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from the issue of June 12, 2008
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Outreach projects fuel Deweay
Born to Chase - Storms provide research inspiration for Dewey, Bower
BY SARA GILLIAM, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
When Ken Dewey was 10 years old, a funnel cloud passed over his Chicago neighborhood. He rushed to alert his parents, but was chastised for bothering them and sent to his room.
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| | | STORM MOMENT - Ken Dewey poses for a photo with a tornado during a May 29 storm chase in central Nebraska. Courtesy photo.
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The punishment became a reward when the view of the twister was better from Dewey's second-floor bedroom.
The next day, his father returned from work duly chastened by reports of tornado damage. After apologizing for not believing Dewey's announcement the night before, father and son took a driving tour of the storm's aftermath.
A storm chaser was born. Dewey's professional journey would bring him to UNL and to severe weather systems dancing across Tornado Alley.
The 2008 season is on a record-setting pace for tornadoes - which means Dewey, professor in the School of Natural Resources' Applied Climate Sciences Group, is logging hundreds of miles with his storm-chasing crew.
He often returns to Lincoln near sunrise and catches a few hours' sleep before heading back out on the road.
When a string of storms crossed the state May 29, Dewey reported live for the Weather Channel on a tornado that hit Kearney, then followed another tornado as it tossed cars and trucks off Interstate-80 near Aurora. While crisscrossing the region, he gave interviews to local news stations and fielded a call from producers from Good Morning America.
On quieter days on campus, Dewey makes it his goal to answer every e-mail and letter he receives. From an office crammed with old weather and climate records and a stack of toy tornadoes, Dewey updates a series of weather Web sites (including Lincolnweather.org and Nebraskaweatherphotos.org) and posts thousands of photos he takes each year.
Ten years ago, Dewey contributed a significant amount of time to a special issue of NEBRASKAland Magazine, "Weather and Climate of Nebraska." Enthusiastic reader responses showed him that people hunger for information and stories about weather.
Prior to the publication, Dewey's work was presented primarily in scholarly journals. The NEBRASKAland response from a broad audience excited the research professor, prompting Dewey to push outreach and public education to the top of his professional interests.
"I realized at that time that I could reach people more easily via the Internet," Dewey said. "That was the genesis, which set me on a life-changing path. I took a workshop on how to build your own Web site, and learned how to do HTML coding and use an editor. Now, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't tinker with my Web sites."
Around the same time, the Lincoln office of the National Weather Service closed, leaving the city without a clearinghouse of local weather coverage. Dewey stepped in, and with the approval of the NWS, used his first Web site - Lincoln Weather and Climate - to distribute weather information, history and photographs. Local television and radio stations turned to Dewey's site for statistics and forecasts, and a large portion of his job description changed from research to outreach and extension.
"As time when on, the next logical step was to start Nebraska Weather and Climate. That site is still up. Then, I expanded to the entire Plains, and onward," Dewey said.
Today, Dewey has a multi-layered Web presence. His sites include photo galleries, Lincoln weather and climate history, Nebraska severe weather information, Central Plains Severe Weather Symposium, and the Nebraska Vortex Intercept Team (a UNL-based storm chasing group).
Dewey's presence online has dovetailed with his growing interest in weather photography. Before the existence of digital cameras, he spent a small fortune developing film, scanning it and posting pictures online. Now, digital cameras in his possession last about one year, during which time Dewey takes 20,000 to 30,000 photos.
Dewey's realization that the public was fascinated by weather led him to establish the Central Plains Weather Symposium and Family Weatherfest. The annual event has become the largest non-athletic event at UNL, last year drawing 4,000 people to campus for free weather-related activities.
However, Dewey is best known as a leader of storm chasing excursions across Tornado Alley. Eight years ago, he formed the Nebraska Vortex Intercept team, which includes colleagues and graduate students. During peak months, the vortex team drives for hours in search of storms - sometimes they'll end up in the Texas panhandle, other times they'll watch the sun set in the Nebraska Sandhills.
"My students say we should call these trips storm photo safaris," Dewey said. "We're not like the Discovery Channel people, it's not the manic screaming down the road. Really, we'd be annoying to people looking for excitement. My wife says it's like watching paint dry, but really high-quality paint."
Dewey fondly recalls one memorable storm-chasing trip. It was a slow night, weather-wise, so a student urged them to turn their two vans down state route 43A in Kansas. The group ended up in Cawker City, home of the "World's Largest Ball of Twine."
As the weather picked up, one of Dewey's students pointed at the distant sky. The group of chasers pivoted in tandem, turning from the ball of twine to a funnel forming in the distance.
"It doesn't get any better than that," Dewey said. "The world's largest ball of twine and a tornado."
Getting to know Ken Dewey
| | ON THE SPOT - A reporter interviews Ken Dewey at a truck stop hit by storms on May 29.
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• Favorite cloud: A shelf cloud, because "it just comes right at you, sticking out of the front of a thunderstorm."
• Favorite "type" of weather: Deep deep snow, crystal clear skies and calm winds.
• Best odds of seeing dramatic storms: "It's all about location, location, location. We have everything here - blizzards, dust storms, lightning. There's no need to go anywhere else."
• Most elusive photos to shoot: Good lightning.
• Biggest misnomer/myth about severe weather: When a tornado approaches, it is not safe to crawl under a viaduct; drivers are better off outrunning a distant storm, or seeking shelter in sturdy buildings. Also, Dewey said, people falsely feel safe because they live in a city. In fact, tornadoes have touched down in countless city centers, most recently in Atlanta, in March 2008. There is also the so-called "Lincoln Bowl myth," in which people falsely think the lower elevation of Lincoln compared to its suburban edge is immune from tornadoes. A tornado on May 20, 1957 traveled from just west of downtown Lincoln to near 27th and Superior.
• Favorite storm in a movie/book: "How can anyone be anything but impressed with the 'Wizard of Oz?'"
• Favorite photo taken in Nebraska: The first tornado of the record outbreak of tornadoes that occurred in Nebraska on May 22, 2004, and any of the photos from the Sandhills region of Nebraska.
- Sara Gilliam/University Communications
GO TO: ISSUE OF JUNE 12
NEWS HEADLINES FOR JUNE 12
Born to Chase - Storms provide research inspiration for Dewey, Bower
Chang-Barnes guides Lied into new season
Hallam destruction provides baseline for Bower's thesis
J.D. Edwards name change proposed
Alumni association suspends 'Screamers'
Chancellor announces Alumni Association restructuring
Climate change event draws 150
Museum breaks ground on Hubbard Rhino Barn
Nebraskans headline summer writers conference
Study eyes predicting tenderness of steaks
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