Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well and the cold weather back in the states is not to bad. I have been working at the NWS forecast office in Guam for one month now and I thought I would share what my typical duties are and share some unique experiences that I was lucky enough to take part in. Currently I am training as a HMT or Hydrometeorological Technician. The position of HMT is being absorbed into the journeyman meteorologist postition as the HMT/upper air desk is slowly being transformed to a public desk where we will eventually take over much of the social media and public communication. This change requires forecasters to staff this desk to effectively communicate updated forecasts and information in a timely manner.

As a HMT I am responsible for data collection such as launching radiosondes for upper air measurements, checking the status of our radar and inputing enviromental winds into the radar, fire weather, calling our partners to obtain surf observations, and aiding forecasters in transmitting forecasts over NOAA Weather Radio. The duty I was most excited to learn in Guam was upper air and launching radiosondes, which also is my first task during the day shift.

Not every NWS office launches weather balloons but when I was attending OU I had the opportunity to watch the NWS Norman office launch weather balloons a couple of times and I always wanted to become certified in upper air. We are about to change systems soon, so I am one of the last people to be certified on the old system before the new once is installed in September. Our new system will still be manual but it will change the radiosonde and software we use. I am having fun learning how to tie the balloon and prepare the radiosonde and station antenna for launch and then launching the radiosonde. The data collected from the radiosonde is used to create a skew-T log P diagram, calibrate the radar's enviromental winds, and initiate weather models. I have included a short video of me launching a balloon so you can see what the balloon and radiosonde look like. I do want to point out the balloon is filled with hydrogen and the rope that attaches the radiosonde to the balloon is 80 feet long so if I look stiff its because I am trying not to get tangled to a balloon filled with hydrogen.

The main goal right when I launch the balloon is to make sure the balloon and radiosonde rise quickly so it does not hit the ground, fence, or trees near our property while also making sure the system detected the launch and can track the radiosonde. I also make sure no planes are approaching the runway before I launch the balloon since we are right next to the airport. To accomplish that last task we make sure to call the air traffic tower before each launch to get clearance to launch.

Once the ballon is launched I monitor the flight to insure we are collecting data while also moving on to other task such as recording the rainfall in our 8-inch rain guage and measuring the moisture in our fire sicks to determine fuel and fire risk. I also keep an eye on the ASOS station readout to make sure the sensors are working and that the airport tower is signed in and the station is not in auto mode. If the tower is not signed in that means they may not be monitoring or able to monitor the data from the ASOS and may not be aware of changing weather conditions such as wind speed or visiblilty.

Guam is currently in its dry season so not much is happening in terms of weather. This does not mean work is boring as this calm break before the wet season the return of the risk of typhoons allows us to accomplish some outreach. Recently, I got the chance to join my coworkers Bryan and Edwin on a trip around the island to meet with our Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) partners that help provide surf and rain obs and also see some of the remote sites that measure rainfall with a weighted bucket that can store data for two months before needing to be downloaded. Bryan has been in this office for about two years now but has been doing weather obervations for the military and then the NWS before becomine a forecaster here. Edwin was hired around the same time I was and arrived in Guam in November. On our trip around the island we were lucky enough to visit the doppler radar that we use on the island and is maintained by the U.S. Air Force. Our Doppler radar broke down at the end of January and the maintaince crew was kind enough to let us join them in inspecting the radar. I thought I would never climb so many stairs again after I graduated from OU as the climb felt like I started from the first floor of the National Weather Center and climbed the stairs to the O-Deck on the top of the building. However, I cannot complain as I had an oppurtunity to go inside the radar, a rare treat indeed. Since the radar is offline it has prevented me from inputting envrionmental winds into the radar system as part of my duties. Unlike radar in the states that can update the vertical wind profile from the RAP model, Guam is outside the models area of prediction so we must manually enter the vertical wind profile that we measure from our balloon launches.

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I have the largest smile under the mask

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The view just below the radar dome

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inside the radar dome

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Say hi to Edwin

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Bryan really enjoyed showing me the sites.

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Enjoying the view of the ocean before visiting Commerical Port.

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We found a mantis this time when checking the rain guage but I have also found small lizards as well.

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Thursday, March 4th was a beautiful day and one of my coworkers, Nick, had invited me to join him and his lovely wife, Ashley, on a hike to Mount Lamlam which is the highest point on Guam. The day before the hike I was able to get my first dose of the Moderna vaccine for COVID-19 and though I felt fine the day I got the shot, I woke up with a small headache. I decided the headache was not too bad and I decided to go on the hike. I met Nick and Ashley at the parking lot at the entrance to the trail head and we began the climb. As we began the climb it enforced my belief that the southern part of the island is the most beautiful part of the island with the view of the ocean.

The trail to Mount Lamlam starts out steep so it does not give novice hikers like myself any opportunity to ease into the hike. The fact that my headache from the morning had increased along with a stiffness in my arm made the hike difficult and I began to feel lightheaded halfway up the trail. Nick and Ashely were gracious enough to notice me struggling and suggested we turn back and explore other sites near the area.

Just east of Mount Lamlam sits what is left of old Spanish fort called Fort Soledad. I do not know much about the fort but it is a reminder of a period in Guam's history when imperalism and colonialism was the goal of western nations.

After we left the fort we drove around admiring the ocean as we went to finish our adventure with a delicious lunch. I am thankful that Nick and Ashley allowed me to join them on the hike and showed me some sites on the islands. I look forward to our next hike.

The weekend after the hike with Nick and Ashley, I decided to visit two of the four of the historical parks that showed where American forces landed and traveled on Guam to attack the Japanese forces on Guam and continue the task of island hopping across the Pacific and finding an airfield that would reach Japan. The landing point of American forces was Asan beach. This beach has a long coast that is shallow as you go into the ocean and it leads to a large flat plain that could be used as drop off point of equipment and soldiers. Like the beaches of Normandy, France when you walk the beach and look out into the ocean it feels peaceful in the moment but when you think what it would be like to land on this beach and have to run across this stretch of flat land under fire brings chills.

The other park I visited was Agat and this park was very peaceful as I was the only person there as tourism is nearly nonexistant due to the affects of the pandemic. This park also sits next to the ocean, but some of the weapons that were once on this beach still remain and are maintained to remind people that war once took place in this peaceful place.

Inbetween these two parks is the vistor's center just outside the navy base. Due to Covid-19 it is closed but the real draw to the center is the Japanese two-man submarine that sits outside.

I cannot believe I been in Guam for about three months now. I am enjoying my job, but I will admit at times I wish I was closer to home so I could easily meet up with friends or family as I do miss our board game/D&D sessions, catching up with people I have not seen in a while, or listening to grandparents telling their stories. However, this post is not to focus on what I want to do when I finally get to use home leave but instead I want to share what I am doing while in Guam.

Most of my time at work has been focused on getting me trained on HMT duties but that will soon come to an end if I can pass the test scheduled for March 23rd and finally be certified to work the HMT/Public desk by myself. Once I pass I will move on to forecaster training and certification. Besides the main duties of being a meteorologist, I am also working on my focal points that I been assigned. Focal Points are duties we are assigned and become the main point of contact for such duties or functions if others need something done or need help. Example, one of my focal points is the NWS Guam webpage. I am basically co-webmaster alongside Edwin, so if changes need to be made to the website we are the point of contact. Other focal points I am part of are: storm data and radar (WSR-88D). In storm data I will make notes of the timeline of hazardous weather events and note any damage, fatalites, and other notable facts related to the event. As a radar focal point it will be my duty to work with maintance teams to note any issues with the radar and make sure it is operating correctly during all types of weather events.

Working on a website other than my personal one feels great as I have mentioned before it is a relativly new skill of mine that I honed by making the OWL website. Feel free to explore the NWS Guam website and let me know how easy it is to use and what improvements can be made.

NWS Guam Website

Outside of work I have also been helping my friend Nolan Meister transfer his blog to the same server as my website with its own domain name. He needed to move his blog because he had already used up the 5 GB of storage OU Create gives its students to make their own website. I feel I owe a great debt to Nolan because he was the one who allowed me to be the Director of Development for OWL during my senior year of college and with out that experience I probably would not be where I am now. Reading Nolan's blog also encouraged me to start my own blog, and if you enjoy my blog you will enjoy his blog because his writing style is fantasic. His posts are highly detailed and flow so naturally that they make you feel like you are recalling your own memories.

The Times and Travels of Nolan - Documenting trips I’ve taken and places I’ve seen.

It has been awhile since I last updated my blog so lets spend some time catching up. First, on April 2^nd I got my second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, so hopefully we keep moving toward to a time when we can return to how life was over a year ago. Second, not much has changed with me as I continue to train as a forecaster while I continue to work as a HMT for the most part as I was certified in upper air on March 23^rd. That does not mean I don't get to do some fun stuff at work. I been doing some minor outreach such as being part of an recorded interview that will be used by a local school that is trying to introduce students in middle school and junior high to different jobs that use science and math. I also happened to be working when Ambassador Cantor visited the office and I was able to have her assist in launching the 0Z (10am ChST) weather balloon.

During my free time I still like to visit the War in the Pacific parks and just relax or read a book. It is during those moments of peace and quiet that I let my mind wander and acknowledge that I am really in Guam. As I look towards the summer I know weather patters will start to change as the easterly trade winds start to break down and Guam slowly starts to enter the wet season. Some of my future training will still be online but there are talks that some training in Norman and Kansas City may start to resume this summer and fall, so I hope I get the chance to return to those places once again. Also, it is very likely I will gain a roommate this summer as someone from OU was offered the Pathways Summer Intern position at NWS Guam. I will not disclose who it is until it has been made offical and confirmed that said person can travel to Guam, but I am exicted as this person was a good friend in college and I am so happy they have opportunity to experience what it is like to work for the NWS.

I created this Twitter account over a year ago because I needed it for senior capstone. I might as well use it since I have it. Spending my time before work at my favorite park doing some light reading. pic.twitter.com/cDUilLL6Cx

— Joshua Schank (@joshua_schank) April 19, 2021

Now that I finally have home internet setup in my apartment I can upload pictures and update my blog faster and more often. Not much has changed related to my job or life on Guam, but that will change in June. May was filled with events such as the lunar eclipse on May 26, and on May 28, I starting my first stage of forecaster training to work towards my certification as a forecaster in a few months, so that is some progress. May also marks the transition to the wet season on Guam and this has led to an uptick of tropical disturbances trying to develop. Today, tropical depression 04W became a tropical storm, but it been moving out of our forecast area and tropical invest 90W has not strenghten for several days so only an increase in the chance of rain is in our forecast as it moves between Yap and Guam (see tweet below).

****Memorial Day Weather Update****

Marianas: An upper-level low located west of Guam is increasing instability and triggering thunderstorms nearby.

Yap: Heavy showers Tuesday and Wednesday. No potential for tropical storm development.

forecast > https://t.co/FpjhWsPEbM pic.twitter.com/hRFM5wcvup

— NWS Guam (@NWSGuam) May 30, 2021

I am excited that my friend Bruce Pollock will arrive in Guam tomorrow and become my roomate for the summer! Bruce was chosen to be this year's summer intern on the meteorology side of the office. Bruce was a good friend of mine during my time at OU when he arrived at OU for his freshman year during my junior year. Bruce has helped me a lot back when I was involved in OWL by being a co-shift leader for Thursday Evening shifts and in testing and developing the OWL website. I really hope he enjoys his time in Guam and I hope we can work together on other projects for the NWS.

My trip to Guam begins! Watch out @joshua_schank! pic.twitter.com/vbvmZU6etQ

— Bruce Pollock (@BrucePollock9) May 28, 2021

Part two of my trip to Guam. Made it to my gate in Houston for my flight to Hawaii. Nine hour flight there before a quick layover (48mins) and then onward to Guam! pic.twitter.com/ngfUhPPuTx

— Bruce Pollock (@BrucePollock9) May 31, 2021

I will leave you with this picture of a lovely sunset I took from my apartment balcony. I will write again in June soon so be on the look out for future posts. If you ever want to chat with me please reach out as I would like to hear from my family and friends.

Beautiful sunset in Guam from my apartment's balcony. pic.twitter.com/P9Le1SErqo

— Joshua Schank (@joshua_schank) May 18, 2021

If you read my blog for March you may recall that on March 4^th I went with Nick and Ashley Slaughter on a hike of Mt. Lamlam. On that hike I only made it about half way up because I just had my first dose of the Moderna vaccine for COVID-19 and I began to feel lightheaded. Well now it three months later on June 4^th and I was ready for round two. Joining us on this hike was Isa Cruz, another coworker from NWS Guam, with her puppy Darsy and my friend and summer intern at NWS Guam, Bruce Pollock. Our goal for this hike was to climb during the late afternoon to evening hours so we could view Mt. Lamlam near sunset but return to our cars before it got dark.

Isa's dog, Darsy, right at the beginning of the hike made us all feel like snails as she ran circles around us, weaving in and out of the grass. My experience in March reminded me that I was told that the first half of the trail was the steepest part, and since I only made it up to the half way point I was hoping that was right as watching Darsy moving along the trail with ease while my legs started to hurt made the situation feel unfair. Bruce was having a great time because he had just arrived on Guam on June 1st and was starting to recover from the jet lag while also meeting new people and making friends. When we reached the point where we turned back in March my spirts soared as I was feeling great and now that I could focus on my surrounds I realized that the trail was much easier to travel on and the view was just getting better.

Up ahead was the fork in the trail with the left side taking you to Mt. LamLam while a right took you to Mt. Jumullong Manglo or just Mt. Jumullong for short. The path to Mt. Jumullong is easier and shorter compared to Mt. Lamlam, but our goal this trip was to reach the tallest point on Guam and we decided if we felt like it when we return to the fork in the road we would visit Mt. Jumullong as well. So with that in mind we continued onto the left trail. What I found most interesting about Mt. Lamlam's trail was the gradual appearance of volcanic rock and the scattering of sea shells around the trail. As we neared the peak we played a quick game of pass the puppy as we took turns carrying Darsy as we climbed the over the volcanic rocks that stood between us and the peak. The view did not disappoint as Bruce and myself can now claim we stood on the top of Guam and saw its beauty.

Once we were well rested and ready to walk once more we decided we would visit Mt. Jumullong since it was on our way and would only be a slight detour. Now Mt. Jumllong is known for the crosses that sit at its peak and every Good Friday there is a march up the trail to its peak. As we arrived it was nearing sunset so we experienced the change of color in the sky and take a group photo to end the day. I know Bruce and myself enjoyed the hike and I am forever grateful to have such great coworkers/friends.

Going into work June 21^st, Bruce, my friend and summer intern, and myself knew it was not going to be a typical day. The GFS model had been trying to spin up a strong circulation and bring it toward the Mariana islands. The ECMWF struggled to spin something up but during the weekend the two models started to converge on a weaker circulation that would travel close to Guam. I was scheduled for a flex shift which is designed so forecasters can work on side projects instead of forecasting, but can easily switch into operations mode if severe weather/tropical cylones threaten our area. Walking into the office that morning we started out with a briefing of the situation as the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), based out of Pearl Harbor, was about to issue bulletins on what was now Tropical Depression 06W. Though I am still a forecaster in training and was not scheduled to be on a training shift, I quickly jumped in to observe how our lead forecaster, Brandon Aydlett, would shift the office into tropical cyclone mode and work with his brother and Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM), Landon Aydlett, to start communicating with the local governments and emergency manangers.

The JTWC bulletins that we received had the storm clipping our southern coastal waters and possibly strenghtening into a tropical storm. 06W was a small storm that was disorganized as convection was widespread and not contained near its center. The decision that had to be made was: Do we issue a tropical storm watch or warning and who should we include? If you look at the Marianas islands you see Guam is the southern most island with the main islands of Rota, Tinian, and Saipan to our north, respectfully. The office decided to place Guam in a tropical storm warning and only put Rota into a tropical storm watch as Tinian and Saipan would be to far north to feel the winds near the center of the storm, but the disorganized convection meant they would still see gusty winds and heavy rain if the current convection continued. We began by making the forecast products to communicate the watch and warning along with the impacts while also making social media post to compliment the offical products.

The new hires like Edwin and myself quickly made ourselves useful by answering phone calls that came into our office and relaying the latest watches and warnings along with the impacts people could expect through Tuesday evening. We also got the chance to watch Landon at work as he held briefings with Guam's governor, the emergency manangers of Guam and CNMI, and our other partners to help them get the lastest information so they could make their decisions base on what we thought Tropical Depression 06W would do. Since 06W was heading towards Guam's waters we made the decision around 9 PM to turn on our radar that has been in standby due to the need for maintaince. To our delight the radar work throught the event before we turned it off on Tuesday around 4PM. Also, during tropical events near Guam, we also increase our daily balloon launches from every 12 hours to every 6 hours. This means that someone had to launch a balloon around 3 AM in the morning and Isa, another new hire at the office, had the honor to do our first 3 AM launch for 2021 and Bruce volunteered to stay overnight with her to record her launch.

Now I could write several posts about my experiences from Monday through Tuesday, but I will say I got to see first hand how difficult it is to forecast tropical cyclones and how to effectively communicate our forecasts to the public. Tropical Depression 06W never became a tropical storm while in our waters but after it passed Guam it finally became Tropical Storm Champi. I felt we did a great job with Champi overall and I was proud to be part of the day shifts on Monday and Tuesday and that I experienced this event while in training.

Once you starting living in a place for a while everthing starts to feel routine, so it becomes hard to decide what might be interesting to others in the mind of a writer, or at least for a novice writer like myself who would rather type forecast discussions. Speaking of forecast discussions, if you start reading the forecast discussions on the NWS Guam website you may start to see my name appear as I have reached the point of my training where I am helping my mentor write the forecasts and issue products. Also, Isa and Edwin have recently just passed their certification boards at the end of July, so they are certified forecasters and can start working shift and issue their own products. I believe within the next two months my board certification will be scheduled and hopefully soon I will be joining their ranks.

July was notable in my mind as being a month full of great photo opportunities as Guam has transition into the wet season as we now have surges of the monsoon southwesterlies bringing more rain to our region. Of the photos I took, the best two events were of an atmospheric optical phenomena and the stretching of boundary layer vorticity.

The first event occurred on July 20^th, and as I relook at the photos I believe what we (Nick, Ashley, Bruce, and myself) saw as we watched the sunset that day was a sun dog or parhelion, which is an atmospheric optical phenomenon or type of halo that forms to the left or right of the sun and usually best seen when the sun is near the horizon. When we first saw it we thought it was a circumhorizontal arc or circumzenithal arc, which form by the refraction and scattering of light by plate-shaped hexagonal ice crystals suspended in high clouds like cirrus, just like the sun dog (parhelion), but they usually appear when the sun is much higher in the sky. They also form below/above the sun, respectfully, instead of to the left or right of the sun, and have a brighter and more defined color scheme much like a rainbow. I may still be mistaken on the exact type of atmospheric optical phenomenon because I have rarely seen them and need to review my cloud physics notes (that's right I said cloud physics notes I am that big of a nerd and kept stuff from college), but it was still pretty and made the sunset much more memorable.

The second event was on July 29^th, and it was a landspout that Bruce and Edwin saw first when they were grabbing lunch. I was on my training shift and was able to capture the photos seen below from the office. Landspouts are a type of tornado, but instead of forming from a rotating parent cloud/thunderstorm, the rotation comes from the boundary layer and is stretched from the ground to the cloud base. Most waterspouts are the landspout's counterpart that form over water. Landspouts and waterspouts usually form around Guam when the winds in the first couple of kilometers of the atmopshere are very weak and winds then usually increase with height. Landspouts and waterspouts are usually pretty weak compared to tornadoes that form from a supercell (a thunderstorm with a rotating updraft or mesocyclone), but they still produce locally high winds that can damage property and cause serious injuries, though they are usually very short lived.

July 29^th is also memorable due to all of the stuff that happened after that landspout. On Pagan, one of the Mariana islands (Guam is the most southern of these islands), the residents felt tremors and saw steam rising from their volcano. This put the CNMI government on alert while we started our watch of the volcano by using weather satellites to look for hot spots in infared imagery that would be proof of an eruption and for ash clouds that may be hazardous to aircraft and cause breathing problems. As of writing this, the volcano has not erupted, but it was a reminder of one of our duties at the office. As that was happening an 8.2 earthquake happend off the coast of Alaska. This powerful of an earthquake grabs our attention because it possible for us to exerience a tsunami from that earthquake, and for a little bit we were put under a possible tsunami threat as we waited for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) to determine the extent of any possible tsunami and see if we were to be upgraded to an advisory or watch. It turns out not much of a tsunami was generated from that earthquake and we were updated to no threat. As someone in training that day was a great learning experience as I learned about many different hazardous and how we play our part to help our partners and the public in these different events.

It has been a busy couple of months since my last post on August 2^nd recaping July. The first major update I would like to share is that I passed my forecaster certification board! This means I can now be placed in the normal rotation and take my fair share of shifts instead of being paired with a mentor. I still have a lot to learn and see but I am excited to continue working and learning with my coworkers. As I have been getting more comfortable with the job I have also started to communicate with the public more and answering calls to the best of my ability instead of passing the call straight to one of my coworkers. This includes short interviews for the local newspapers and sometimes our weather updates appear on the front page. Below is a picture of my first interview with Pacific Daily News on October 6^th (click on the image for easier viewing).

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October has been pretty wet despite the lack of tropical cyclones or noteworthy storms hitting Guam. The wetter weather has allowed me to experience some of the unique sights that occur at the Guam office. At our office we have a volley ball net that sits in this low spot between our office and the airport next door. This area will sometimes fill with water when we have a lot of rain and the drains become clogged.

When I am not working or at the office I am always keeping my eye on the weather. For example, most waterspouts are usually hard to detect on radar as the rotation that supports them is very close to the ground (compared to tornadoes that develop from supercell thunderstorms) and can be missed by radar due to how beam height above the ground increases as you move away from the radar. Most of the time we do not know they are occuring until we receive a report, if people are looking at the right place at the right time. Waterspouts do happen occasionally in our waters, especially during days with light winds. I have been watching the skies to my south-southwest for a couple of days as we had a very weak north-northeast winds that was pushing the island convection, created from the sun heating up Guam, over the coastal waters. On this particular day, I was looking out from my balcony just before 3 pm and I saw what I thought was a waterspout forming as I was putting something into the oven, so I rushed to get my phone so I could get some video to report my suspicion. After I took a couple of pictures and some video I sent it to my coworkers so they could judge it for themselves. The waterspout quickly disappeared shortly after I sent them my video and then my view was blocked by rain as showers kept on developing around the island. The waterspout I capture on video does appear more 'tornadic' looking compared to most waterspouts that appear mostly semi-transparent and lack a wall cloud, similar to the photos I took in July of a decaying landspout, but I will let everyone debate the exact labeling of this waterspout. The weather here on Guam has kept me entertained and I am enjoying my life as a meteorologist.

NWS meteorologist Joshua S. captured a large waterspout on video. This waterspout was near Inarajan and lasted approximately 5 minutes. If you find yourself near a waterspout don’t venture close! pic.twitter.com/NAioPWbiJi

— NWS Guam (@NWSGuam) October 21, 2021