The Weather Channel's meteorologist Jim Cantore is in Tucson chasing the impacts of tropical storm Odile. He was seen by the Rillito River, reporting on the latest weather updates live for the Weather Channel and other news networks.
Cantore is known to be at severe weather events, and has covered Hurricane Katrina, Irene and Superstorm Sandy.
When asked how long he and his crew would be sticking around in Tucson, he said, "That's up to Mother Nature." He said he hopes the heavy rain doesn't lead to catastrophic floods.
Q. When was the last time you were in Tucson?
A: It was [Hurricane] Nora in [19]97. For me, it was my first time in the desert, so to see heavy rain and flooding was pretty wild.
Q: What is your assessment of the weather situation in Tucson?
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A: We got exactly what we expected in terms of slow increase in moisture. It felt like it was getting more and more tropical throughout the day. It’s just something that you don’t usually see. If you trace where the low pressure center goes, it’s coming into Arizona unlike with Norbert that went out to sea. But it doesn’t matter. Even though the meteorology is a little different we still could see the same result. Regardless of what gets here, it’s all about the moisture that gets squeezed out.
Q: What was the scariest moment in your weather reporting career?
A: Lightning scares me the most in terms of overall threat. You don’t usually get a second chance with lightning so I’m not very happy when there is lightning. At that point, I usually get the crew inside. Like I said, you don’t usually get a chance.
In terms of the wow factor, I’ve seen a lot. To take one out of the whole mix in terms of hurricanes and tornado outbreaks, it’s difficult.
If I had to pick one, let’s just say Katrina because of the overall scope and size of that disaster. It was essentially like a movie set along the Mississippi coastline. The first time you see death and smell death, it sticks with you. That was that time for me.
Q: Do you plan to do anything fun while you're in Tucson?
A: They don’t pay me to have fun. We run a pretty tight ship at the Channel. And when they send me out here, they expect me to do the job. That’s usually all I have time to do. Should the event be underachieved and we don’t get much, then oh yeah, I’m going to go to all the places that you go to when you’re in Tucson, get good food and drive up to the Canyon. That’s about a five percent of the time occurrence for me.
Q: Any impressions of the event that you'd like to share with the Star readers?
A: I think if anything stands out to me that may help us in this situation is that everybody is aware of what happened last week. You had to be living in a hole if you don’t remember what happened when the heavy rain happened. Should it start raining like it did last week, I’m hoping people would stay put and stay home, let the storm come in and give it a couple of hours.
