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It’s been said that in everyone’s life a little rain must fall. For Jim
Purpura, it’s been more than just a little rain–it’s been hurricanes,
tornadoes, and flash flooding. But this Moraine Valley graduate isn’t
complaining. Watching for threatening weather conditions is not only a
passion, it’s his job as head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration National Weather Service office in San Diego, Calif.
Jim
vividly recalls as a child in 1967, he and his siblings were watching a
Red Cross program on tornado safety when the skies darkened, lights
flickered, and a warning interrupted the T.V. program. Their home was
struck by a tornado, but they survived because they knew what to do.
“That tornado safety program made a big impression on me,” Jim says.
So
much so, that after graduating from Moraine Valley in 1975, Jim went on
to earn a bachelor’s degree in meteorology from Northern Illinois
University. He started his forecasting career with the National Weather
Service office in Chicago and then moved to Norman, Okla., where he says
his weather office “was the first to use the new Doppler radar service.”
While in Norman, Jim worked with the cast and crew of the
Oscar-nominated major motion picture Twister to help ensure authenticity
in the weather office segments.
Jim
and his family now reside in sunny southern California, but he’s careful
not to be complacent about the weather in a state that can have blinding
snow storms, wild fires, flash flooding, and more. “It’s difficult to
convince people here the weather could be a threat,” Jim says. “The idea
of teaching people weather safety has always been very important to me.
You could say it’s been a passion.” And a bit of an irony for a man who
had a childhood fear of thunderstorms. |
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Graduate Jim Purpura heads a California
national weather office. |
