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Why did I gravitate towards tropical meteorology as an area of interest? Growing up in San Diego, this is not so apparent. But it goes back to high school days and WWVH shortwave radio transmitted from Hawaii. My brother and I were interested in the weather in La Jolla and would be made aware of late summer tropical storms far south off of Baja California from the radio broadcasts by WWVH that would give every hour the positions of these storms. This, in the late 60’s was the only way to easily get such information – at least for us. In fact, we were early “storm chasers”, and on one occasion we drove to the tip of Baja California (1100 miles!) to try to intercept on tropical storm (we were hoping it would make landfall and we would see the effects firsthand. Perhaps fortunately for us, the storm recurved westward, but we did experience “tropical weather” and showers. While one is generally safe from storm surges in most of Baja California because of the easy access to high terrain along the coastline, the main highway could be cut by flash flooding in many places. We didn’t appreciate the fact that we might have been stuck for a week or more should that have occurred.

The link between rare thunderstorms over the coastal regions of San Diego and tropical storms was known in California, and this link to tropical weather, along with the botanical attractions of Baja California motivated my interest in the tropical weather. A driving trip from San Diego to Mexico City and back through Texas in September 1973, further developed my interest in tropical environments – both the plants and the weather.

During my final year as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, I took two courses that greatly motivated me towards the tropics. The Humid tropics course, taught by a Brazilian Geographer and an introductory climate and weather course also taught by a geographer, motivated me towards the tropics. It seemed like a frontier of sorts. And seeing a short article in a journal in the library about a recently-completed tropical meteorological experiment (GATE) added to my interest (I was sad I missed it), as well as announcements for graduate school opportunities posted on the bulletin boards in our Earth Sciences building.

I realized that during my fall quarter at Berkeley that I would be able to graduate with my degree in Geophysics at the end of the spring 1975 quarter and that I didn’t need to spend 4 full years as an undergraduate. But that put me in a quandry – should I seek a job – as many others would be doing – or should I continue towards graduate school?