6ABC Meteorologist Chris Sowers Talks Weather with BHMS Sixth-Graders
When 6ABC meteorologist Chris Sowers was the same age as the sixth-graders that he stopped in to visit on March 18th at Bunker Hill Middle School, he was already confident about his career path. He told the group, including his nephew Hayden Sowers, that actually since age 5 he has his head in the clouds, because it was at that young age that he knew he wanted to “do weather.”
Sowers, a Glassboro, NJ native, enthusiastically spent the class period sharing information on cloud types (cirrus, cumulus, stratus and nimbus) and their variations (roll, shelf, wall and mammatus), on temperature, dew point and pressure – all factors that he analyzes before delivering a forecast. He explained the science behind the formation of tornadoes and hurricanes, advances in predicting the severity of storms, the importance of taking threats of severe weather seriously and his role in that process.
“In spite of the early hours, where I am up at 3 a.m., preparing graphics at 4:15 a.m. and on the air on Saturday mornings from 5-10 a.m., it’s a lot of fun to be in front of the camera talking about something that I have always loved,” said Sowers who has served as a meteorologist at 6ABC in Philadelphia since May 2011, after earning a meteorology degree from Kean University and spending three years in Bowling Green, Kentucky. “I have always been drawn to nature’s power and nature’s beauty.”
Philadelphia meteorologist Chris Sowers shows Bunker Hill Middle School students a sample of the baseball-sized hail that he encountered during his time in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on the outskirts of tornado alley.
Sowers shares a clip from the Philadelphia Eagles-Detroit Lions game when he forecasted a dusting to an inch of snow and eight inches fell during the contest.
BHMS eighth-grader Louis Esposito, a would-be meteorologist, was thrilled to meet Sowers and share his passion for weather.