Dr. Edgerton's interest in weather developed when he was 11 years old and one of the strongest tornadoes to ever hit New Jersey, nearly hit his home, and yes this was right here in New Jersey. At 7:23pm on October 26th, 1981, an F2 tornado struck in Vienna, NJ (click here to view the information about this tornado from the National Weather Service Daily Historical Website, scroll down to October 26th). The very next
day he went to the school library and learned everything he could about
tornadoes and weather. Since then he became a volunteer Skywarn Weather Spotter
for the National Weather Service and he has spotted several tornadoes in New
Jersey over the past 20+ years.Dr. Edgerton started following the weather models as soon as they became available to the general public on the Internet back in the mid 1990's. He has since installed and operated a personal weather station from his home which automatically transmits weather data to the National Weather Service. This data is then integrated into the computer models to help them forecast the weather. Click here to view Dr. Edgerton's weather station data on the Internet. Click here to view Dr. Edgerton's weather station data on the National Weather Service website.
Dr. Edgerton takes weather very seriously since he was nearly killed twice in car accidents by people who did not take the weather conditions seriously enough. This is the main reason Dr. Edgerton has such a strong desire to predict the weather without depending upon someone else to create a prediction for him. So, Dr. Edgerton is not a meteorologist, he is a true, "weather man". The term, "weather man" was developed years ago because, many of the weather personalities on the network television stations did not have degrees in meteorology; they were just entertainers who had an interest in the weather and a general understanding of how to predict the weather. To some degree this still holds true today. Some of the most famous, "weather men" do not have degrees in meteorology at all.
Dr. Edgerton was flattered by the fact that this blog and his weather forecasts were nationally recognized by CNBC Television when they called him to appear on the Closing Bell show with Maria Bartiromo on February 8th, 2013, the day of the blizzard in New York City. While Dr. Edgerton was unable to appear on such short notice that day, CNBC has requested that he call them prior to the next big storm and he looks very much forward to that opportunity.
This blog was not Dr. Edgerton's idea. It was the idea of the people with whom he worked. When Dr. Edgerton worked at Indian Hills High School in Oakland, NJ, he would share his weather thoughts and predictions with his co-workers. They felt that his forecasts and thoughts should be shared with all of you, and they created this blog for Dr. Edgerton and encouraged him to post his thoughts for all of you to view. Dr. Edgerton will continue to try and improve this blog in the future, based mainly upon the thoughts of those who utilize it. Dr. Edgerton hopes you find this blog helpful. Special thanks go out to Mike and Heather Michels, Jim Dunbar, Dave Conca, and Dan Bertelli of Indian Hills High School in Oakland, NJ, as well as Joe Diblasi, who were instrumental in producing this blog.
