The Villages - January 2021 - 50

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The Weather Club in The Villages
JOHN SHEWCHUK SHARES HIS LOVE OF ALL THINGS
WEATHER-RELATED WITH LIKE-MINDED VILLAGERS

JANUARY 2021

clouds, wind shear, rainbows, storm fronts and snowstorms!' Well, I don't know about the snowstorms part
(laughs), but there's a lot of interesting features out
there that people see every day but don't understand
the science behind them. "
Strewchuk also stresses that while the club does
discuss science topics, they do not go heavily into datarecording - the club is all about sharing information
with anyone who is interested.
" Some people are thinking that we're actually organizing people to take weather observations and recording them, " he explained. " That's not what we're doing.
This is just information sharing. These are people who
have an interest in weather or who have a specialty in
weather-related topics and giving talks. "
Strewchuk does mention that he and several others
in The Villages have home weather stations where they
collect data on their own time as a hobby.
" There's dozens of weather observers here in The
Villages that have weather stations with rain gauges
and all types of meters, " he said. " They report (the data)
to centralized locations and some people actually coordinate and organize that information. One of those people wants to talk at a future meeting. "
He says that many of those members also report the
data they collect to The Villages management, who use
the numbers and stats to help manage water levels and
other systems around the area.
" There's a whole infrastructure below the surface, "
he said. " I was talking to a retired engineer who worked
in underground water distribution in different landscapes, and he said he was so impressed with what The
Villages is doing with state-of-the-art water management that he decided to retire here. "
Attend a Weather Club in The Villages
meeting and you can be sure you will
leave knowing more than you did when
you walked in. Shewchuk and the other
members of the club all are ready to learn
and share more about all sorts of weather
phenomena - from clouds to storms to jet
streams and more.

YULIYA SHAVYRA /iStock / Getty Images Plus

Cirrostratus clouds, lightning, storm chasers and local climate - these are just a few of the topics covered
at meetings of the Weather Club in The Villages, a new
club started late last year by Village of Calumet Grove
resident John Shewchuk.
Shewchuk has long held an interest in weather and
the climate, and he spent 22 years in the Air Force as a
meteorologist and an advanced weather officer.
" I used to sit on my front porch a lot and watch the
clouds and thunderstorms go by, " he said. " I would
wonder, 'Gee, I wonder why that works that way?' It got
to the point where I got an 8mm movie camera, and I
would set it up on a tripod and take time-lapse films so
I could go back and see clouds forming. I became even
more interested. "
Upon moving to The Villages three years ago, Strewchuk began getting involved with some of the local
clubs that piqued his interest.
" I started attending some of the local science and
tech clubs, and they touched on weather and climate
and I put some slides together and gave about 10 talks
over the last couple of years. People suggested, 'Well,
why don't you form a weather club?' I resisted for a
while and then said, 'Ok, why don't we do that?' I had a
couple people that supported me and we started one up
- we'll see how it goes. "
The Weather Club in The Villages is the result.
The club meets at Bridgeport Recreation Center on the
third Thursday of every month at 1:30 p.m., and Shewchuk said their first meeting in October last year was
a success.
" Thirty Five people showed up, which is pretty
good, " he said.
At meetings, Strewchuk or another speaker cover a
certain topic, ranging from lightning to storm chasers
to home weather stations. Strewchuk says he has plenty
of topics for the upcoming year, and if he does not have
an outside speaker, he has plenty of material he can
cover on his own. And he is always on the lookout for
topics that people want to hear or talk about next.
" I put out feelers on what people want to hear next, "
he said. " A lady wrote back, 'I want to learn about roll

kotoffei /iStock / Getty Images Plus

STORY BY MARK ANDERSON | PHOTO BY ROB WILKERSON

The Villages - January 2021

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