High Pressure Blues - Golden Gate Weather Services

High Pressure Blues

Back during the California drought of 1975-77 I was an Intern at the National Weather Service and decided to be "clever" and write the California Weather Summary on Valentine's Day 1977 in poetic verse titled "High Pressure Blues". (NWS management was not amused) I'm sure all will agree that it's a good thing that I can make my living as a meteorologist and not as a poet.

However, the meteorology is certainly just as apropos for the current drought. An image of the original teletype message can be seen

and is replicated below.

High Pressure Blues

Strong High Pressure
Remains firmly entrenched...
Blocking all storm
That might leave us drenched.

Light offshore breezes
Are warming the air...
To unseasonable readings
Under skies fair and warm.

Temps in the 70s
Were found all around...
And marks over 80
In the south state were found.

Some rain would be nice
With snow in the mountains...
Enough to fill up the dams
Or even some ountains.

But the new forecast says
It's more sunny days...
With patches of fog
And afternoon haze.

E Jan Null
Feb 14, 1977

Jan Null

Jan Null has been a meteorologist in the San Francisco Bay Area for over four-nine decades and is frequently seen on television and heard on the radio when weather is in the news. Twenty-six years ago he founded a consulting firm, Golden Gate Weather Services, after a 24-year career with the National Weather Service. Mr. Null is a Bay Area native, having grown up in Oakland and lived in the East Bay until 2006 when he moved to Saratoga. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Atmospheric Science from UC Davis in 1974 and his Master’s from San Jose State in 1992. Jan joined the National Weather Service in 1974 at the Weather Service Forecast Office in Redwood City. He worked as an operational forecaster throughout his career, including 13 years as Lead Forecaster. During his tenure at the NWS he also served as Meteorologist-in-Charge at the Center Weather Service Unit at the FAA’s Air Traffic Control Center in Fremont. He also did extensive research into the relationship between El Niño, La Niña and California rainfall and throughout his career he was a frequent media spokesperson for the agency. Jan has also been an Adjunct Professor and Lecturer at San Francisco and San Jose State Universities where he taught one evening a week for nearly 30 years. In 1998, Jan founded Golden Gate Weather Services, a consulting firm that specializes in forensic meteorology. He frequently serves as an expert witness in litigation where the weather is a factor. This often involves reconstructing past weather events or as his wife refers to it: “CSI Weather”. Mr. Null is also an internationally recognized expert of the sad topic of the heatstroke deaths of children in vehicles. After the death of a child left a vehicle in San Jose in 2001 he did a comprehensive study of vehicle temperatures that was ultimately published in Pediatrics in 2005. Since that time he has spoken at numerous national conferences and worked with a wide variety of child safety advocacy groups and agencies to raise awareness about the dozens of children who die from hyperthermia in hot vehicles each year. This data continues to be updated at NOHeatstroke.org. In his spare time he is a serious amateur photographer, specializing in wildlife and landscapes. Jan is married to Susan Hollis, a lifelong Saratoga resident and Realtor. He has two adult children in the Bay Area and the world’s most adorable 9-year old granddaughter and 4-year grandson.

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