Douglas, Paul 1958-

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DOUGLAS, Paul 1958-

PERSONAL:

Born 1958, in Lancaster, PA; married; children: two sons. Education: Graduated from Pennsylvania State University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Minneapolis, MN. Office—c/o WCCO-TV, 90 S. 11th St., Minneapolis, MN 55403. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, meteorologist, broadcaster, columnist, educator, and entrepreneur. WCCO-TV, Minneapolis, MN, chief meteorologist, 1997—.

Contributor of weather reports to local radio stations and to KTCA-TV program Almanac. Cofounder and owner, Mobile My-Cast (a mobile phone-based weather forecasting system for building contractors); cofounder and chair, Digital Cyclone (a developer of weather applications for the wireless market); founder and owner, Earthwatch Communications (a 3-D computer graphics company). Has worked as a meteorologist and broadcaster for a variety of stations, including KARE and WBBM (Chicago, IL). University of Minnesota, lecturer; St. Cloud State University, instructor.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Prairie Skies: The Minnesota Weather Book, illustrated by Laurie Kruhoeffer, Voyageur Press (Stillwater, MN), 1990.

Restless Skies: The Ultimate Weather Book, Sterling Publishing (New York, NY), 2004.

Author of daily weather column for the Minnesota Star Tribune. Author of the blog Weathertrends.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author, meteorologist, and entrepreneur Paul Douglas has served as a weather forecaster and television broadcaster for more than twenty-five years. Douglas's fascination with the weather—and with conveying weather information to an audience—extends as far back as his teenage years in the 1970s. Then, he used his CB radio to broadcast weather reports to long-haul truck drivers, noted a writer in Builder. Now, Douglas "gives the weather" to audiences of WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, MN. In keeping with his desire to give weather information to those who want it most, Douglas is the founder of Digital Cyclone, a company that develops products such as Mobile My-Cast, a service geared toward construction professionals and builders. Mobile My-Cast sends customized weather forecasts, combined with mapping information, to help builders pinpoint areas of rain that might interfere with construction projects, reported the Builder contributor. Another electronic product created by Douglas, Earthwatch, is a 3-D weather monitoring program used in several meteorology centers, including Douglas's own WCCO-TV.

Douglas is the author of Restless Skies: The Ultimate Weather Book, a collection of weather information that "blends scientific fact with just the right amount of folksy humor," commented reviewer Sean Potter in Weatherwise. He covers a variety of general subjects related to the weather, including various types of weather activity, the art of forecasting the weather, the role of the meteorologist, and more. Douglas includes detailed material on weather tracking and forecasting technology, such as satellites, radar, and the vast amount of computer power needed to process the raw data collected by measurement devices and monitoring equipment. He includes in-depth material on historical weather disasters, and perhaps most importantly for his readers, provides well-reasoned information on weather safety, with advice on how readers can protect themselves during severe storms, tornadoes, freezing temperatures, hurricanes, and other events. Douglas's "advice is a comforting source for readers wanting to prepare" for weather emergencies, commented Gilbert Taylor in Booklist.

A consistent theme of the book is that of climate change and global warming, and Douglas offers his professional observations and conclusions on this controversial issue. In the end, Potter concluded, Restless Skies "is well suited for general audiences with little or no background in meteorology and would serve as an excellent reference on the shelves of school, local, and home libraries everywhere."