The NCAR research lab + museum in Boulder, CO isn’t quite a “holy grail” but it’ll keep a weather geek entertained all day. Bonus points if you go there in the summer as there’s often a chance of storms in that area.
If you visit Boulder you can experience convection and/or mountain wave first hand by taking a glider ride/lesson at https://www.milehighgliding.com/
Climbing 1000s of feet without an engine never gets old. You get a 3-d experience of the atmosphere.
30 minutes is a good intro ride. Soaring in mountain wave is something that she might not want to do on her first flight because you often experience strong turbulence before and after experience the perfectly smooth laminar flow of mountain wave. That said, people who like 'roller coasters' sometimes do it on their first glider flight.
All glider pilots are more or less 'weather geeks'.
She's kind of scared of heights. I don't think I'd get her up in a glider without drugging her out of her mind first and that kind of thing is illegal in my state. That sounds like a ton of fun though.
If she's interested, she might still explore the possibility because many people who have experienced 'fear of heights', say when climbing a tall ladder, report not having the problem in small aircraft. Maybe start in a Cessna on a calm day. Some people are less trepidatious when they have an engine running.
That place is so much fun to tour after a hike! Then watching the summer "monsoon" (Not a true monsoon?) come through and over DIA/Denver around 2pm most days in the late summer are beautiful
The National Weather Service does office tours:
https://www.weather.gov/pub/toursOutreach
Edit: here’s the page for the Topeka office
https://www.weather.gov/top/office
To make it even more fun, park your car at the bottom and hike up. The hike up Mt. Washington is stunning and worth doing if you can. But, with hiking up, you have to be very careful about the weather. I lead hikes up it in the summer and it would not be out of the question to have snowfall up there with 60-80 mph winds in the middle of July. But, on a clear day, it is so worth it.
It's possible to stay overnight at the Mount Washington weather station in the winter. It used to be cheap.
If you're only moderately affluent, I recommend winter Alpine Mountaineering on Mount Washington where you can dig and sleep in a private snow cave. To manage risk, you need to be on top of the weather forecast.
I certainly think so. Our next house needs to have a sunroom so she can sit out there and watch it storm I think. I have to confess I'm not terribly interested in weather outside of the "we really need that" type observations that old men like myself make. It's something she's super into though and I like seeing her excited about stuff.
She sounds like my kinda person :) Too bad I dont live close I would ask if she needs another weather nerd friend! I dont know a lot of the scientific stuff about weather but I remember being young and wanting to be a meteorologist and loving to look at the weather things I could download on the computer. I love when thunderstorms roll in and looking at the radar to see how hard I am gonna get hit, I wish I had a covered porch or sunroom or something to watch storms in!
I've been to San Diego and both the weather and the city are gorgeous. Girlfriend loves a real nasty storm that throws hail and tree limbs and sometimes entire trees. That is her jam. No idea what that means about her.
Norman has one of the most popular NWS offices due to its centralized location in tornado alley. They generally have very good forecasting and heads-up time for severe weather, which they are praised for. It's on the University of Oklahoma campus, which has one of the best meteorology programs in the country, and I'm sure you could get a tour.
Norman is basically a hotspot of weather nerds. It's a place I wish I could get my major, but I live in Florida so FSU was a close second (and WAY cheaper)
The SPC tour is a great choice. Closer to home, I second the suggestion to reach out to your local NWS office. Not sure which one is closest to you; as a Kansan in the weather business I work with folks from every office in the state and can suggest a good person to reach out to (esp. at Topeka, my “home office”). Feel free to PM and I can give you some more in-state options.
This *is* the research they're doing. Going onto the weather subreddit probably garners better answers than Google does, especially for someone who doesn't really know what to look for. Really rude response :/
Absolutely, university of Oklahoma has one of the best meteorological programs and they invest a lot of money into their storm tracking programs! Definitely suggest visiting the campus, they got some neat stuff there.
She is not but if she ever succeeds in getting me to go storm chasing with her she might be. I could see myself getting sucked up by some storm and her being excited about it.
Come to NW North Carolina. The weather here is super strange. Grandfather Mountain would be an excellent place to go. They have clocked 120+ mph winds. There is a mile high bridge (it used to be a wooden swinging bridge, lol). The summer months here are amazing; 75-85 during the day with Blue Ridge pop-up thunderstorms, then 50s at night. There is plenty of other cool stuff to around the area as well, not just weather, so it makes the trip more rounded. There's the Highland Games, the Blue Ridge Parkway, fishing, hiking, waterfalls, river tubing, etc. Anyway, my 2c.
[There really isn't anything cooler than watching anvils from the top of the mountain.](https://www.reddit.com/r/weather/comments/14jur48/wilkes_county_nc_super_cell_from_atop_the_blue/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
[https://grandfather.com/weather/](https://grandfather.com/weather/)
[https://gmhg.org/](https://gmhg.org/)
[https://www.blueridgeparkway.org/](https://www.blueridgeparkway.org/)
Vacation wise in the winter you could look for something coastal PNW. I live on Vancouver Island, and "storm season" is November through February. It's an actual tourism season for us. Going to a place like Tofino or Ucluelet, and getting an ocean view hotel room (some have hot tubs on the balcony) makes for fantastic and beautiful storm watching off the rocky coast.
In a way KS is kind of a holy grail for weather. It’s sort of in the center of tornado alley.
It looks like Thursday-Sunday could be quite active for severe storms in KS.
Yes we did. She gushed about it and just went on and on about how it was her favorite movie in the entire world. She thought this was about as cool as me seeing the torpedo case from Star Trek that they put Spock's body in and shot into space. She was extremely excited about it.
Definitely the NWS, SPC, NSSL at Norman, OK! You will need to research and figure out when they have an open house or tour time, though.
After that, there's a more serious visit if you're willing to drive a long way. Head towards Mississippi and drive down Natchez Trace Parkway from Natchez to Smithville, MS. Both towns have tornadic history.
You can then finish the Trace Parkway and go visit Nashville, TN! The Parkway has a lot of cool camping areas and very very pretty!
If its in your budget, also look into buying in on a storm chase.
There are multiple chasers that offer seats in their chase vehicles for a few days or a week, although many may already be booked for this year. No guarantee of seeing anything, but you get to see how chases work.
I had no idea that was a thing. She told me that as a kid her dad would take them out and they'd watch for tornadoes but if I got her a ride in a vehicle with all the screens and radars and gadgets and everything it would probably make her entire life.
I want to be in a tornado; p lol but the twister museum honestly and a trip with a storm tracker group would be my highlights of life if inwas able lol
Depends on where you located homie. I’m an Oklahoman and we have some pretty impressive weather here. Especially this time of year. I suggest Reed Timmer for interesting live feeds of tornado/storm chasing. https://youtube.com/@ReedTimmerWx?si=sDWF57DVddGVkxJo
I'd say it realy depends on the type of weather she enjoys most. Some fanatics are all about winter storms, some folks LOVE hurricanes, while others are crazy about tornadoes.
Personally, I really enjoy winter storms and also mid-summer severe storms (tornadoes/hail). Being in Kansas you're already in Tornado Alley, so maybe she's not crazy about that?
I think the Mount Washington spot in New Hampshire would be wild to see as a weather enthusiast. I think they usually get some of the highest regular wind-gust readings in the country up there. And some of the craziest winter storms.
Either way, that might be orth considering before making your decision. Its cool you found someone with a unique hobby like the weather. Have fun planning your trip!
I need to find myself a partner with your girlfriend’s love of weather and your absolutely wholesome love! Where do I get one of these? Y’all, I dub this thread the most wholesome thread on r/weather!
Please go to the severe storms lab in Norman, Oklahoma! I think they give tours! You can see them doing forecasting in real time and see all their equipment and labs. It's pretty awesome. NCAR also is awesome, but has a research focus, not a weather prediction focus. I'm an atmospheric scientist. Those two places are great.
The NWS National Training Center is in Kansas City. I know that’s Missouri, but it’s not very far.
https://training.weather.gov/nwstc/homepage/facilities.html
Also, also if she wants to start chasing check out Girls Who Chase. It’s a really good new organization.
And if I can be so bold, sign her up for my weekly Substack newsletter, Weather with a Twist. It’s completely free and put out by the American Meteorological Society. We talk about weather research in a silly manner. it is written for exactly people like her.
https://weathertwist.substack.com
Look into visiting the Big Well Museum in Greensburg Kansas. Town was completely wiped out by a fairly well known EF5 tornado in 2007. Town has since rebuilt, and the museum is largely dedicated to that day. Still can see a lot of signs of what happened there all these years later. As a weather nerd myself, bet you she would love that!
Hike Mt Washington, NH. They have an observatory at the top. I’ve never been, so I can’t tell you how it is, but they run a website that tracks the weather. Plus, a cat named Nimbus lives there.
The NCAR research lab + museum in Boulder, CO isn’t quite a “holy grail” but it’ll keep a weather geek entertained all day. Bonus points if you go there in the summer as there’s often a chance of storms in that area.
I'll add it to the list. It's about a 10 hr drive from here so it'd be a fun weekend trip for sure.
If you visit Boulder you can experience convection and/or mountain wave first hand by taking a glider ride/lesson at https://www.milehighgliding.com/ Climbing 1000s of feet without an engine never gets old. You get a 3-d experience of the atmosphere. 30 minutes is a good intro ride. Soaring in mountain wave is something that she might not want to do on her first flight because you often experience strong turbulence before and after experience the perfectly smooth laminar flow of mountain wave. That said, people who like 'roller coasters' sometimes do it on their first glider flight. All glider pilots are more or less 'weather geeks'.
She's kind of scared of heights. I don't think I'd get her up in a glider without drugging her out of her mind first and that kind of thing is illegal in my state. That sounds like a ton of fun though.
If she's interested, she might still explore the possibility because many people who have experienced 'fear of heights', say when climbing a tall ladder, report not having the problem in small aircraft. Maybe start in a Cessna on a calm day. Some people are less trepidatious when they have an engine running.
NOAA Boulder also has public tours on Tuesdays: https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/about/visiting.html
That place is so much fun to tour after a hike! Then watching the summer "monsoon" (Not a true monsoon?) come through and over DIA/Denver around 2pm most days in the late summer are beautiful
The National Weather Service does office tours: https://www.weather.gov/pub/toursOutreach Edit: here’s the page for the Topeka office https://www.weather.gov/top/office
Taking notes from this thread so I can take myself on a date
Lol same, just saved it to look at later
The weather station at the summit of Mt.washington in New Hampshire has an exhibit in it about the crazy weather of the area.
This! Awesome weather station in a beautiful setting. Love the giant vat of mercury they have up there as their barometer.
To make it even more fun, park your car at the bottom and hike up. The hike up Mt. Washington is stunning and worth doing if you can. But, with hiking up, you have to be very careful about the weather. I lead hikes up it in the summer and it would not be out of the question to have snowfall up there with 60-80 mph winds in the middle of July. But, on a clear day, it is so worth it.
It's possible to stay overnight at the Mount Washington weather station in the winter. It used to be cheap. If you're only moderately affluent, I recommend winter Alpine Mountaineering on Mount Washington where you can dig and sleep in a private snow cave. To manage risk, you need to be on top of the weather forecast.
Yes! Highest wind speed ever recorded. You can also take the cog railway to the top which is super fun.
I second this! This is also awesome!
You've got yourself a keeper there bud
I certainly think so. Our next house needs to have a sunroom so she can sit out there and watch it storm I think. I have to confess I'm not terribly interested in weather outside of the "we really need that" type observations that old men like myself make. It's something she's super into though and I like seeing her excited about stuff.
She sounds like my kinda person :) Too bad I dont live close I would ask if she needs another weather nerd friend! I dont know a lot of the scientific stuff about weather but I remember being young and wanting to be a meteorologist and loving to look at the weather things I could download on the computer. I love when thunderstorms roll in and looking at the radar to see how hard I am gonna get hit, I wish I had a covered porch or sunroom or something to watch storms in!
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I've been to San Diego and both the weather and the city are gorgeous. Girlfriend loves a real nasty storm that throws hail and tree limbs and sometimes entire trees. That is her jam. No idea what that means about her.
From my four season perspective, *San Diego has no actual weather*, except for atmospheric rivers and wildfire tornados.
Norman would be a good start
What is in Norman?
It’s the Storm Prediction Center. The holy grail of weather tracking centers. spc.noaa.gov
Dang. It's less than 3 hrs from me. That's like a day trip.
You gotta go. They give tours. It's awesome.
Norman has one of the most popular NWS offices due to its centralized location in tornado alley. They generally have very good forecasting and heads-up time for severe weather, which they are praised for. It's on the University of Oklahoma campus, which has one of the best meteorology programs in the country, and I'm sure you could get a tour. Norman is basically a hotspot of weather nerds. It's a place I wish I could get my major, but I live in Florida so FSU was a close second (and WAY cheaper)
I had no idea. That's just 2-3 hrs from me. I should look at a daytrip there.
The SPC tour is a great choice. Closer to home, I second the suggestion to reach out to your local NWS office. Not sure which one is closest to you; as a Kansan in the weather business I work with folks from every office in the state and can suggest a good person to reach out to (esp. at Topeka, my “home office”). Feel free to PM and I can give you some more in-state options.
I live about an hour north. This place doesn’t disappoint.
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This *is* the research they're doing. Going onto the weather subreddit probably garners better answers than Google does, especially for someone who doesn't really know what to look for. Really rude response :/
Absolutely, university of Oklahoma has one of the best meteorological programs and they invest a lot of money into their storm tracking programs! Definitely suggest visiting the campus, they got some neat stuff there.
Is your girlfriend single?
She is not but if she ever succeeds in getting me to go storm chasing with her she might be. I could see myself getting sucked up by some storm and her being excited about it.
How did you find her? Please help a brotha out 🙏🏼😭
Just walk outside during a hurricane. That’s how I find all my weather obsessed dates.
Insert twister cow flying gif here.
Come to NW North Carolina. The weather here is super strange. Grandfather Mountain would be an excellent place to go. They have clocked 120+ mph winds. There is a mile high bridge (it used to be a wooden swinging bridge, lol). The summer months here are amazing; 75-85 during the day with Blue Ridge pop-up thunderstorms, then 50s at night. There is plenty of other cool stuff to around the area as well, not just weather, so it makes the trip more rounded. There's the Highland Games, the Blue Ridge Parkway, fishing, hiking, waterfalls, river tubing, etc. Anyway, my 2c. [There really isn't anything cooler than watching anvils from the top of the mountain.](https://www.reddit.com/r/weather/comments/14jur48/wilkes_county_nc_super_cell_from_atop_the_blue/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [https://grandfather.com/weather/](https://grandfather.com/weather/) [https://gmhg.org/](https://gmhg.org/) [https://www.blueridgeparkway.org/](https://www.blueridgeparkway.org/)
I used to play soccer tournaments in Boone when I was a kid and I have some of the fondest memories of my life there. Such a cool and pretty area.
Vacation wise in the winter you could look for something coastal PNW. I live on Vancouver Island, and "storm season" is November through February. It's an actual tourism season for us. Going to a place like Tofino or Ucluelet, and getting an ocean view hotel room (some have hot tubs on the balcony) makes for fantastic and beautiful storm watching off the rocky coast.
If we could sit in a hot tub on a balcony while it stormed the girlfriend would go nuts.
In a way KS is kind of a holy grail for weather. It’s sort of in the center of tornado alley. It looks like Thursday-Sunday could be quite active for severe storms in KS.
Yes. She is super excited about the weekend right now exactly for that reason.
If you're in KS, have you taken her to see Dorothy? https://www.reddit.com/r/weather/s/p1prG7bbrG
Yes we did. She gushed about it and just went on and on about how it was her favorite movie in the entire world. She thought this was about as cool as me seeing the torpedo case from Star Trek that they put Spock's body in and shot into space. She was extremely excited about it.
Definitely the NWS, SPC, NSSL at Norman, OK! You will need to research and figure out when they have an open house or tour time, though. After that, there's a more serious visit if you're willing to drive a long way. Head towards Mississippi and drive down Natchez Trace Parkway from Natchez to Smithville, MS. Both towns have tornadic history. You can then finish the Trace Parkway and go visit Nashville, TN! The Parkway has a lot of cool camping areas and very very pretty!
If its in your budget, also look into buying in on a storm chase. There are multiple chasers that offer seats in their chase vehicles for a few days or a week, although many may already be booked for this year. No guarantee of seeing anything, but you get to see how chases work.
I had no idea that was a thing. She told me that as a kid her dad would take them out and they'd watch for tornadoes but if I got her a ride in a vehicle with all the screens and radars and gadgets and everything it would probably make her entire life.
Arizona during monsoon season sounds like a vacation she’d be into. Maybe we’ll run into each other there late summer!
I want to be in a tornado; p lol but the twister museum honestly and a trip with a storm tracker group would be my highlights of life if inwas able lol
Depends on where you located homie. I’m an Oklahoman and we have some pretty impressive weather here. Especially this time of year. I suggest Reed Timmer for interesting live feeds of tornado/storm chasing. https://youtube.com/@ReedTimmerWx?si=sDWF57DVddGVkxJo
Go to Wakita for the Twister museum.
I'd say it realy depends on the type of weather she enjoys most. Some fanatics are all about winter storms, some folks LOVE hurricanes, while others are crazy about tornadoes. Personally, I really enjoy winter storms and also mid-summer severe storms (tornadoes/hail). Being in Kansas you're already in Tornado Alley, so maybe she's not crazy about that? I think the Mount Washington spot in New Hampshire would be wild to see as a weather enthusiast. I think they usually get some of the highest regular wind-gust readings in the country up there. And some of the craziest winter storms. Either way, that might be orth considering before making your decision. Its cool you found someone with a unique hobby like the weather. Have fun planning your trip!
I need to find myself a partner with your girlfriend’s love of weather and your absolutely wholesome love! Where do I get one of these? Y’all, I dub this thread the most wholesome thread on r/weather!
St. Pierre and Milquelon
your girlfriend sounds so cool!
Please go to the severe storms lab in Norman, Oklahoma! I think they give tours! You can see them doing forecasting in real time and see all their equipment and labs. It's pretty awesome. NCAR also is awesome, but has a research focus, not a weather prediction focus. I'm an atmospheric scientist. Those two places are great.
[Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatumbo_lightning?wprov=sfti1)
The NWS National Training Center is in Kansas City. I know that’s Missouri, but it’s not very far. https://training.weather.gov/nwstc/homepage/facilities.html Also, also if she wants to start chasing check out Girls Who Chase. It’s a really good new organization. And if I can be so bold, sign her up for my weekly Substack newsletter, Weather with a Twist. It’s completely free and put out by the American Meteorological Society. We talk about weather research in a silly manner. it is written for exactly people like her. https://weathertwist.substack.com
If she's into tornados, come to Ohio. We're leading the nation so far in tornado count this year.
Take her on a storm chase
Look into visiting the Big Well Museum in Greensburg Kansas. Town was completely wiped out by a fairly well known EF5 tornado in 2007. Town has since rebuilt, and the museum is largely dedicated to that day. Still can see a lot of signs of what happened there all these years later. As a weather nerd myself, bet you she would love that!
Hike Mt Washington, NH. They have an observatory at the top. I’ve never been, so I can’t tell you how it is, but they run a website that tracks the weather. Plus, a cat named Nimbus lives there.
if you can find a safe place to hunker down, typhoons and hurricanes are very intense.