucky that it wasn't the other two, you are correct. It is. Hey, the day after tomorrow, and for reference, I've not seen Geostorm either, so you're not the only one that hasn't seen that in terms of Dante's Peak is actually a volcano movie, so you are interested in volcanoes and stuff. That's one that was like one of my oddball questions that I'll throw in here and there for trivia questions. Yeah. All right. This is whether or not your next question is related to Lord. Of the rings, how many rings of power were created in total in the Lord of the Rings universe? Is it a three B seven, C nine, or D 20? It's
David Tedesco:20. 3 for the elves, 7 for the dwarves, 9 for men, and then 1 to rule them all. So 20 is
Kyle David:your final guess? Absolutely. You are correct. It is 20. I should have known you would have gotten that. I figured throwing in 3, 7, and 9 maybe would have tricked you. I'm doing the math in my head. But you, were able to pick through that very easily. All right. Next one up. This is whether or not your next question is related to hurricanes. What term is used to refer to hurricanes in the northwestern Pacific Ocean? Is it A. Cyclones, B. Typhoons, C. Tropical storms, or D. Hurricanes? Northwestern would probably be typhoons. Typhoons is your final guess? Final guess. You are correct, it is Typhoons. And so far you are on track to possibly do a clean sweep of the whether or not trivia. we'll see if you do a clean sweep with this last question. This is whether or not your last whether or not trivia question is related to Pokemon. How many evolutions does Eevee have? Is it A, 10, B, 8, C, 6, or D, 4?
David Tedesco:Okay, so I'm counting this in my head. So we have, it evolves to Jolteon, Flareon, Vaporeon, then we have Espeon, and we have Umbreon, we have Leafeon, Glaceon, and I think after that is Sylveon. Okay, I'm going with eight.
Kyle David:So you worked around your head, you're guessing Yeah. I love how you worked around your head, because that got you the correct answer. It is eight evolutions. And with that, you get a clean sweep of the Weather or Not trivia. How do you feel about that? I
David Tedesco:feel fantastic.
Kyle David:Absolutely. It was a pleasure to see you do a clean sweep of the Weather or Not trivia. But sadly, this brings us to the end of our episode. But before we go, David, how can people stay in touch with you and your work and everything that you do with the weather?
David Tedesco:You guys can send me an email, davtodesco11 at gmail. com. So I have a LinkedIn, you can follow my LinkedIn as well. And other than that, yeah, that's pretty much what I got for you.
Kyle David:And we'll make sure to link your email and your LinkedIn profile in the show notes for people to reach out to you if they have questions or Want to ask you more about your Tolkien experience in Antarctica?
David Tedesco:Absolutely.
Kyle David:All right. Thank you so much, David, for joining us on the Everything Weather podcast. And thank you to the listener for listening to the Everything Weather podcast, and we'll catch you on the next episode.
