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TheBuzz

BY ERIKA ENGLE

Friday, August 17, 2001

Weather Channel
to feature isles

The Weather Channel has made it its business to expose Hawaii as being about more than just sun and sand. The winner of its "WeatherQuest" contest and his guest will participate in the process, which will be aired next month. Weather Channel officials were lured to Hawaii by its 13 micro-climates, according to Senior Brand Manager for Advertising Sales and Marketing Shari Pace.

The "Atmospheres" series just wrapped its shoot on the four major islands with winner Joel Taylor and guest Lance Northington. Nationally sponsored by Subaru, the Subaru Outbacks used in the Big Island taping were supplied by Hilo-Kona Mazda Subaru.

Taylor said his experiences included ocean kayaking, "walking with the fishes," biking down Haleakala, visiting the summit of Mauna Kea and touring the lava flows at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

His daily diary can be read at http://www.weather.com.

From his native Oklahoman perspective, Taylor said most surprising aspect of Hawaii's weather was "the change in climates from the east side of each island to the west side -- from rain all the time to 10 inches a year, I was pretty impressed."

Pace said viewers may be impressed by dramatic weather during the WeatherQuest team's plan for a kayak tour of the NaPali coast. They "had great bad weather -- the remnants of Delilah which had turned into a rain storm."

"It was one of the most bone-chilling things," she said. "We had to pull the winner and our host back on the boat -- that's going to make a great segment."

Taylor's winning entry told of chasing an F-5 tornado around Oklahoma City May 3, 1999. "I chased it for about an hour and a half, and got to within a quarter mile of it a couple different times. We had stuff falling on us," he said.

The contest won, he had to submit further information to the Weather Channel. Turns out that both Taylor and Northington are meteorology students at the University of Oklahoma.

Taylor said the experience will look good on the resume he'll prepare before he graduates next year in his efforts to land a job in broadcasting.

The program will air at 2 p.m. Sept. 26 Hawaii time on Verizon Americast channel 6. The Weather Channel is not available via Oceanic Cable.

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Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com