As Denver7 chief meteorologist Mike Nelson looks ahead to retirement on Dec. 12 – the digits 12/12/24 totaling 48, the number of years Nelson spent in meteorology – he sat down one last time with Colorado Public Radio’s Ryan Warner for their monthly “climate conversation.”
Mike and Ryan discussed everything from a new “climate emergency” detailed in a federal report, to Mike’s plans for the future after TV news, to the origins of the now-famous “tornado dance” and more.
Watch their full conversation in the video player below:
A new ‘climate emergency’
A new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that the Arctic tundra is now a source of carbon emissions, thanks to wildfires and a warming planet.
For thousands of years, the tundra has stored carbon rather than emitting it.
“This really is a climate emergency that we face,” Nelson said. “Every bit of that carbon that's going in the atmosphere will stay there for centuries – locked in perhaps for 1,000 years – and carbon dioxide is [...] far more efficient at trapping or redirecting heat that would otherwise escape into outer space.”
Will we have a white Christmas?
The short answer is that, as of Mike and Ryan’s recording on Dec. 10, it was too early to tell. But Mike was “hopeful.”
There were some signs on the longer-range models that there may be a shift in the pattern by around Dec. 22 or Dec. 23 that would put us into a stormier pattern,” he said, adding that the forecast often changes over the course of a couple of weeks.
But, you can consider Mike among those who would like to see a snowy holiday.
“To me, that's magical,” he said.
How did the tornado dance come to be?
The two reminisced on Mike’s lengthy track record of imparting weather and climate wisdom on younger generations, which includes both serious discussions and silly ones involving his now-famous “tornado dance.”
Mike shared the dance’s origins.
Decades ago, his tornado demonstration use a “tornado machine” involving a stove pipe, a metal pan, water and canned heat. Heating the water underneath would make the air being drawn through the stove pipe act like a tornado.
In search of a safer, less flammable option, Mike remembered a college professor who had devised a dance to illustrate the jet stream.
“And I thought if I can come up with a dance for the tornado, that would be as memorable as the jet stream dance was for me, I think it'll work,” Nelson said. “So I worked out the pantomime and I've been doing it for 40 years.”
What’s next after retirement?
Mike says he’s already involved in work in renewable energy that will continue after retirement.
That includes work in the so-called super grid, or the high-voltage transmission system needed in order to meet energy requirements, particularly with the new demands being made by things like artificial intelligence, massive data centers and cryptocurrency.
Some say we may need as much as 75 t0 100 gigawatts of additional power in the next five years.
“We can't do that all just with renewables, but it will be a big role,” Nelson said. “Eventually, if we can get the better transmission system in to move all this electricity around, we can decarbonize the power grid in the decades ahead. So getting the energy from where the wind is blowing and the sun is shining to where it is most needed.”
