My next “Weather Maker” in life

When I mentioned, a week ago, that I was leaving WDAM I was not anticipating much of a response. Seriously I figured a handful of people would say, “good luck!” And a few others would say, “good riddance!”

I certainly did not anticipate the response I received.

I mean this from the bottom of my heart. A GIGANTIC thank you to everyone who has reached out to me. The well-wishes and kind words have been above and beyond anything I thought was possible. I don’t have words to express my gratitude.

So, even though words can’t encapsulate everything: THANK YOU!

Coupled with all of the kind words, I’ve heard from a lot of you asking….
“When is your last day?”
“What’s next?”
“Where are you going?”

As much as I want to pull a Dave Chappelle and take a trip to Africa, I’m not. For many reasons. Topping the list: I can’t afford that. Plus I would probably end up in the wrong part, anyway. I would go to experience the monsoon on the Serengeti. But with my luck I’d end up in the Sahara.

I can see the headlines now….

“LOCAL WEATHERMAN GOES CRAZY, RETREATS TO FOREIGN LAND WITH NO COLD FRONTS”

“SOUTH MISSISSIPPI METEOROLOGIST LEAVES HUMIDITY TO TRAVEL THROUGH DESERT”

“HURRICANE-B-GONE: LILJA LEAVES MISSISSIPPI FOR DRIER PASTURES”

But that isn’t what is next. What is next is, thankfully, not me getting lost in a desert. I just won’t be on TV anymore.

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A bit more background

A lot of you guys have been very supportive the last few days, saying you enjoyed all my little extra weather tidbits. And that warms my heart. I am so happy that so many of you enjoyed all of the fun Science I tried to incorporate into my forecasts.

I think it was Carl Sagan who said, “When a man is in love, he wants to tell the world.” And I love Science. So I wanted to tell the world all about it.

On top of that, to me, Science is just a normal part of life. We see Science every day. In fact, I bet that you even perform Science experiments, all the time, and don’t even realize it. For example, have you ever looked at the expiration date on some food, and said, “well, let me give it a taste to see if it has really gone bad…”?

I’ve got news: That’s the first step in Science! Asking a question.

When you follow up to see if the food is actually good to eat, that is the rest of the Scientific Method.

You are proposing a hypothesis (milk is still good?), collecting data (expiration date is tomorrow, smells a little weird), testing the hypothesis (taking a small sip), and coming to a conclusion (still good!).

And since everyone is doing Science every day, I just went about my business incorporating it into my forecasts on TV. I would talk about the Scientific Process I went through to come up with a forecast, the probabilities of analogs, and the different parameters and different levels of the atmosphere.

You asked the question: What it the forecast?

And I walked through collecting the data, testing the hypothesis, and coming up with.a conclusion… all in about 180 seconds!

Some viewers would express frustration about the extra tidbits I shared. My favorite response was the, “Nick thinks he is so smart. Just tell the weather!” messages. Because, if you know me, you know I don’t think I’m all that smart at all.

Those comments never bothered me on a personal level. But they always left me feeling so disappointed that people were treating Science as an inoculation they received in school as opposed to the beginning of a journey of discovery.

Right. I’m getting off on a tangent….Apologies. I’ll get back on track.

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Where you can find me

I’m leaving TV to take a job in the Energy sector. And I’ll be leaving Mississippi. I am really excited to get an opportunity to help companies ‘keep the lights on’ so to speak as bad weather passes through.

I’m going to be honing my skills forecasting high impact weather days and weeks out – and at times months! For those of you who have lived in South Mississippi for a while, you’ve come to know my 14-day forecasts and my seasonal outlooks. I have historically done those ‘for fun’ because I wanted to test my skills.

Now I get to do those things as apart of my job description!

Many of you have asked if I will continue to update this blog, keep posting on facebook, and producing a forecast for south Mississippi / the Gulf Coast.

I can now say that the answer to all of those things is “Yes.”

I’ve chatted with our web guys at WDAM and they have allowed me to retain possession of my facebook page. I worked with my new company to make sure that I am allowed to maintain this blog. And I will continue to offer my thoughts on high impact weather events for the region.

So, as I said before, “I won’t be going far.” even though I won’t be on TV anymore. But now I can say, I won’t really be going anywhere. I’m just moving away from television.

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No clue where this goes…

Full transparency: I have many ideas but no real “plan” for this site. And I have some ideas, but no real plan for my “coverage” of Mississippi / Gulf Coast weather.

This blog may be updated daily. It may be updated weekly. I may post to facebook often. Or just here and there. I may post more videos or I might try to create and distribute an entire ‘weather school’ through this site.

I have a lot of ideas. But for now, they are just ideas. Nothing is set in stone. I can’t make many promises.

The on promise I can make, though, is “I’ll try my best.”

And if you want to come along for this next journey, great! If not, I’m still grateful you came along for the last.