Name: Bob Glancy

Age: 48

Home: Centennial

Job: Warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Boulder. Glancy works with city and county emergency managers to develop safety plans for severe weather, he trains weather spotters and talks with public groups about weather safety.

Who are weather spotters? "We have a network of volunteer severe-weather spotters across the region that give us information, people in rural areas who give us feedback on storms and our forecasts," Glancy explained. "Putting out accurate warnings is a challenge, and you can only know if you were right if you've got people looking."

Doppler radar, he said, can show where storms are, where they're moving and if they're getting stronger or weaker. But the instruments can't measure the size of hail, he said, or tell how much rain is falling and if a tornado has dropped from a cloud. People can.

What makes your work compelling?: "Forecasting in Colorado, you get a wide variety of weather you get to work with and you get some pretty wild weather. It's a pretty interesting place to try to outsmart mother nature. It's also a pretty nice place to live," Glancy said. "The nice thing about my job is to try to help people understand hazards and learn about what to do."

What's the most impressive weather event you've seen? "Well, I was in graduate school when the Big Thompson flood occurred. That was an eye-opener. I also was working the day of the Limon tornado and the day of the big Denver hail storm, both in 1990."

At the time it happened, the Denver hail storm time was the costliest storm in the country, causing $625 million in damages, Glancy said. "The hail got up to baseball size."

How did you become interested in weather work? "I think a lot of people that work in weather service were interested as a kid," Glancy said. He loved his first earth science class in college, Glancy said. "It was sort of an eye-opener to me that you could actually be employed in the field."

What is your favorite weather phenomenon? "Snow. I love snowstorms. I've always been fascinated by snow. that dates back to when I was a kid. Thunderstorms are fascinating, but I still love snow."

— Katy Human

June 2, 2002

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