Bill Biddle |
 Dave Thurlow, Host |
Anyone who thinks that you need a computer and Doppler radar to forecast weather these days hasn't met Bill Biddle. Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow and this is The Weather Notebook. Born on Philadelphia's Main Line in 1930, Bill began forecasting at age 13 by studying clouds. A passion for outdoor adventure prompted Biddle to hone his field skills, and with nothing but a thermometer, pocket wind gauge, and altimeter, he correctly forecast a major winter storm while leading a party of high school students up Maine's Mt. Katahdin in the winter of 1962.
He has lived in Japan, New England, Chicago, and the Pacific Northwest, and every new locale has expanded and refined his forecasting intuition. In 1992, after retiring from a thirty-two-year teaching career, Biddle went public with his weather wisdom by writing the monthly "Weatherwatch" column for the Methow Valley News in Eastern Washington state. A typical Bill Biddle column mixes meteorology, reverence for atmospheric display, quotes from English poetry, and climatology -- all of it driven by vivid and surprisingly accurate long-term forecasts.
His secret? Deep, detailed familiarity with local conditions and, as he frankly admits, good hunches. Biddle's weather professional friends roll their eyes at the idea that hunches could have any value in forecasting today, but they all agree that his enthusiasm for weather is infectious. Bill Biddle, in short, combines the best of art and science -- a true Renaissance weatherman of the late 20th century.
Check out some of Bill's writings at our website, mountwasington.org. Thanks today to contributing writer David Laskin, from Seattle. The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory. Underwriting is provided by Subaru, the beauty of all wheel drive with major support provided by the National Science Foundation.