Evans, Bill 1960-

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Evans, Bill 1960-

PERSONAL:

Born 1960; married.

ADDRESSES:

Home—CT.

CAREER:

Writer, meteorologist, and broadcaster. Eyewitness News in the Morning and Eyewitness at Noon, WABC-TV, New York, NY, senior meteorologist. Broadcaster on Radio Disney and ESPN Radio. Guest on television programs, including Good Morning, America and Live with Regis and Kelly.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Emmy Award, five-time recipient; Outstanding Meteorologist Award, National Weather Service.

WRITINGS:

(With Marianna Jameson) Category 7 (novel), Forge Books (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Bill Evans is a meteorologist and broadcaster based at WABC-TV, Channel 7, in New York City. His position as senior on-air weather personality on a high-profile station has brought him national recognition, including five Emmy Awards. He also appears on radio and as a guest on other well-known television programs, such as Live with Regis and Kelly. He has been the writer and producer of several broadcast documentaries on hurricanes and other forms of severe weather.

Evans has added novelist to his professional resume with his debut work, Category 7, written with Marianna Jameson, a technical writer and author with a pair of noted romance novels to her credit. In the novel, the most powerful storm in history is bearing down on New York City and the east coast. Hurricane Simone is rated as a category seven storm; when it hits the city, devastation will result as buildings fall, subway tunnels and low-lying areas flood, and thousands die in the carnage. In contrast, Hurricane Katrina, the storm that nearly destroyed New Orleans, was rated as a category four.

It soon becomes apparent, however, that Hurricane Simone is not a natural phenomenon; the storm was created and enhanced to apocalyptic levels by technology owned by bitter and vengeful billionaire Carter Thompson, former employee of a secret government program that discovered a way to form and intensify hurricanes. His ability to control the weather in this way has been a boon to his infrastructure repair and recovery firm. When the deranged Thompson is angered by U.S. President Benson's disinterest in his ideas on nuclear energy, he hatches a scheme to bash the East Coast with the most powerful hurricane ever seen, extracting his revenge, humbling Benson, and perhaps destroying the aging Indian Point nuclear power plant. Standing between Thompson and his mad plan are meteorologist Kate Sherman, a former employee of Thompson's, and CIA weather expert Jake Baxter. Their arsenal contains a secret Navy-built device that might counter Thompson's technology and defuse the meteorological time bomb, but the biggest drawback is that it must be activated within the violent heart of the storm itself.

An Internet Writing Journal Web site reviewer commented: "Weather science combined with political intrigue make this is an entertaining read for thriller fans, whether or not they are weather buffs." The book is a "satisfying, albeit run-of-the-mill thriller about fooling with Mother Nature," noted a Kirkus Reviews writer. Booklist critic David Pitt named it a "fast-paced action-adventure yarn that promises a rousing finale and delivers it." A Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded that readers who are "weather nerds should have a good time from beginning to end."