(Christian (holding bag) and his family pose with WCM Jody James (left), Meteorologist Intern Felecia Bowser, Meteorologist-in-Charge Justin Weaver (right) and Senior Forecaster Ron McQueen (second from right).
(May 14, 2008) -- Christian and his family visited west Texas and the National Weather Service Office in Lubbock as part of the Make-A-Wish Program. The Make-A-Wish Foundation exists to grant the wishes of children with life threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength, and joy.
Christian's wish was to "be a tornado"! As part of that request, he and his family came to Lubbock from southern California to get up close and personal with severe weather. They spent several days in west Texas, and were able to go storm chasing a couple of times with crews from one of the Lubbock television stations. One chase took them several hundred miles nearly to Dallas, and although they didn't see a tornado, they were able to see and hear numerous severe storms that were rumbling across west and north Texas producing hail and high winds.
As part of his visit to the NWS Office in Lubbock, Christian got to see the NWS video entitled "Surviving the Storm". He and his family toured the NWS Office and received some hands on training with the AWIPS weather workstations. They also saw a real weather balloon. One of the highlights of his visit was listening in on an actual severe weather conference call with the Storm Prediction Center.
After the tour, Christian was presented with a gift bag that contained several toys, weather stickers and brochures, and a mini weather station.