Spotlight on: Harold Brooks
Harold Brooks is a third-generation St. Louis Cardinals fan. And while most kindergartners in St. Louis, Missouri, might have been aware that the Cardinals were in the 1964 World Series, Harold was doing long division to keep track of their batting averages. He still loves baseball--and he continues to study it by answering his own questions: How does the performance of the players in September compare to the rest of the season? (Cal Ripken was terrible in September). Is this typical of guys that play each day--that they are bad in September? (Infielders, yes, outfielders, no). Harold has made a hobby out of baseball research.
But what does baseball have to do with his job in weather research? Nothing! From baseball to physics (his undergraduate major) to atmospheric science and the media, Harold just likes to ask questions and is driven to answer them. "I stumbled into this--I am not one of those people who likes going up on the roof to watch thunderstorms." From physics he "stumbled" into climate and planetary research at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and was invited to graduate school at Columbia University in New York City. After earning his M.S. in atmospheric science, Harold wanted to get back to the Midwest and arrived at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign during the infancy of its supercomputer center. After earning his Ph.D. in 1990, he came to NSSL.
Harold is head of the Mesoscale Applications Group at NSSL and continues to ask questions in his job: "How can we get value out of research for forecasters?" Recently, his biggest success was answering the question: "Where and when is severe weather likely to occur at any point in the country?" You can see the interactive maps he developed at: http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/hazard/. Harold's curiosity has already propelled him to the next question: "What is the distribution of severe weather around the world?" To answer this, he considered data from seven years of soundings taken four times per day over regions covering most of the contiguous United States, Europe, and Australia. Harold was awarded a DOC Silver Medal for his work.
International outreach and traveling are a big part of Harold's job. Besides hosting visitors to NSSL, he is frequently invited to speak and work abroad. He even had a rewarding role in the formation of the European Severe Storms Laboratory: "NSSL has clearly had an impact on how science is done in Europe." Luckily, his dislike of flying is outweighed by his enjoyment of eating in different countries. (His favorite restaurant is in Montreal where patrons are served seven-course gourmet meals).
Unique experiences as a radio host (sports and music) while an undergraduate at William Jewel College, and as a bartender in England enhanced Harold's ability to filter information. He likes to identify what's important and explain concepts in a useful way, which makes him a media favorite. He was the media liaison for VORTEX in 1995, had interaction with the Twister movie team, and was a point person for the May 3, 1999 tornado outbreak.
Harold's wife, Katherine, two kids - Sarah (13)
and Christopher (10), their dog Amba and a gecko (living in Sarah's room
but not seen lately) don't share Harold's passion for baseball, but recently
Le Tour de France had their attention. Christopher noted that Thor Hushovd
should do well on Thursday (competing for the green jersey), since Thor was
named for the day. In Christopher's "Thorsday" updates they saw Thor move into second,
then into first place for the remainder of the tour.
