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I am from the Midwest, I am from south

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of St. Louis, Missouri, so I have seen my fair share of tornadoes, and when I was probably

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eight years old, I experienced my first tornado, and

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my family, my home, everything was fine. We survived

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it, but it was enough that it scared me so bad, I figured if I

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learned more about it, it wouldn't scare me anymore. So I was

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an elementary student with weather books lining my shelves, so it kind of

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started really young that I would be less scared if I just learned more.

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My name is Janel Thomas and I am a forecaster for the HS3

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mission for hurricane science and research. I have

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my bachelors of meteorology from St. Louis University in Missouri,

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and I am currently pursuing my masters degree at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

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My current advisor has been working with the NASA hurricane

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mission for many, many years, and so coming on as his

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graduate student I was able to work with the Genesis and Rapid Intensification

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Processes in 2010 and then take more of a leadership role in the

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forecasting here for HS3.
Taking a look here you can see where the

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invest is marked on the wind shear--
I can say the very most amazing

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experience I've had was working with GRIP. Being able to be in

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the plane, looking out the window and seeing the hurricane surrounding,

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seeing the eye wall, breaking through, seeing the water below, seeing

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the sun shining above and just the stadium feel of the clouds

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was probably the best experience of my entire life.

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And just right behind that, the people that I get to interact with,

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the research the I do, the papers I read, the scientists I see on TV, on the Weather Channel,

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I actually get to work with them face to face. They know my name,

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they know my first name, I get to talk to them on a first-name basis, and

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it's really neat to make those connections because hopefully in the future when I'm

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wanting to continue my profession that I have a great background

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of scientists that know how I work and have seen

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me working and they're great references for me in the future.

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