Greg Forbes (meteorologist)

Greg Forbes
Born (1950-08-22) August 22, 1950 (age 74)
Latrobe, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Alma mater
Known forTornado, downburst, and mesoscale meteorology research
Scientific career
FieldsMeteorology
InstitutionsPennsylvania State University
The Weather Channel
Thesis Three Scales of Motions Associated with Tornadoes  (1978)
Doctoral advisorTed Fujita

Gregory Stanley Forbes (born August 22, 1950) is The Weather Channel's long-time severe weather expert and has a significant research background in the areas of severe convective storms and tornadoes.[1]

Born and raised near Latrobe, Pennsylvania,[2] Forbes earned a B.S. degree in meteorology at Pennsylvania State University (PSU). He studied tornadoes and severe thunderstorms at the University of Chicago, where he obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. There, Forbes studied under tornado scientist Ted Fujita and his thesis was regarding the 1974 Super Outbreak where he and Fujita did aerial and ground investigations documenting tornado paths and furthering ideas of the tornado family and of multiple-vortex tornadoes. It was with those data he confirmed in a 1981 article that the hook echo is an excellent clue on a weather radar for the development of tornadoes.[3]

Forbes served as field manager for the Project NIMROD, the first measurement program to study damaging thunderstorm winds from downbursts and microbursts. He then joined the faculty in the Department of Meteorology at Penn State in 1978, where he taught courses in weather analysis and forecasting, natural disasters, and other topics until joining The Weather Channel (TWC) in June 1999. Forbes has had a variety of experiences outside of the classroom, including surveying the damage paths left by about 300 tornadoes and windstorms, including Hurricane Andrew and Typhoon Paka. As part of his research at Penn State, he was lead weather forecaster for numerous field research programs around the country.[4]

He continues limited research and was on the development team of the Enhanced Fujita Scale which in 2007 replaced the original Fujita Scale from 1971.

Forbes announced he would go into semi-retirement on July 6, 2018.[5]

  1. ^ "Dr. Greg Forbes: Tornado and Severe Weather Expert". Company Info. The Weather Channel. Retrieved 2014-05-05.
  2. ^ "Bulletin Board." Latrobe, Pennsylvania: Latrobe Bulletin, October 4, 2003, p. 4 (subscription required).
  3. ^ Forbes, Gregory S. (July 1981). "On the Reliability of Hook Echoes as Tornado Indicators". Monthly Weather Review. 109 (7): 1457–1466. Bibcode:1981MWRv..109.1457F. doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1981)109<1457:OTROHE>2.0.CO;2. ISSN 1520-0493.
  4. ^ "Dr. Greg Forbes". Archived from the original on 18 March 2016. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
  5. ^ "Dr. Greg Forbes". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2018-07-08.