Hurricane Specialists....


Our People

Welcome! I'm Rich Johnson, the lead forecaster at Tropicalweather.net. I graduated from Florida State University in 1983 with a B.S. in meteorology. Personally I believe that FSU is the best school in the country for studying tropical weather! Browse our hurricane forecast forum for the latest hurricane forecasts.

Up to 2009, I had spent over the past 25 years working at The Weather Channel®. I started out as a weather producer, then soon was promoted to a forecaster, then to senior forecaster. I began my television career at The Weather Channel ® in 1987 as I split time between forecasting and on-air work. By 1989 I was a full time on-camera meteorologist.

I had the privilege of working with some of the finest hurricane forecasters in the world. Most notably were Dr. John Hope and Dr. Steve Lyons who previously were also forecasters at the National Hurricane Center. Even though I enjoy forecasting all aspects of weather, I spent a great deal of personal time studying the tropics developing my skills.

I am a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) and a member of the American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association. In fact (as of 2009), I was the first and only CBM that worked at The Weather Channel® on camera.

I covered countless severe weather events including many hurricanes. I was on the air during many hurricanes over the past couple of decades. Some of the more remembered ones included Hurricane Andrew, Hurricane Katrina, and most recently Hurricane Ike during or just before landfall. I was called in for expert coverage while The Weather Channel's® Dr. John Hope and Dr. Steve Lyons took a break from hurricane coverage.

At this time, Tropicalweather.net is non-profit. We will be searching for additional forecasters with hurricane forecasting skills who would like to help with providing expert coverage as a service to the community.

                                                   



Our Company
It is TropicalWeather.net's mission to give its patrons detailed, timely, and accurate forecasts for hurricanes and tropical storms. It is not our goal to be the very first with new computer forecast information as many others do. Contrary to belief, the newest, most updated forecast model "runs" are not always better than the previous forecasts. Yes, we want to get the forecast out fast, but more importantly want to evaluate the information and get it right.

TropicalWeather.net's forecasters are focused on the tropics all year. TropicalWeather.net's forecasters strive to know which of many computer hurricane forecasts are best, to give you the most accurate hurricane forecast.

We do not venture into preseason long-range forecasting. Those type of hurricane forecasts generally can not be forecasted with consistently high accuracy. We concentrate our efforts where it matters the most - short term forecasting of one week or less.



Why choose TropicalWeather.net?
Over the past several years an increase in hurricane activity has caused loss of life and property damage of historic proportions. Unlike some media giants, TropicalWeather.net is not here to show images of storm ravaged coastlines, or reporters in peril. We study the tropics and any type of weather that can affect tropical weather. Most other networks can only offer a limited amount of time to weather. We do not take commercial breaks. We do not have reporters at the coast. We spend time studying satellite imagery, radar, forecast models, upper air winds and hurricane hunter data. Our time and energy are solely spent on tropical cyclone forecasting and its impacts on you. You can trust our experience.

Many other weather web sites cover the tropics too, some with amazing graphics. Most of them simply copy advisories from The National Hurricane Center. Some of them use meteorologists, but likely do not have the experience of TropicalWeather.net's forecasters.

"Aren't the National Hurricane Center's forecasters the best?" No doubt that the National Hurricane Center also has some very good forecasters. In fact, we know some of them personally. They have a great deal of other responsibilities such as coordinating advisories with other countries which takes a good deal of time. We can pass along our insights whenever we see important changes and not need to wait for set advisory times.

It only takes one hurricane to change your life forever. We are here to help prepare and inform you.