Part-time instructor forecasts for KREM-2 News
During a semester in his class, Randy Mann’s physical geography students can expect to learn about volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes.
They can also expect an accurate local weather forecast.
Mann, who has been a part-time instructor at NIC since January 2010, is a meteorologist and part-time TV weatherman for KREM-2 News. He has been with KREM-2 about eight years, but he’s been into weather his whole life. One might say he has weather in his “vanes.”
He grew up in Sacramento, a location practically devoid of snow. But that didn’t stop him from being captivated by atmospheric conditions.
“I always liked the storms when they came in. I thought it was the coolest thing. I just developed that interest,” he said. “I’ve had it ever since I was a wee one.”
As a kid, he used to keep rain gauges and weather measurements in his backyard.
“Of course, I had no idea the dog was using the rain gauges to enhance the numbers a little bit,” he said with a chuckle.
His path to television began when he was young. When he was 7, his father took him to see a live taping of a Sacramento news show where he experienced a TV news set for the first time.
“It was larger than life to me when I walked in through the door,” he said.
Mann interned with KCRA-TV Sacramento when he was only 14. He finally went on the air when he was asked to fill in for a Tacoma station.
“This is how times have changed,” he said with a smile. “They said, ‘We’ll pay your salary, your flight, your room, your car and your expenses.’ I was up there for my 21st birthday to fill in for three weeks and it was fabulous.”
Mann studied at San Francisco State, University of California Davis and Sacramento State. He graduated in 1988, giving him the title of “meteorologist.” During that time, he’s seen all kinds of crazy weather. One Fourth of July about six or seven years ago, Mann and the crew at KREM-2 had an electrifying
experience.
“One evening we were so busy, we were flying by the seat of our pants,” he said. “Lightning was literally hitting the tower out there. We were getting shut down, then brought back up. There was no format, I mean, we just did it. That was really intense.”
Mann said his weather forecasts are on target about 80-90 percent of the time. He said he feels we are living in a “cycle of extremes.” He said predicting the weather is all about “catching the trend,” but it becomes more challenging when unexpected patterns occur.
“Once in a while, you get some really weird curves,” he said. “Those big years, I mean, you can’t forecast more than 170 inches of snow. We said above normal, but that was something else.”
With Mann’s knowledge and enthusiasm about the subject, becoming an instructor was a natural choice. Mann had previously been involved with NIC, speaking about global warming in the Popcorn Forum. He soon became acquainted with geology/geography instructor Bill Richards.
“Bill was really instrumental in getting me in there,” Mann said. “I really owe a lot to Bill. He’s a great guy.”
Originally, Mann was going to teach a class on weather and climate. When the required amount of students failed to enroll, it was decided that the topic should be broadened to physical geography.
“I enjoy that more because in addition to weather, you get volcanoes, the formation of the Earth,” he said. “It really covers a wide variety. So I’m having a good time with it.”
He said he adopted some of his teaching strategies from an astronomy course he took while at San Francisco State. It was taught by the head of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
“It was so interesting how he did things,” he said. “I’d watch very carefully. I try to do a little bit of that when I do my geography thing.”
When comparing the workload of being a TV weatherman to being an instructor, Mann said it’s like comparing apples and oranges.
“It depends on the day. When you first start out teaching, it’s a lot of work as you experiment to see what works. Some days at the station you can just sit back with your feet propped up, but other days when the weather’s hopping, you have snow, thunderstorms, then you’re really busy.”
Along with being an instructor and reporting the weather to TV audiences in the Inland Northwest, Mann and local climatologist Cliff Harris are partners in Harris-Mann Climatology and long-range weather. Mann has been writing articles for www.longrangeweather.com since 1991.
“We have to write articles on a daily basis for our clients,” Mann said. “We have a commodity long-range weather forecasting business. Clients depend on our information to trade commodities. For example, if we see a big freeze coming in Florida, they want to buy in low, freeze hits, commodity prices shoot up, they make money.”
Needless to say, Mann is involved in many things: He writes a weather column for the Spokesman Review, fills in for Harris’ Weather Gems once in a while, compiles the Coeur d’Alene Press weather page on a daily basis and he has been married for more than 20 years.
So what does he do when he’s not doing all this?
“I sleep,” he said with a laugh.
Physical geography 100 will be offered in the summer. It satisfies a lab science credit.
