Welcome to the new weather blog and social media hub that covers the Sunshine State! Damaris Jaime and Charles E. Roop have been contemplating this project for the last couple of months and it’s up and running. The goal is to provide weather forecasts and updates on everything that’s happening from Pensacola, to Jacksonville, to Key West.
Charles E. Roop is a graduate meteorology student at Mississippi State University. A North Central Florida native, Roop became intrigued with meteorology at the age of nine. Being nagged by the constant summertime afternoon storms, Roop began wondering why it kept happening. He started watching the weather on TV and he was hooked. Roop studied journalism and photojournalism in community college and for most of his time at the University of Florida, but decided to switch to a meteorology mindset. He graduated with a bachelors in geography from UF in May 2010. Roop’s focus on his thesis is tropical cyclone-induced tornadoes in Florida and plans on using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to study the phenomenon.
Damaris Jaime is a meteorology student at Mississippi State University, who started out in broadcast meteorology but recently decided to switch to operational. She was born in Havana, Cuba and raised in south Florida for most of her life. From experiencing hurricanes and tropical storms, she couldn’t help but love the field and pursue a career in it. Jaime also took part in chasing the 2011 devastating April 27 tornado outbreak across Mississippi and Alabama. With her experience and continued training in meteorology, as well as being bilingual, Jaime will bring a different angle to contribute to the mission of the blog.