Steven's interest in weather began
when he was in the second grade. Back then, he was really interested in
space, astronomy, and aviation. His grandfather had worked at NASA since
the beginning of the space program, and after visiting Cape Canaveral many
times Steven developed an interest in weather. He believes his interest
in weather began by watching how NASA meteorologists predicted the weather
for space shuttle launches.
In 1998 when he was 12 , Steven took
a trip to Pincher Creek, Alberta, Canada in a RV. He was already very interested
in weather at that time. He took about eight disposable one-time
use cameras, and took many pictures of clouds and storms across the plains.
While in Montana, still traveling to Canada, the trip led him into a line
of very severe storms. It was in the middle of the night and the winds
were very strong. His driver had a tough time keeping the RV on the road.
They finally traveled through the storms and learned that more than three
tornados touched down.
Another line of storms moved across
Montana two weeks later while traveling back from Canada. This line produced
some very strong storms. This time it was daytime allowing him to use his
camera to photograph some pictures of a wall cloud with a developing tornado
under a HP supercell.
In 1999, Steven joined the Civil Air
Patrol. He wanted to combine his interest in weather and aviation together.
He learned a lot from aviation weather. His squadron in Murfreesboro, Tennessee
took him on a trip to the National Weather Service Office in Nashville,
Tennessee for a tour; which was a very enjoyable tour for him. Steven
also enjoys weather photography- mainly lightning photography. He is hoping
to capture some great pictures this spring.
In the summer of 2000, Steven flew
by himself to Tampa Bay, Florida to stay with his grandmother for spring
break. His grandparents helped him find a way to stay at the MacDill Air
Force Base weather office during the air show at MacDill AFB.
On February 28, 2000, Steven decided
to start an organization to provide the public with up-to-date weather
information for the state of Tennessee. After designing the site, he added
more and more weather products and other information. When he realized
that the site was growing and attracting more visitors, he decided to purchase
a domain.
In September of 2000, he bought
the domain www.tennesseeweather.org
which ran for about three months and then the hosting company's server
went down. The site was down for about two months. Steven believes this
really hurt his site, and as a result, he decided to suspend operation
of the site until the summer of 2001.
Steven hopes to attend the School
Of Meteorology at Oklahoma University in Norman, Oklahoma. He is already
looking for scholarships in band or football.
