How Rob Fowler, A Local Meteorologist Builds A Forecast You Can Use

If you’ve ever stared at your phone in disbelief because it’s sunny at your house and storming five miles away, you’re not imagining things. We’re joined by Rob Fowler, Storm Team 2’s chief meteorologist and a familiar voice in the Charleston area for decades, to explain what makes Lowcountry weather so tricky and why “local” still matters when the forecast is on everyone’s screen.

We talk through how a real TV forecast gets built each day, from the data and computer models to the graphics that tell the story in plain language. Rob breaks down why national outlets can sound vague, how social media “storm maps” turn into misinformation, and what you should look for in a weather source you can trust. He also clears up one of the most misunderstood numbers in any Charleston weather forecast: the probability of precipitation, and why it never meant “it will rain on everyone all day.”

Then we get into the bigger topics that hit close to home: flooding and sea level rise, how development changes runoff, what climatology can teach us about patterns, and how AI may improve forecasting while the human element remains essential during high-stress events. Finally, we head into hurricane season with practical preparedness tips, hard-earned lessons from Hurricane Hugo, and a few off-camera stories that will make you appreciate live TV even more.

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Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce

Studio Sponsor: Charleston Media Solutions

Episode Sponsor: Viking Mergers & Acquisitions

Expo Podcast Sponsor: ‪Pollen Social‬

Production Sponsor: RMBO.co

Design Sponsor: DK Design

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Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC Past President | Mount Pleasant Towne Centre
Mike Compton | Co-host | Podcast Committee | RMBO.co
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Executive Director 
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | MPCC Marketing & Communications
Benjamin Nesvold | Co-host | MPCC President | Edward Jones

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 1:06

Hello, and welcome to the Building Business Podcast, powered by the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. We are here recording in the Charleston Media Solutions Studios, who are, of course, huge supporters of the Chamber. Thank you. And a huge shout out, I'm so I love saying this, Amanda. A huge shout out to our podcast sponsor. Wow, yeah, Viking Mergers and Acquisitions. They are our first podcast sponsor. Um, they navigate the complexities of selling a business in our area. So if you are looking uh for that type of business, please reach out to Viking Mergers and Acquisitions, a uh chamber member and as mentioned, a sponsor of our wonderful building business podcast. My name is Kathy Herman, and I am a past president of the Chamber of Commerce. Uh I am also the current chair of the Rise Women in Business Committee. And um in my real job, I am the marketing director for the Mount Pleasant Town Center. Uh so thank you so much for joining us today. I have um a new is that my second time co-hosting, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Is it second? Maybe second.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

We already did one.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

We've done a few together. Oh, okay. So then obviously I can't count.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

Okay. No, maybe it's more than second. But anyway, I'm so excited today because I have a new exciting co-host with me, uh, Amanda Bunton Coman, and she is the newly appointed marketing and communications guru for the chamber. Woo-hoo. Congratulations, Amanda. I know it's so exciting, Rob.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

We've worked together a lot. You've uh lot of hard work and a lot of great uh projects worked on. Listen, if you're sorry, I jumped the gun. It's quite right. Nobody knows who's here yet.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

Um anyway, I mean, I'm really excited to have you. And of course, we have an amazing, amazing guest for us today. Um, unless you've been living under a rock, you are going to know who he is. Um he has been uh Storm Team 2's chief meteorologist since September of 1987. We want to talk about legacy. Uh-huh. Um I wanted to some notable achievements that I looked up on this is great. In 2006, Governor Mark Sanford awarded him the Order of the Palmetto. That's true. I can eat to talk about that. If you don't know what that is, it's the highest award given to a citizen in the state of South Carolina. And in 2017, he was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle Society. An award that honors a lifetime of dedication to the television industry. Again, I mean just amazing. Wow, my head is blowing up right now. So if uh again, if you uh listen to the weather in this town, uh, which you need to do every single day, as we know, because we do not know what's going to happen. So excited you're gonna want to listen and welcome Rob Fowler.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Thank you, Kathy. Thank you, Amanda. Nice to be here.

SPEAKER_03 4:03

Uh, so excited to have you. I'm also like a we I'm like one of those weather enthusiast fetish. I like I can't stop watching the weather.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

You know, it's it's something that affects all of us. I mean, you if you can watch the news, you can listen to the sports, but weather is something that uh everybody takes note of because it does impact how we dress and how we act and how we react and and um love the weather here.

SPEAKER_03 4:24

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

It affects events in Charleston every day.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Yes, it does. And uh that that gets to be a little dicey at times because people are relying on that forecast. And and while we've come a long way, and we'll talk about that in weather forecasting, we're not perfect, never will be. Uh, but the bottom line is we're getting better each and every time that we kind of put computer models out there and update them. So uh we're we're getting better at forecasting those um weather forecasts for specific events like weddings, and and in this case, while we're recording this, we're looking at the air show going on and those kinds of things.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

I was gonna bring that up because I going over the bridge today, I saw the Blue Angels. Yeah. You still practice? I did. Oh, they flew over twice.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

And that is so cool.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

And I was thinking, I'm like, yeah, what are they gonna do?

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Yeah, you know, I I know they they're they know better than I in terms of what they can handle in terms of weather, but Saturday that they're supposed to have the big air show, which I think is so amazing that they can do this. Uh, you know, obviously we've got rain in the area and maybe even thunderstorms.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

So they'll have to very much need it, though, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Yes, and and that's why, you know, that's part of the job that uh a lot of people, you know, uh don't really kind of understand is that we're not rooting on the dry weather for all of those outdoor activities. We'd like to see it, but at the same time, we know the farmers in a drought situation we're in now, uh, severe to extreme, they need water. They need rain. And um, so a lot of times, yes, there was lots of outdoor activities, but we're just trying to balance being positive about the rain and and hopefully getting enough time where it's dry and we can get these outdoor activities in.

SPEAKER_03 5:56

Well, this is actually going to air after, so we should all bet. Is it gonna happen or not? And we can look back at it.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Well, that's what we need, the the Monday morning quarterback.

SPEAKER_03 6:05

I'm gonna I'm saying it's gonna happen. They're gonna get it in.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Okay, I I I think I'm leaning that way too, because I I think they may have to alter the schedule a little bit and maybe their full performance. But based on the radar that I'm looking at now, the forecast radar, I think there's gonna be a little window.

Hurricane Betsy Sparks A Career

SPEAKER_03 6:18

I'm hopeful I got my fingers crossed. All right. All right, look at that. Three for three. Um, all right. Before we start talking more about the things I know Manda and I are so interested in, uh, let our listeners know a little bit more about you. I said you've been doing the low country weather for over 35 years. It had to start somewhere, Rob. So where did that start?

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Well, you know, it probably started, and this seems like such a corny story, but it's true. I was born in New Orleans in 1960, and when I was five years old, 1965, New Orleans had a hurricane called Hurricane Betsy. I know we all remember Katrina, but Betsy was a big hurricane, and as a five-year-old child, it was my first hurricane going through. Um and we actually went to my grandparents' house, excuse me, and spent the night there. My grandparents' house didn't flood as much. This is my dad's mom and dad. And so um they gave me a job that night that Betsy was coming through, and that was to put dry towels under the front door to try to keep the water from coming in. And I remember that as my first experience with a hurricane, and from that point on I was I was smitten with weather, especially hurricanes and tropical weather. So I started learning more, started reading more, um, then eventually got older and said, What am I gonna do? And I like to talk and I like to talk about weather. So I grew up, excuse me, grew up in Atlanta then. That's where my child, after I moved from Atlanta, and uh just continued my studies in weather. Um, thought I was going to the University of Georgia um and go dogs, and still a big Georgia fan. But uh February, my uh senior year in high school, I went and visited a school called Georgia Southern in Statesboro, Georgia, and I absolutely fell in love.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

So you went to the rival school?

Green Bay Detour And Charleston Move

SPEAKER_00 8:00

I went to a rival school. At that time, there were only 6,000 students, and in the university in Georgia, that state, Georgia, and Georgia Tech kind of rule. So this was a fairly new school, but I just fell in love with it. It was what I needed, um, smaller, and continued my studies there and then graduated, and I got a job in Savannah, started doing weather in Savannah in 1982 and worked there for about three and a half years. Um, and then I just totally out of the blue uh got a call from uh a consultant saying, Hey Rob, a station has looked at your work and they like it and they'd like to fly you up uh and see if you're interested in a meteorologist job, but we can't tell you where it is. Oh. So is there some intrigue to that? So and part of it uh was I don't think that position was was open yet. So um they were trying to fill it before they didn't want to let the cat out of the bag. And um and so they said, but you're gonna get a call next week. So the following week, I was getting ready for the midday show at WTOC TV in Savannah. Phone rang. On the other end was a guy named Tom McCary from WBAY in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He said, Rob, and this is kind of like Kathy, we talked off here about New York and the weather and all that. And and um and he said, Listen, it's cold up here, but we like your work, we'd like to fly you up. So I flew up to Green Bay. It was in September. I left Savannah, it was 80. I got to Green Bay and it was like 35. I mean, even in September it was cold. And I thought, what am I doing? I'm a Southern boy, what is this? So, but I like the people, I like the station, and so I said, okay. And I came up there and I knew God sent me up there for a reason because shortly after I got there, I saw this cute young lady in the hallway carrying some video tapes. This is back in the day when we had all those big old three-quarter inch video tapes, and she was kind of struggling, and I offered to help her in the hallway, and and we got to be friends, and I asked her out for lunch, and she went to lunch, and um in December, we'll be married 39 years. So um turned out to be my wife. And and then after two years up in Green Bay, I really wanted to get back to the South. And so um I saw a job offer for the chief meteorologist at Channel 2 here in Charleston. And so I uh answered the ad and set my tape, and they called me and flew me down. They put me up at the Lodge Alley Inn on East Bay Street. And I remember walking out the next morning um and I called Cara and I said, if they offer me this job, I'm gonna take it. And they offered, I took it, um, went back home, proposed to her, because we'd already been talking about that. And then eventually uh we got married, and I was already here from September to December. We got married in December, or back in Green Bay, and the rest is history, and I came in '87. Two years after that, we know what happened, Hurricane Hugo. And so that was a benchmark for me professionally and personally. And, you know, Amanda, we we talked about this. Uh, you've been here for a while, and and there was just something about Hugo. It was a you I couldn't leave after that. It was like I was tied to this community. I wanted to be here, wanted to see that through. So two years becomes four years, four becomes six, six becomes ten, the kids are born, they make friends, we make friends. And in September of next year, 27, I'll celebrate 40 years at Channel Two. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

So And now you have how many grandkids?

SPEAKER_00 11:19

I have five grandkids, three kids, five grandkids. My two oldest kids live here. They're the ones with the five. My son has three, and my daughter has two, and then my youngest um he is in D.C., he's an attorney, and he's married, but he said, Mom and dad, give me some give us some time. I said, Absolutely, we got five. You take your time. They just got married in May of last year.

SPEAKER_03 11:39

So that's great news all around then.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

So that's that's kind of how it all started.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

How did your bride take from moving from Wisconsin to Charleston?

SPEAKER_00 11:47

You know, it's interesting because she'd never been to Charleston. So um as I hadn't either when I first came to never be.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Is she uh uh from Wisconsin?

SPEAKER_00 11:55

She's Green Bay, born and raised. And so yeah, this was a total shock to her. And so she came down in October of 1987. So I got here in September. She came down in October. That's the first time she's ever been here to see the place that she would be living, and she loved it. And um now she's the first one. When it gets 40 here, she's like, Oh my god, I'm so cold.

SPEAKER_03 12:16

She's certainly gotten rid of that.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

And I'm like, How did you grow grow up in 40 below? She goes, I've been here almost 40 years. So acclimated, really. Your blood thin's out.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Okay, are they Packers fans? Yes, you have to be. And I didn't know that. I thought that you grew up in Wisconsin, so I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

But I just think today yeah, a lot of people think that uh I I'm a big Packers fan. I'm a very big fan of Wisconsin. I love the two years there that I had there. I met some great people. Yeah, and met my wife there. But uh, you know, her family is so wonderful. I'll I'll tell you a story. And and um so I went up there not knowing anybody. You know, I had never been there before. It was cold. I'm not gonna lie, I was looking at myself in the mirror a few times saying, What did I just do? Why did I come up here? And um, when I started dating Cara, her mom invited me over for every single family function. So if there were birthday parties, and Cara has a big family, so there might be a hundred people and they're all family at this birthday party. But um, every single day, if I could come over for dinner or lunch, they had me. So there would be times where Cara would be working. I would be off because I work some weekends up there on Monday and Tuesday. Her mom would say, Hey, I fixed lunch, come on over. So we'd call Cara and Car would say, What you doing? I said, I'm here with your mom. So uh they made me feel like family. So that really made those two years um so much better. But but I knew that it at the end I wanted to be a chief meteorologist and I wanted to get back to the South. And then fortunately, we were blessed with Charleston, South Carolina.

Weather Change Flooding And Sea Level

SPEAKER_03 13:49

Yeah, it's pretty amazing. And I'm sure, you know, again, over the over the almost 40 years, how has the weather in our reason in our region changed?

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Aaron Powell You know, it's interesting because I I think the perception is that the weather has changed a lot, but I think is it out of the yeah. No, it it's uh I think there's a lot, Kathy, that goes into this and you know, the population. You know, let's just say that, okay, there used to be the woods that have now been replaced by a a shopping center. And now all of a sudden we're areas that didn't flood before now are flooding because you don't have that uh ability to soak up the water. You've got asphalt and the water's just running off. So I I think the perception maybe there's more bigger storms, uh maybe there's bigger hurricanes, but I think a lot of it is the fact that there's just more population, more people in harm's way. I was gonna say environment, right? Yeah. But having said that, I mean, you know, I do believe that the earth is getting warmer and the ramifications are sea level rise, which we know that when, you know, we get a high tide of about seven feet, we have water in some of our roadways. So that's inherently potentially could be a problem. And there's also a perception, maybe, you know, more tornadoes, more this, more that. I think that's just the the age that we're in where everybody is videoing everything. So there used to be a tornado that moved across Farmer Joe's field in Iowa. He would be the only one to see it. So what then he videos it, sends it to the weather channel, and now everybody gets to see it. So but no, I you know, I think there's a lot of um things that we have to take into consideration. For instance, Shadow Moss, I don't remember that that neighborhood over west of the Ashley on 61 ever flooding as much as it does now. Um I didn't. I used to live there. Yeah, I it's amazing. And Church Creek, there's a place called Church Creek, is now literally part of the National Weather Service verbiage when they say, Hey, we're monitoring Church Creek. I'd never heard of it before, but then we had the floods of 2015, and all of a sudden Church Creek Creek became a benchmark in terms of wow, is it going to flood?

Social Media Hype And Trustworthy Sources

SPEAKER_03 15:46

And what about the so I love social media. I love everyone trying to be their own weather on social media. I know that's fabulous. I mean, I I follow you and um and some of your and some of your colleagues as well on other stations. Yeah. I'd love to get, you know, if it's something big coming, I need three people's opinions. Uh, but I love um the people who think that they are weathermen or med or meteorologists, and people listen to them and it cracks me up. Yeah. I mean, I mean, they could be dangerous sometimes, though, don't you think?

SPEAKER_00 16:14

That's that's a great question, a great comment, too. You know, we try to have people, you know, trust a source, you know. If if if there's somebody you trust, certainly, you know, kind of ride that horse as long as you can. I I get it, you know. Uh the social mediologist, as we call them, you know, they they're they're trying to get some clicks and those kinds of things. And there are some that really are legitimate. They may not be a degreed meteorologist, but they really have an interest in the weather. But having said that, there's some things we gotta watch out for, and the fact that sometimes there's a computer model run that's ten days out saying this ex-hurricane is going to hit Charleston in ten days. You know, sometimes we have trouble forecasting ten minutes from now. So, you know, if you're out ten days, the the chances of things changing are great. And then people share that and then it becomes the gospel. And I I believe that social media is one of the best things invented and one of the worst things.

SPEAKER_03 17:08

I'm 100% with you.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

It's a great way to get information out, but unfortunately it's a great way to get misinformation out. So what we have to do, and people always say, Rob, you've been doing this a long time, it's probably easier for you. I'm saying, no, it's actually harder. Because now we're weeding through that misinformation. We've got to weed through that first to get the real story. And some people won't listen. They've already made up their mind that that storm is going to hit us. But I I still think it's a great way to get information out. And I just encourage um your listeners and viewers to this podcast just to find a source that you trust and and just you know, hang your hat on that.

Why Forecasts Differ From National TV

SPEAKER_03 17:41

No, I agree. And the other thing, the other thing I always laugh about is um I don't know if I should admit this, but I'm going to anyway. I watch local news. Thank you. Because you guys are here, right? So um my spouse watches you know the the dreaded weather channel. And so like if if if there's something coming this way, he's watching one and I'm watching the other, and we argue constantly because I go, and he's like, Well, they're the you know, they're the weather channel. They know I go, no, they're not here. I know you guys are looking at the same thing, but could you just explain to me and anyone listening who's interested in the weather? Like, how can how can forecasts be so different? Does that make sense? Do you understand what I'm trying to ask about?

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Absolutely. Listen, uh the weather channel it does a wonderful job, but I'll give you a great example. Um many times if there's a storm coming, you may hear hear the Weather Channel or other networks say, hey, this storm is going to impact the Carolinas. Well, the Carolinas is a pretty geographical region. Is that is that Cape Hatteras? Is it Charleston? Is it Myrtle Beach? Is it so um when you just kind of broad brush that, it it creates some confusion. Then it's my job to take that information and say, no, this is the area most likely to be impacted. This part of the coast, this part of South Carolina, North Carolina, whatever it might be. So it's our job because we're local. And also, you know, when you live somewhere, you start to learn those little idiosyncrasies, those little micro scale that someone who may just be reading a map from another place, yeah, you can read the map, but you gotta really live it. You gotta be there. And we have a lot of young reporters, and and they will come into the weather office, you know, what can I expect? Is this gonna hit us? What's gonna happen? And we kind of start talking it through about well, this is very similar to the storm a few weeks ago that made that turn. I think the same pattern's in play. So it we're gonna see a turn and it's not really going to impact us. So there's a there's a lot that we have to do on the local level to really bring it down to the local level because that's what I care about.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

The people are different here than Myrtle Beach and Cape Hatteras.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

And the impacts are gonna be different uh wherever you are, and and that's one thing that we're trying to get away from is um saying, well, it's just a tropical storm, we'll be okay. It's just a category one, we've survived those before. But each storm has its own identity, so we're trying to really get away from it's just this and say, what are the impacts going to be for me? What can I expect here in the Charleston, uh South Carolina area? Uh hey, Myrtle Beach, Savannah, those areas we'll mention as well, but we're really kind of focused in on what the impacts will be for us right here.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

I think uh one thing that people tend to forget about Charleston the way it's unique is there's so many bridges. Yes. And the weather affects all the bridges, whether it's hot, wet, or cold or or even icy. Icy, yeah. Yeah, the first time. First time since 88, 89. I listen to you when you see that I shared that with a lot of people, and they're like, wow.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Yeah, I tell the school kids because they always want to know about snow. I said, listen, you guys, you're lucky. You've had snow back to back years. Most of these other kids that have come before you didn't see it.

SPEAKER_03 20:52

I've never heard someone lucky to have snow. But that's what they want. That's what they want. I know they want to play in it.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

But no, that's a that's that's a it's a good discussion to have that um, you know, just find somebody that that that is going to give you local information. And but we know that everybody has relatives that might live somewhere else. So we try to give, you know, more of a national forecast sometimes, but it's really our job to kind of bring it down to this level.

Microclimates And What Rain Odds Mean

SPEAKER_03 21:14

And I know Amanda's probably seen this too, but I've laughed. I mean, I work um at town center and I live in Dunes West, which is what seven miles apart, not even. I've had events at town center where the sun is out, it's beautiful, and no one's came no one comes because it's pouring and thundering at my house. So that's fi I mean, how does that I'm again I I I'm fascinated on how that and it happens a lot in Mount Pleasant.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

And I think Rob needs to explain uh you d you shared this at some of the Chamber of Congress lunches before. When you say it's a ninety percent chance of rain, what does that mean? Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 21:49

Okay, so you got two questions there.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Okay. So yeah, so obviously the weather can change you know mile to mile. I mean, even even uh the sun could be out at your house and the cloud they're producing the rain is down the street, but the the rain is not coming straight horizontal, it's being blown your way. So it may be raining on you when the sun's directly uh overhead. But that can happen. And yes, the we have so much water, water has a major impact on what kind of weather we may see because the water can also change the winds. You might have an easterly wind coming in from the ocean that's bringing a storm inland, but you know, five, ten miles away from the coast, it's nice and sunny. So the sea breeze has a lot to do. And then there we have what we call outflow boundary. So storms kind of breathe, and as they breathe, they kind of throw some wind out ahead of them. And that creates other areas where uh you might have a little lift in the air, and maybe a little line of thunderstorms forms right there where the air is coming up, uh, that outflow boundary. And and forecasting and pinpointing where those are going to be is very, very, very difficult. So probability of precipitation, POP it's abbreviation. Okay. It's it's a a equation. It's my confidence confidence that it's going to. Rain times the aerial area that we think it's going to rain in, that equals pop. So let's say I'm 50% confident we're going to see rain over 50% of the area. 0.5 times 0.5 is 0.25. That's 25%. That's a 25% probability of precipitation. All right.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

So there's no way that the average person knows that. Exactly. You know, I look at it and I'm like 50%, it's got to there's a 50% chance it's going to rain in all of Mount Pleasant today.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

So but but what you guys are talking about is a perfect example that it may be raining at your house and not a town center. Well, people don't stay in one place all day long. So where we take the observations, we launch the weather balloons is from the National Weather Service office in North Charleston near the airport. So that's really our our main focal point for the individual pop. But nobody lives there. So what we have to do then is we have to extrapolate and say, okay, um out of the whole area, the probability that's going to rain in our area in the Charleston area is roughly 50% or 40% or 30%. So we we have to kind of take some um liberties, if you will, with that forecast equation and just know that people aren't staying in one place. They're not sitting at the airport where we would say there's a 90% chance of rain at the airport, but there may be a 30% chance of rain at the coast at the beach. How many times have you been to the beach where it's nice and sunny and you look to the west and you got those dark clouds, you know?

SPEAKER_03 24:31

Amanda, did you understand that? Like so when you look at the weather, do you go, wait a minute, like calculate this in my head?

SPEAKER_02 24:37

No, every time I look at the weather now, ever since he said that the first time I heard it a couple years ago, I've I react differently.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

It's it is it is hard.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

And and because some people say for me to explain it, it's not I can't really explain it that well.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

There's different things, you know. Is it raining 50% of the time? Is it raining 50% of the area? So you've got to kind of combine those two and just say, okay, we're gonna get rain for a period of time, and it's probably gonna rain about for one out of every two people are gonna see rain.

SPEAKER_03 25:11

You know what I've been obsessed with now because I don't because I still can't fathom all of this the radar on the weather apps. Because I can l I can literally see, and I'm sure it's not a hundred thousand percent correct, but uh if I'm like if I'm planning an event and it is supposed to be in an hour or two hours, you look at that radar and you can push a little button and see when those clouds are literally coming over Mount Pleasant Town Center, and I can make a decision of whether or not I think it's really gonna h I mean so like you said about love and hate of technology, right? To me, as a business owner or business w working in a business, that has been a huge um feat for me technically uh with the weather forecasting.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Uh you know what, I've been doing this a long time, and I am amazed at the accuracy of the forecast and the timing from an hour-to-hour situation, minute by minute. I know there's an old joke that we hear quite often is I wish I had a job where I could be right half the time and still get paid.

SPEAKER_03 26:11

I was gonna say that at the end, so that it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

No, that's okay. But uh and I take it with a grain of salt, but the bottom line is I've been doing this a while and I've seen the progression of the technology. And the computers are bigger, faster, stronger. They're crunching more numbers. Uh that you could sit here and say in ten minutes this storm's gonna reach us and it's gonna produce this amount of rain, and by you know, 1.30 it's gonna be gone, or two o'clock, it's gonna be gone. And that's uh even I know we're taping this, but this morning was a great example. I mean, we had rain in the morning. We thought the rain would be out of here by nine or ten, it has been. Now it's been dry, and we await the next arrival of rain, you know, as we get closer to this weekend coming up. But um I I'm amazed. And and I know um a lot of people focus on the wrong forecast, and believe me, we're not perfect. But there are m a lot more forecasts that are actually right. Correct, yeah. That actually are correct, and and you're like, wow, okay. He or she said it was gonna rain at one o'clock and it's raining, and they said it'd be gone by two and it's gone.

AI In Forecasting And Human Judgment

SPEAKER_02 27:07

This will air, I think, next week. Okay. So we're we're good. And I'm gonna ask a question I know Kathy's not gonna like. Um, what do you think of AI?

SPEAKER_00 27:16

Oh gosh, good question. Um I I can tell you that's how I not like that.

SPEAKER_03 27:20

I can see Rob as an AI guy doing the weather. I know you don't like using AI.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

No, I don't well, I just like people, so and I like people too, and I I'm hoping that our business will continue to have that people element to it. But um they've done some research last year, the hurricane season, the Google AI model actually outperformed the European model and the GFS. So that's kind of scary, right? It is a little scary, and and I think that's the future. And we can't ignore the fact that in some businesses and some walks of life, that's gonna become the norm. Um I don't think it would be in our business just because I think you still need that human element telling the story. But the AI models are gonna help us tell the story. Right. They're gonna help us uh gather information and confidence that we need. I know that you know, when looking at a hurricane and we've got all these models that we're running at different times of the day, and and the closer they get together, the more confident you can be, hey, you know, all these are lining up that this is going to impact us or not impact us. Right. Um so I I think that's that's something that, you know, we've got to keep watch on.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

I think you're always gonna need a human element for that.

SPEAKER_00 28:32

To have the empathy and share the urgency and the stress the you know, the importance of Yeah, no, and and I I I've been lucky enough to be here a while, and I have people coming up to me and say, you know, Rob, we can hear it in your voice, we can see it in your eyes. So it's almost like they they know when they need to take something more seriously, and they know that, okay, I think he feels pretty good about this. And I uh when I tell people when I'm on TV and I'm telling you information that maybe, you know, something might be fairly impactful, I'm talking to you, but I'm talking to me too. Because I have family here, I have a house, my kids have houses, all those things. So I'm not gonna say anything that would would be too far out there, uh knowing that that might cause some concern and maybe some you know unwarranted concern. I'm just telling you exactly what I'm telling myself.

unknown 29:23

That's awesome.

How A Daily TV Forecast Gets Made

SPEAKER_03 29:23

All right, so creating your daily forecast without getting into too much detail about you know, blah, blah, blah. Um, what goes into that? And is there anything that our the people who just view you every day might not know? Like I love the green screen. I love walking into the studio. See what you're wearing right now, you you would disappear. You can't wear green. Um, but that viewers might not realize goes into what you do every day for us.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Okay, I can tell you honestly that um I get in work about one o'clock every day. We our first newscast is at four. Um I don't come in at five minutes till four and look out the window and say, here's what the weather is. Um we have to put together, I always liken it to like a PowerPoint. You know, we put together a PowerPoint presentation every day. What's the weather story? So we have to come in, we build the graphics that help tell the story. At the same time, we're looking at all the different data that's coming in, temperatures, uh forecast, clouds and rain and those kinds of things. And then we we put these all of this together into a forecast. But again, the graphics are a big part of this. So um you're not just gonna see me standing there for three minutes. Smiley faces. Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 30:31

And all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

So so that takes a while to put those graphics together. But and then, you know, I've always adopted something. I've worked with some really wonderful chief meteorologists, and climatology is a big, big thing I'd love to do. And you know, everybody likes to know how do you compare to normal? How are we based on what else has happened around us? So uh climatology, you know, yes, we're below normal in rainfall, we're above normal in temperatures. This is the second driest April on record, second driest March was last month. So those kinds of things keep me interested, and I hope they keep the viewers interested. But it's just another way to kind of relay the weather story.

Hurricane Season Forecasts And Preparation

SPEAKER_03 31:07

That's awesome. Um, like I said, I watch I watch the weather every single morning. Um sometimes at night before I go to bed, but definitely every morning. Um let's let's talk about the elephant too in the room here, right?

SPEAKER_00 31:19

I thought you meant the real elephant that we had on the channel too.

SPEAKER_03 31:22

Um, no, no. I um hurricane season. Now I did I read that it was supposed to be quieter than normal, or did we just all jinx it? Yeah, I hope not.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

It was quiet last year. Remember, you know, we're the wood.

SPEAKER_03 31:36

Where's the wood?

SPEAKER_00 31:37

We had all those storms that turned, you know, and and we had a number of storms, but uh nothing really impacted us. So we were very lucky. June 1st is the beginning of hurricane season. And some of the earlier um forecasts, yes, are coming out is probably lower than average. Uh average now is 14 named storms. That means tropical storms, at least 39 miles an hour, seven hurricanes, at least seventy-four, generally seventy-five, and then the major hurricanes are greater than 110, and we're expecting maybe three of those. So 14, 7, and 3 is what we say we, we mean the world, right? Yeah, not we, not us as in Charleston. You know, one thing we can't forecast are landfalls. What we can look at, but you know, there's a there's a global um element to this, and that is what's called El Nino. El Nino is a periodic warming of the waters off the coast of, you know, South America. And those upper level winds, because of the warm water, change things a little bit and they create very hostile winds that blow across North America all the way to Africa that inhibit tropical storm growth. Tropical storms and hurricanes have to grow vertically. And if you can cut that off by having strong winds that shear or tear them apart, that doesn't allow them to grow and vent and get stronger. So the El Nino, we think, is going to be pretty strong. But having said that, uh, there's always great examples like 1992. Uh that year we only had seven storms, but it was the same year we had Hurricane Andrew. And there have only been four Category V hurricanes in our history that have made landfall as a Category five in the United States. Labor Day Storm of 1935, Hurricane Camille in 1969, Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and most recently Hurricane Michael over in 2018. So that was the year that we had Hurricane Andrew. So I'm sure for the folks in South Florida and eventually Louisiana, in their mind it wasn't a below average year because they have benchmark storms that they can, you know, relay uh or rely on terms of information.

SPEAKER_03 33:37

What scares me is just like you just don't know.

SPEAKER_00 33:39

You don't know?

SPEAKER_03 33:40

I just I love listening. Well, we're gonna you know, it's still a few days out, we gotta see which way it turns. And I'm like, turn I know. Everyone's just yelling at their TVs, turn.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

We're all glued to whatever device we're tuned into and just waiting.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

And and you guys were, you know, we were talking about we also have to be prepared.

SPEAKER_03 33:57

Yes, yeah, well, that was my next question. I want to make sure that you go over like what problems. Everybody in this town in the area just moved here.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

You know, we always say get the kits ready early. You know, don't wait till last. Yeah, you can put them in your garage, put them in a bucket. Uh you've got batteries, you've got mil or water, uh, you've got per non-perishable items, you've got batteries, you've got um, you know, keep in mind now you're not gonna be able to open cans because we won't have electricity potentially, so you've got to have those, you know, uh openers that can't openers that open without having electricity. So there's so many things that you can you can do. Um know where you're going to go if you have to leave. And we understand this is this is a hard subject that we always say, okay, you know, evacuate, go somewhere. Well, not everybody has the resources to just up and leave and and go and get a hotel room for a week or whatever. So we have to remember that, you know, we've got to make sure that everybody's informed and and staying protected wherever they may be, uh, you know, depending on what the storm is, whether it's gonna be a big hurricane or a little hurricane or a little tropical storm that might come in at a different time at a different uh area. And that can also have implications in what the forecast is going to be. Right. Is it a m full moon? Is it a new moon? Is it the moon at perigee where it's close in its orbit around the earth, so the tide is going to be higher? All those things go into our thought process when we're talking about a landfalling storm.

SPEAKER_03 35:25

And uh you know, everyone keeps saying about not when no, not if it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. I mean, is that what meteorologists think, or is that just us doomsdayers?

SPEAKER_00 35:35

No, I think that I think that's legit. Um when I got here in 1987.

SPEAKER_03 35:39

Can we wait a hundred years? Yes. Please, please, another hundred years.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

The storms the storms that people asked me about were Hurricane Hazel in nineteen fifty four and Hurricane Gracie in nineteen fifty-nine. So when I would go do a a school visit or a church group talk, they were asking me about those. This is before Hugo ever happened. Well, now you don't hear about Hazel or Gracie too many times because you hear about Hugo. So there had been 30 years between Gracie and Hugo when I got here in terms of uh a big hurricane impacting us. So um hopefully we'll continue that, but you know, the average return of a uh major hurricane along the South Carolina coast is about twenty-two years. And we're coming up on thirty-seven. Yeah.

Earthquakes Climatology And Pattern Matching

SPEAKER_02 36:24

Yeah. Um does uh your the things that you talk about weather-wise, do that include earthquakes too?

SPEAKER_00 36:33

You know, uh uh meteorology is the study of the atmosphere. That's what's going on above us. Um that's a whole other science, seismology, that that deals with earthquakes. But as an earth scientist, I guess in a way, you still need to know what's going on there. But that's what's happening under the ground. Those are very hard to predict. Those swarms of recent days that we've had. Um there uh there's two schools of thought. Some feel like, okay, those are good because they're releasing the energy, um, preventing a big one. And then some people believe, no, this is just a precursor, a sign of the big one.

SPEAKER_03 37:07

Because we are on a aren't we on a fault line?

SPEAKER_00 37:09

We're on a fault line, and we did have a big earthquake back in 1886. So the history is there. And I know that's a long time ago, but but uh one thing that that we do a lot of when you're dealing with hurricane forecasting, especially sometimes even during you know, hurricane whatever it might be, is you look at climatology. You know, what's happened in the past, and if a certain storm was in this certain area many years ago and here's the solution in that storm, we use that information as history to say, hey, this could happen again. Right. Because the patterns are the same. And and certainly here was the outcome, you know, fifty years ago, 40 years ago, whatever it might be.

SPEAKER_03 37:44

That's so interesting to me.

SPEAKER_00 37:46

It is. That's uh one of the models that we run is a climatology model that looks at past storms and says this is how they reacted. Is this going to react the same way?

SPEAKER_03 37:55

I gotta tell you, and I I've told Amanda this before too, I think. I mean, I come from I I've been here ten years, I moved here from New York. Um hurricanes scare the bejesus out of me. I can sit through a blizzard and or whatever, and I'll tell you why, is because when when you're in a blizzard, you're home, mostly home, right? Safe with the fireplace going, you're not going anywhere. There's no I mean a tree could fall. But uh I also uh lived on Long Island during the superstarm Sandy and that was terrifying. Um we lost power for ten days and um I didn't even have we didn't even have a flood, it was just tree damage. But that was a terrifying time. I when I I hear a hurricane, I am one of those people, and my husband just makes fun of me and I just stand there and I go, I can't I and I shut all the windows, the blind, I I just well everything you said is valid because um I had a chance to fly into Hurricane Sandy.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

So I was in the Hurricane Hunter, and I remember at that time it had morphed. It wasn't really a hurricane, you mentioned the superstorm, but the wind field had spread out to basically a thousand miles in diameter. So all the science officers on board the Hurricane Hunter aircraft, they were discussing, they said this is gonna be a storm to be talked about for many, many years to come because of the expanse of the windfield, which ultimately caused water levels to rise. So uh being in that storm, uh I get goosebumps because I remember how just amazing it was, number one, to be flying inside of a hurricane and number two to realize that the impacts that people were going to feel and you felt them were going to be so wide-reaching.

SPEAKER_03 39:33

And to think about now, um I'm gonna say the last thing about Hugo, then we're gonna have some fun stuff. But this is really important to anyone, especially people who've just moved here. The difference in the amount of the population in this area from when Hugo hit is astronomical.

SPEAKER_00 39:49

It is.

SPEAKER_02 39:49

When I moved to the city, I mean that's gotta be very concerning back then and during Floyd when I was in college. I just can't imagine what it's gonna be like.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

Well, let me tell you, when I moved here um in 87, Snee Farm was the country. If you live north of Snee Farm, people ask you why do you live in the country? Uh there were 15,000 people in Mount Pleasant. Now, the one the one point that we tried to drive home about Hugo is Hugo was a category four hurricane. But Hugo was only a category four hurricane for a small part of the area. That was up in the forest, that was Cape Romain, that was Bulls Bay, that was McClellanville. For Charleston, Somerville, James Island, um, Isle of Palms, it was only a category two. Uh the winds, highest winds at the Custom House downtown were recorded 100 miles an hour. That's a cat two. So what I try to tell people is let's take Hugo, the center, instead of the Charleston Harbor, let's move it to Edistow. Now you're bringing um down the coast the 175 mile per hour wind gust, the 22-foot storm surge they saw in McClellanville. Um now you're moving all that down into the population center. So, really, in a strange way, where Hugo hit along the coast of South Carolina was probably the best place for it to go because it hit an area that was not very well populated at that time.

SPEAKER_03 41:06

Um now you can't get away from the people.

SPEAKER_00 41:08

No, so so we always tell people, and hey, everybody wants to say I went through the worst of whatever, and a lot of people I'm not gonna downplay Hugo because it was it was something tremendous in terms of the impact that it felt. And the and still to this day, people talk about it like it was yesterday, and I do too. But um there's gonna be another storm somewhere down the road that could maybe have more impacts than Hugo because it may come in at a different time in a different place.

SPEAKER_03 41:33

All right, now I need to make people laugh.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

Before you do get to your questions, Kathy, I want it you might not know the lore of Rob Fowler's mustache. I'm sorry. See, she doesn't. No.

SPEAKER_00 41:48

So um so when I got here, um I had a mustache. I've had a mustache since I, you know, when you're when you're 13 or 14, you think you have a mustache and you really don't, you know. But I go all the way back to those days and I had a mustache. And um, so in 2007, um Tom Selleck shaved his mustache, Alex Trebek shaved his mustache mustache. I'm not putting me on that on that level, but um we have consultants and they came and said, you know, Rob, mustaches are kind of out, you know, now they're not in like they used to be. Would you would you be willing to shave your mustache? And at first I thought about it, I'm like, if we can raise money for a charity, I'll do it. So we raise money for the Cancer Society, I think about$5,000. I shaved it live on TV at West Ashley High School during a relay for life event for the American Cancer Society. Nick Collins, love you, Nick. Uh Nick still cuts my hair to this day, and he did it live on the air and he was shaking. His hands were shaking. I said, Nick, please don't cut me live on the air.

SPEAKER_03 42:48

Stop shaking.

SPEAKER_00 42:49

So um so anyway, so um I shaved it off. And uh you know, I said, okay, I'll keep it off. You know. Well, I went into the Boulevard Diner. Remember the Boulevard Diner, I missed it so much. And Thomas McKelly was working there, and he was a member of this group of guys that were forming a band, but they didn't have a name. So he saw me and he told me the story later on. He called me at Channel 2 later on and said, Mr. Fowler, you came into the restaurant, I missed the mustache. Do you mind if we call our band Fowler's mustache? And I said, Cool. How how cool is that? So now they're a lot of them, they're older, they have kids, and but they're the greatest group of guys, and um and they still play around town. But yes, people come to me all the time and say, Do you know there's a band named after your mustache? And I'm like, uh yeah, I've heard a rumor. So I've I've introduced them at certain uh some of their gigs, and and it's an honor uh to be the the mustache lives on, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 43:43

Well it's funny you say that too because my husband, when I met when I met him, he had a mustache. He had had a mustache when his kids were born 15 years before that. And then when we got met, we got married with his mustache, and then all of a sudden I come home one day and it's gone. I looked at him, I go, I don't even know who you are.

SPEAKER_02 44:02

Was it around the same time period?

SPEAKER_03 44:03

We could uh no of 2003-ish. Okay, so a little bit earlier. Yeah. Yeah. Um I I didn't recognize him when he came home. My wife didn't. My kid. But now we look at him and we go, Oh my god, how did you get married with that mustache on my face?

SPEAKER_00 44:17

You know, and yes, and I I we were doing November Movember for a little while, and people said you you just it's just like you know, putting fertilizer. It just grows like that. You know, so now it would come back in different colors.

SPEAKER_03 44:29

And I'm not saying anything about mustaches because I actually do like them. But his was like that his was like that big bushy one that was like And I have the same one. Barry Tom Sellick, like you said.

SPEAKER_00 44:39

Still a big fan of mustaches, probably will keep mine off though.

SPEAKER_03 44:42

That's so funny.

SPEAKER_02 44:43

Um thanks for all you do for Oh I know, for everything. It's the community, the nonprofits and listen, the the community's done so much for us.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

I I if I can give back just a little bit, that's that's more uh more for me just because I they've been so great to me.

When The Forecast Goes Wrong

SPEAKER_03 44:58

I just want to know if you've ever gotten a forecast completely wrong.

SPEAKER_00 45:02

Oh gosh, yes. Um many, many times. I remember um you know, it's interesting. I've worked at all these TV stations. I've never had a window in any weather office I've worked in. Um there was a time where um where you know we have to remember that we get winds from the ocean. It was a beautiful day. I go on the air talking about what a beautiful day it's been. Had not been outside in a while, but there was a storm that was swarming the ocean and the wind shifted and brought it right on shore. And I want to tell you what, it looked like the world was coming to an end. And a guy called me and he said, Um, have you looked outside? And I'm like, uh no, it's so he's not what you said on TV. But probably the funniest thing, um, so there was one Friday night I was on TV saying it was gonna be a terrible Saturday. It was gonna be raining and a big storm, and and so uh I had my daughter Kylie, uh, she was probably three or something at the time, and she was with me and we went to the mall. Well, it turned out to be a beautiful day. It was couldn't have been sunnier. The sky couldn't have been bluer. We blew it big time. This storm didn't materialize. Well, immediately we get in the mall, this guy comes up, he recognizes me, an older gentleman. He said, I'm pointing his finger at me, I'm so mad at you. My wife dragged me to the mall because you said it was going to be a bad day. I should be in my garden working, I've got so much to do. He was so upset, and boy, he was reading me the Riot Act. And I was just kind of sitting there, yes, sir, I'm sorry. You know, to well, my daughter Kylie, without missing a beat, looked up and said, Sir, God makes the weather. My daddy just tells people about it. So, and needless to say, he stopped dead in his tracks. That's amazing. And I I looked, I said, Where'd that come from? Because we had never really discussed that, but she had picked up on that and and she was my saving grace. It worked when she was three. I don't think it'll work when she's 34. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 46:51

It might. It might. Oh, that's hysterical.

SPEAKER_00 46:53

But yes, we have we've missed a few, but you know, more times than not, there's a good reason that something just didn't materialize. And hopefully it's not a situation where we missed it and it turned out to be a major severe weather outbreak.

Live TV Mishaps And Off-Camera Moments

SPEAKER_03 47:04

That's awesome. All right, we got some fun and a couple more fun questions that we'll let you go, okay? Um what is something that's happened on live TV that viewers didn't see?

SPEAKER_00 47:14

Oh gosh. Um there are so many things that happen behind the scenes. Carolyn Murray is uh I I I call her she she's a riot. I call her my sister because uh and and she will try to crack you up and she she's making faces. We've had her on the podcast. She's been on the uh and Brendan. I mean, the two of them are just making each other laugh um for whatever reason. You know, probably you know, people in the studio um just kind of total oblivious, just walking through and they're on camera and they don't realize they're that they're on camera.

SPEAKER_02 47:46

You did that, Amanda? Yeah, at um the uh another studio here. Yeah. Oh, that's so funny.

SPEAKER_00 47:51

So, you know, the cameras are you gotta assume they're live all the time. And of course the microphones, you know, we hope nobody's saying any dirty words or anything. But sometimes you'll catch you'll s hear us in a conversation, and then all of a sudden you come back on and you can hear like a little bit and piece of probably my most embarrassing moment though, you did see on TV, when I was in Savannah, we had to set up a magnetic board. So we had a uh a magnetic map of South Carolina and Georgia and the United States, but we had to take magnets like a cloud magnet and a sun magnet, and the cold fronts were those little blue triangles you connected to make a long cold front. And so, you know, magnets, just like on your refrigerator, you put papers under them, and after a while that magnetic field's gonna weaken. Well, we had some old magnets, so I set this whole thing up, and then I went to the board live on TV and I kind of tapped the board and said, Here, we're gonna have some thunderstorms. Half those magnets came crashing to the ground live on TV. I thought I was gonna be fired because I was pretty new and everybody just laughed.

SPEAKER_03 48:49

But yeah, there's now it would be a blooper on the weather.

SPEAKER_00 48:51

That would be a blooper. That was before you two, thank goodness, you know.

SPEAKER_03 48:54

All right, do your friends and family blame you personally when you forecast when the forecast misses?

SPEAKER_00 48:59

Uh, you know, it's funny because uh my wife is, you know, we our first house it was in Chelsea Park and it had skylights. So we would be laying in bed. Let's say it's a Saturday morning, and I predicted it was going to be a nice day, and all of a sudden you hear the rain on the skylight. She goes, Honey, didn't you say it was gonna be nice today? So she's my she's the first one to kind of call me out uh about a forecast. But no, they're they're really good. They they call me a lot. My kids are all interested in what the weather is going to be, and and now their friends are texting them to find out what the weather is going to be. Ask your dad, is it gonna be raining or storming for this wedding or whatever it might be? Or we want to all go out boating. And um, I love the fact that my my oldest grandson, Roe, he's starting to pick up on what I do, and so he's uh you know telling everybody that his papa is the weatherman, so they're asking him weather questions, and he's good too. They're all all my kids, they've been like uh all the older grandkids, they've been the weather watcher at their school, and so my daughter-in-law will always send me a picture of them next to their their weatherboard. So it makes me proud as a as a papa.

SPEAKER_03 50:03

And then now can you get out of you know Harris Teeter without someone asking you about the weather?

SPEAKER_00 50:08

Um that's always a running joke.

SPEAKER_03 50:11

I do. I love Harris Teeter. I picked one of the grocery stores.

SPEAKER_00 50:14

I love Town Center. We love Town Center. Um no, but but there's a running joke in my family, just like, okay, we're just gonna go to the car and dad will get there when dad gets there. Um because I usually get trapped and trapped is not the right word because I really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_03 50:28

I was gonna say you seem like the type of the type of person that actually enjoys speaking with you.

SPEAKER_00 50:33

I do, I I really do, and I encourage people to come up. Uh I I would much rather them come up and and say hello and ask me if they have a question to ask me, if they have a comment, we'll take the comments too. You know, um obviously we're not perfect. We've we've you know we can do some things differently in TV, and I welcome any comments, whether they're a complaint or or constructive criticism. Uh I'm all over that. There was a uh my my one of my granddaughters got baptized at St. Andrews, and we had to get to the house for the for the party. Well, there was this wonderful family, and their daughter had dressed up as me for Halloween. Without a mustache, without a mustache, and had the little microphone and the little Rob Fowler name tag. I thought it was so cute. And they had sent me the picture, uh, but I'd never met them in person. Well, so we're coming out and they go to St. Andrews and they come running, running, running, and and they had the little girl too say, We we want to get a picture with you. And and and we did this. Well, my wife heard that. She goes, I'll meet you in the car. So and and took a picture, had a great little conversation, and then uh we were on the way back to the house for the party.

SPEAKER_03 51:38

That's amazing.

Favorite Weather Days And Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_00 51:39

All right, so beach day or cozy stormy day. Oh gosh, that's a good question. Uh, which do I prefer?

SPEAKER_03 51:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:47

Ooh.

SPEAKER_03 51:49

Because I think they're both kind of awesome.

SPEAKER_00 51:50

Yeah, I love I love the beach, but there's nothing like if you're you've had a long week at work and it's storming and it's a Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, you just kind of cozy up. And I I I think Yeah, I think we have less of those. So I'll take the I'll take the cozy, stormy day.

SPEAKER_03 52:07

What about our extreme heat or that freezing cold we had last winter?

SPEAKER_00 52:11

I, you know, I am not a cold weather fan, even though I spent two years in Wisconsin. I'll I can I'll take the heat any day of the week. I don't I don't mind. I just can't get warm when it gets cold.

SPEAKER_03 52:21

I see, I'm the opposite. I cannot get cool when I'm hot. When it's like 105 out, I just I can't.

SPEAKER_02 52:27

And I'm not gonna complain about 105. No, I know. I'm gonna complain about the snow and the ice. Yes, that's very true.

SPEAKER_00 52:32

Yeah, once you're cold, ooh, that's that's tough.

SPEAKER_03 52:34

It was very cold. Yeah. My electric, I mean everyone's electric bills disappeared. Oh, I I didn't want to get into that. That's a whole nother that's a whole nother podcast. You bring Dominion Energy for that. Yeah, exactly. Um, one more. What's your favorite weather word?

SPEAKER_00 52:47

Oh gosh. Um favorite weather word. Sunny? Is that good? Is that good?

SPEAKER_02 52:55

I forgot to ask you. Um since we're on the Chamber of Commerce podcast, tell me what Chamber of Commerce weather day means.

SPEAKER_00 53:03

Oh, that's that would be probably my favorite. Yes, Chamber of Commerce. So I i in and this is a personal thing. My favorite months of the year are April and October. And the reason for that is the highs average about 75, lows average 55. So basically a little cool in the morning, but nice and comfortable. Not too hot, not too cold in the afternoon. So I I think based on the the time of the year, I would say that those are Chamber of Commerce days, which means you can get out, you've got great weather to enjoy all of that we have to offer. And the Chamber of Commerce is loving it because people are coming because of that reason. And they're getting out.

SPEAKER_03 53:40

Well, that's how I feel about town center too. When it's when it's a bad storm, I go, Oh well, the store's not gonna be happy today.

SPEAKER_00 53:46

But when we when and and uh you know, I'll say this, you're sitting right here, but when we have visitors that come and we take them to town center, they're like, this is like the coolest. Um, because not too many places have this big giant open-air shopping area, and you guys do so much other stuff that adds, you know, adds fli uh, you know, value to it by coming in and seeing the art fest and all those kinds of things, too. So thank you, Rob. This isn't even about me, but thank you. No, no, I I I they they all our friends are like this is like the coolest. That's so awesome.

Where To Follow Rob And Closing Thanks

SPEAKER_03 54:17

Um I listen, I I I love listening about the weather. I really do. It's like a little private fascination of mine. Um and I, you know, I'm a huge fan of yours, and you've been such an amazing part of this community for such a long time, and um, I know you're so busy, so I know Amanda and I both appreciate you taking the time to be with us today. Well, I I wouldn't miss it. This has been fun. And remind our listeners exactly where they can find you um and what channels, all that, please.

SPEAKER_00 54:44

Yeah, I'm on channel too. Um, and we also on the CW, so we do newscasts, but I I think you know, Rob Fowler Storm Team 2 is my Facebook and that's my um Instagram, and I do a lot of updating, especially during hurricane season, and I try to ask people to share the message we're trying to send out so we can have a united message.

SPEAKER_03 55:01

So uh And download the Storm Team 2 weather app.

SPEAKER_00 55:04

Yeah, I got it right here. I have it on my phone.

SPEAKER_03 55:06

That's what I check every morning.

SPEAKER_00 55:08

Download that app and uh and follow along with us.

SPEAKER_02 55:11

Yeah, it's and when are you on channel two?

SPEAKER_00 55:13

I'm on uh four, five, six, ten, and eleven. Um and Monday through Friday. Don't work too many weekends unless there's something going on. But uh but yeah, Monday through Friday, um, I'm there.

SPEAKER_03 55:24

Let's just successor handle that. Enjoy the enjoy the grandkids on the weekends. Absolutely. Rob, thank you so much for being here today. We really appreciate it. It's been fun. Yeah, it's been great, hasn't it? Uh before we leave, um, I need to once again thank our sponsor, Viking Mergers and Acquisitions. You can visit them at VikingMergers.com. And of course, our incredible recording partner, Charleston Media Solutions. Thank you guys so much. They're so good to us um at the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. We do have other sponsorships available if anyone's interested. And of course, if you would like to inquire about being a guest on our show, you can reach out to Rebecca or JD at the uh chamber.

SPEAKER_02 56:02

Or Amanda. Oh, Amanda. Oh my god, I'm sorry, Amanda. I forgot.

SPEAKER_00 56:05

They can reach out to me.

SPEAKER_03 56:06

Amanda's only been she's been here about three weeks, so I forgot about that already. Um but again, we really appreciate it. Make sure you check out all of our media channels Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. So thank you again for being with us today. Until next time, Mount Pleasant. Until next time, listeners.