Shooting the breeze with Channel 6 meteorologist Chris Sowers
Action News meteorologist Chris Sowers knows a good storm when he sees one, and over the past year, he’s seen a lot of them. He also knows better than anyone that there’s no place like home—the Glassboro native left Channel 6 in 2005 to work in Bowling Green, Ky., then Chicago before returning to the South Jersey area and Channel 6 in May 2011 as the weekend morning meteorologist.
Now a proud resident of Sewell, Sowers sat down with South Jersey Magazine and sounded off on the hardest part of his job, where we can find him when he’s not on camera, and all his favorite South Jersey haunts.
The toughest part about being a meteorologist is…
Probably getting a forecast wrong. A lot of our forecasts are based off computer model predictions. Even though the models are to be used as only guidance, if they’re painting the wrong picture, more than likely you will, too. I’ve seen situations where just about every single forecast model says one thing, yet in the end something completely different actually happens. I’ve seen other situations where a forecast model that has had the hot hand as of late will completely disagree with another forecast model that handles that specific type of weather event better than any other model. It’s like saying you have to do 10 push-ups in 15 seconds. Well, that doesn’t sound too hard, right? But then they tell you later that you can only use one arm. All of the sudden, it becomes a lot more challenging. So that’s kind of what the modeling does to us every now and then. It’s certainly not as easy as one might think.
Predictions vs. science…
Well, they both kind of go hand in hand. We use forecast models as guidance. But each model has specific biases and flaws. So a lot of your predictions are based on your knowledge of the area (knowing the terrain), time of year, and which models handle specific situations better than others. In all honesty, though, sometimes your gut feeling is the best way to go.
On differences between the Midwest and East Coast storms…
The weather’s a lot different out there. Severe weather season is pretty intense. The threat of tornadoes or 80 mph, straight-line wind events are almost a weekly occurrence during the spring and summer months. Storms are ferocious in the Midwest—they strike hard and fast! Here in the Delaware Valley, we live in an area where tornadoes are a rarity. Out there, you sometimes wonder if you’re going to have a house to go home to when you get done working. I’ve lived in New Jersey for most of my life, so I’ve seen storm after storm after storm around here. After a while, you develop a good sense of what to expect because you’ve seen it over and over again. But out there I hadn’t seen it before so I didn’t know what to expect in the beginning. I caught on, but it took some time.
Coming back home…
The decision was simple. I’m a big family person, and this is my home. I didn’t like being away from them. I have an identical twin brother and a younger brother that I never got to see. Those jobs were fun, but what good is it having a wonderful family if you never get to see them? So I decided to come home. I hang out with them just about every day now.
Life off camera…
A lot of training! When I worked in Chicago a few years back, our media team captured first place in the “Hustle up the Hancock,” which is a full sprint up 96 floors of the John Hancock Building. For over two months I trained for that race, sprinting up stairs and running long distances, eating right, and I still felt like a train wreck after that race was over with. My legs hurt for a week. Because I work weekend mornings here at Channel 6 now, it’s very difficult to compete in those kinds of events because most of them occur when I’m on the air. But I still do a lot of training to stay in shape. I swim three to four miles a week and lift weights two to three times a week.
Favorite local haunts…
I love being near the water. This time of year you’ll see me in Sea Isle City or Cape May quite a bit. The sound of the waves breaking on the sand, the smell of the salt air, feeling the sea breeze hit my face, listening to the seagulls. The Shore is a very relaxing place for me. Come football season, you’ll see me either in Buffalo Wild Wings or Chickie’s and Pete’s cheering on the Birds and keeping up with my fantasy football teams!
Trading places with his twin…
We only purposely did this once actually, and that was during our freshman year at Glassboro High School. I sat in on his French class while he sat in on my World Geography class. We nearly pulled it off but I got caught about a half hour in. During a lesson plan, the teacher kept calling my brother’s French name Jean-Pierre because she wanted me to answer a question (she thought I was Gary). Well, I had no idea who Jean-Pierre was because my French name was Christophe. So I just kept on doing what I was doing and never even paid her any attention. She even raised her voice a little bit and looked right at me, but I still had no idea she was talking to me. Needless to say, in the end she figured it out. We don’t look as much alike now as we did then, but we still fool quite a few people, especially when they’re seeing us for the first time.
The ups and downs of the job…
The best part about my job is the fact that I don’t even consider it a job. A wise man once said to me, when you love what you do it’s never work. Well, if that’s the case then I haven’t worked in 15 years! I love being able to wake up every weekend morning and look at the forecast models, build weather graphics, come up with different ways on how I’m going to explain them and present them on the air. I have other likes and hobbies, but weather drives me more than anything else. The worst part about the job is when you get a forecast wrong. I’m a very passionate forecaster and I take it home with me every night. If I blow a forecast, I can’t just forget about it. I have to know why I got it wrong. So I’ll go back and look at everything over and over and over again so I don’t make the same mistake twice.
Forecast for the future…
That’s a good question. I couldn’t possibly ever see myself getting out of meteorology. But other interests include playing a small role in a movie some day. Ever since I got on the air late in 2005, I’ve thought about a small movie role. I could certainly see myself doing a weather role like Christopher McDonald in The Perfect Storm or Bill Paxton in Twister.
Published (and copyrighted) in South Jersey Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 5 August, 2014).
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