Wednesday, January 10, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
17
Forecaster retires after 39 years with weather service
By Kathy Aney
East Oregonian
PENDLETON (AP) —
Veteran weather forecaster
Dennis Hull predicts sunny
days ahead.
The prediction, defying
the gray inversion clearly in
view outside our windows,
is a metaphor for his retire-
ment that began Thursday.
Hull retired after 39 years
with the National Weather
Service, almost 20 of them in
Pendleton.
Much has changed over the
decades. On Tuesday, January
2, Hull took a lingering look
around the center’s NASA-
esque control room. Several
fellow forecasters sat in the
cool glow of three or four
computer monitors apiece,
scrutinizing weather data in
a variety of forms, examin-
ing maps that overlaid one
another, zooming in and out
and gazing at looping satellite
images.
A low-tech pair of bin-
oculars sat on a window sill.
Outside was a panoramic view
of the Blue Mountains. Once
in a while, Hull said, someone
will get up from their desk and
peer through the binoculars at
lightning or gathering clouds
or a bluebird sky. Inevitably,
a coworker will jokingly yell,
“That’s cheating.”
This data-rich environ-
ment contrasts Hull’s early
days on the job in Montana,
Mississippi, Utah and Kansas.
“When I first started, paper
maps (18 inches by two feet)
came out of a fax machine,”
Hull said. “We posted them on
the wall and stood back.”
Meteorologists typed their
forecasts onto punch tape and
sent them out on the teletype.
Te c h n o l o g y s t e a d i l y
evolved during Hull’s career.
The advent of Doppler radar
helped forecasters more
closely pinpoint storm activ-
ity by calculating motion and
detecting the intensity of pre-
cipitation. A deadly tornado
that swept into Mississippi
when he worked as a fore-
caster there still haunts him,
because Doppler weather
radar would likely have
given people time to take
precautions.
“The storm killed a dozen
people about two miles from
where I lived,” Hull recalled.
“It was rocking and rolling.
We drove around later and
saw a refrigerator up in a tree.
If we’d had Doppler radar
sooner, we could have saved
some people.”
These days, though the
weather is more severe, the
number of weather-related
fatalities has dropped, he said.
“We’re able to get the
information out there sooner
so people can prepare,” he
said.
We’re able to get the
information out there
sooner so people
can prepare.
— Dennis Hull
Hull, who grew up on a
Montana farm, got interested
in weather during his boyhood
because it played such a big
role in farming. He remembers
giving daily weather brief-
ings to his high school French
teacher. In college, he first
studied electrical engineering,
but switched to meteorology
after being fascinated by an
intro-to-meteorology class.
Hull arrived at Pendleton
in 1998. Most recently, Hull
served as warning coordina-
tor meteorologist, interacting
with storm spotters, the media,
emergency management offi-
cials and others. He also made
presentations at local schools
and outdoor schools. Because
of his outreach, people often
recognize him on the street
and engage him about the
weather.
Hull said that weather
forecasting, despite the ava-
lanche of data, remains a
bit of an art. There is beau-
tiful drama and unpredict-
ability in the weather, Hull
said. As an example he com-
pared data transmitted from a
weather station located at the
Pendleton NWS headquar-
ters to information generated
from another station half a
mile away on a runway at
the Eastern Oregon Regional
Airport. On some days, cool
air pools on the runway while
the air is warmer only half a
mile away at the NWS office.
“There may be a five-
degree difference in half a
mile,” Hull said, “and we’re
making a forecast for thou-
sands of square miles.”
Mother Nature’s power
never fails to awe Hull. When
stationed in Salt Lake City in
the late 1980s, he watched air
roll off the desert and pick up
moisture as it blew across the
lake.
“Then, bang, it was a full-
blown storm when it hit the
mountains,” he said.
Hull said he will miss
camaraderie and collabora-
tion with his colleagues and
public partners, but welcomes
the next chapter. He plans to
continue his role as a part-
time school bus driver for the
Mid-Columbia Bus Company.
In the summertime, he aims to
get outdoors for a full slate of
gardening, hiking and biking,
and more time with his wife,
Mary.
Hull will continue to
pay attention to the weather
because it is interesting.
He doesn’t have a favorite
weather condition, though he
admitted disliking fog and
dust storms. The meteorolo-
gist doesn’t believe in wasting
time complaining about the
weather.
There may be a five-
degree difference in half
a mile, and we’re making
a forecast for thousands
of square miles.
— Dennis Hull
“It is what it is,” he said.
Editor’s note: Dennis Hull
has provided weather and cli-
mate summaries for Sisters to
The Nugget for many years.
We wish him well in his
retirement.