Forecasterjack

Hello everyone!

My name is Jack Sillin and I am a weather geek. I love the weather and everything that comes with it. Now a junior at Cornell University studying Atmospheric Science, my love for the atmosphere has come a long way since the exciting times when seven-year-old me would jump up and down at the thought of a snow storm.

In 2017, after writing on this site for 6 years, I got a job with the Switzerland-based weather data company WeatherOK which operates the websites weather.us and weathermodels.com. I left WeatherOK in September 2020 to pursue other opportunities in the field of meteorological communication. During hurricane season, I wrote blogs and updates for hurricanetrack.com and the Hurricane Tracker App explaining tropical cyclone forecasts to non-technical audiences. From  June-December 2020, I worked with professors at Cornell to develop and refine two new courses integrating quantitative data analysis into the Atmospheric Science curriculum. Starting in September 2020, I have been working with a tech startup designing and building a new weather app. Alongside all of these projects, I have maintained forecasterjack.com as a resource for those interested to learn a bit more about Maine’s weather. I hope it remains useful and interesting for some time to come.

If you too appreciate these posts and want to help support their production, the best way to do that would be to send me a couple bucks on Patreon. Everything I post here is completely free, but alas a college education is far from it. All the money I get through the Patreon site goes towards educational expenses including tuition, textbooks, and gas to drive to and from Ithaca. Thanks so much to all those who have offered their support!

For those interested, a brief history of the site and my interest in weather is below.

I came up with the idea for a blog soon after I became interested in the atmosphere back in 2007 when the Patriots day storm rolled up the coast. I vividly remember standing in front of the computer looking at the radar  and then checking it against what was happening outside. In any case, soon after the storm passed, I began to develop more and more of an interest in knowing about what was happening above our heads.

Within the next few months, relatives began asking about the weather for various events or what the next storm would bring to the region. I began looking at model data and reasoning through what it meant. I then found several very helpful tutorials that truly taught me what the charts really meant. From then, I’ve expanded from the GFS on PSU’s E-Wall to nearly any model under then sun spread out over several sites.

From my first excited post about being on TV to long discussions on Hurricane Sandy to tracking snowstorms through the night, the site has come a long way.

I do my best to update the site every morning with info on the day’s weather and sometimes in the evenings as well when the weather is active. I’m just an armchair weather guy and in no way shape or form should be used as a substitute for the NWS. They are trained pro’s and their work should be considered the best forecast out there.

What I hope to do here is present a different side of the weather that explains the factors behind the forecast. Especially when uncertainty is high and the bust factors are many, I feel that it is helpful to know what could go wrong and why. Believe it or not, the amount of turbulence at 20,000 feet has a significant impact on how much snow you may have to shovel in the morning. For this reason, you may find my discussions on the longer or more technical side, even on relatively quiet days. If there are terms that are a bit over your head, check the glossary by mousing over the glossary tab on the top navigation bar. If you can’t find it in there, drop a note in the comments so I can add it.

Aside from weather, other favorite pastimes of mine include skiing, fishing, and hiking.

I hope you enjoy the site!