I don't personally know Dick Faurot. He is one of the weathermen on Channel 6. I have, however, watched him long enough to know that he seems to be a knowledgeable, competent meteorologist.
I like him because he doesn't seem to insist on a lot of camera time. And he always remains calm. He's not the "take-cover-immediately" kind of guy. That's reassuring when all those ominous radar images are all over your TV screen.
And he's a fisherman. I don't fish anymore. I gave it up when I finally realized that I simply was not very good at it. I could sit for hours with my grandfather at a pond in Seminole County and put worms or grasshoppers on the end of a cane pole and maybe catch a perch or maybe even a small bass or a catfish. But other than that, I was never much of a fisherman.
Most of the fishermen I do know, however, are nice guys. My best friend is a fisherman. So, I figure Dick must be a pretty nice guy.
With that said, none of the following is meant to be criticism of Dick. It's just one of those silly things I noticed during a recent tornado watch session.
During one of what seems to be a continual weather alert with any TV program I am watching being interrupted, I normally move on to cable and check back periodically to see if a tornado is hovering above my house.
So, as I checked in there was Channel 6 head meteorologist Travis Meyer turning the microphone over to Dick for an update on the radar screens. At this point Dick was advising us on the severity of the storm, in his usual calm manner.
This is where it got a little funny. There was a split screen – radar on one side and a live camera shot of the storm on the other. The camera showed the same storm front that recently moved through Tulsa headed for the Muskogee area.
As Dick was giving viewers an update on the storm via all those fancy radar contraptions, he pointed out the live shot of the storm moving on Muskogee. At this point he said, placing his cursor on the storm: "These clouds here are what we like to refer to as scary clouds."
I'm no meteorologist, so the term "scary clouds" is the description I would use if I were pointing out such clouds to my friends. I kind of expect meteorologists to use one of those fancy terms like "wall cloud" or "lowering" or one of those other scientific terms that I don't understand.
When I was a kid, my granddad would go out in the yard at the farm, look up in the sky and say something like, "There's a storm coming, we'd better get in the cellar." What I saw was "scary clouds."
Again, I can't say how much I appreciate Dick's always calm demeanor during dangerous storms. I'll bet he is a really nice guy and one helluva fisherman.
I just expected him to be a little more scientific. On the other hand, maybe that's why I like his weather forecasting. I understood what he meant. Maybe it would be better if all the scientific weathermen and women with all their expensive high-tech gadgetry would just stick to words we can understand. And maybe go out in the yard and look up.
Anyway, thanks, Dick. I got it.
