#88 — Josh Morgerman (Hurricane Man)

Hello folks and welcome to another episode of Inside The Newsroom, where today’s guest is the hurricane man himself, Mr. Josh Morgerman. I had Josh and his director Caroline Menzies on the pod last year to talk about their hit TV show, Hurricane Man (highly recommended watch) which followed Josh to the world’s most remote places during the infamous 2018 cyclone season. This time around Josh’s setup was dramatically altered by Covid-19, so we caught up on this year’s hurricane season of which he spent in Mississippi.

As ever be sure to check out last weeks’s coverage outside the newsroom, with Inside The Middle East and Picks of the Week. And if you’re a fellow weather geek, enjoy some of my previous podcasts…

Job Corner

We finally did it, 1,000 journalism jobs and internships! This week’s new postings feature the likes of CNN, the Economist and the Wall Street Journal. Keep spreading the word! 🙏 👇

Data Corner

* Cyclone Activity: Real-time data for all major ocean basins around the world, from Colorado State University

Who is Josh Morgerman?

Josh was born and raised in New York, studied history at Harvard and now resides in L.A. where he runs his own branding consultancy company. Yes, not the typical route to becoming one of the world’s leading storm chasers. As Josh puts it, he was born to chase, which is why Josh has spent the past few months in Bay St. Louis in Mississippi, so that he’s just a drive away from this year’s hurricane action amid international travel restrictions. In non-Covid years, Josh has travelled to some of the most remote areas in the world to capture valuable data for scientists and academics to study.

Josh has been chasing storms for the best part of the past 30 years, but it was last year that shook him to his core. Chasing the most powerful hurricane on record to make landfall in North America led Josh to the Bahamas, where he intercepted Hurricane Dorian head on. When the worst of the storm had passed, not much was left standing, and there was a gut-wrenching 48-hour period when no one could reach him and he was presumed dead. While Josh didn’t study meteorology in college, he’s certainly a student of the field, so we’ll quickly run through some key terms we’ll use in today’s newsletter…

Correction: I originally stated that Hurricane Dorian was the most powerful hurricane on record. It’s not. It’s the most powerful to make landfall in North America.

The Hurricane Man 👇

Quick Glossary

What’s the difference between a cyclone, hurricane and typhoon?

A cyclone is the generic term for a rotating storm, and also the name given to large-scale rotating storms in the Southern Hemisphere. Under that generic label we have hurricanes, which are large-scale rotating storms in the North Atlantic and the Northeast Pacific, while a typhoon is the equivalent for large-scale rotating storms in the Northwest Pacific.

What is Accumulated Cyclone Energy?

Commonly known as ACE, it measures multiple metrics including wind speed and the number of days a storm lasts in order to give an overall impact.

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