Gregory Stanley Forbes (born August 22, 1950) is

The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are located in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel ...

's long-time

severe weather Severe weather is any dangerous meteorological phenomenon with the potential to cause damage, serious social disruption, or loss of human life. These vary depending on the latitude, altitude, topography, and atmospheric conditions. High ...

expert and has a significant research background in the areas of severe convective storms and tornadoes. Born and raised near

Latrobe, Pennsylvania Latrobe ( ) is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 8,060 as of the 2020 census. A part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, it is located near Pennsylvania's scenic Chestnut Ridge. Latrobe was incorpo ...

, Forbes earned a B.S. degree in

meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

(PSU). He studied tornadoes and severe

thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustics, acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorm ...

s at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, where he obtained his

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

There, Forbes studied under tornado scientist

Ted Fujita was a Japanese and American meteorologist whose research primarily focused on severe weather. His research at the University of Chicago on severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and typhoons revolutionized the knowledge of each. Although ...

and his thesis was regarding the

1974 Super Outbreak The 1974 Super Outbreak was one of the most intense tornado outbreaks on record, occurring on April 3–4, 1974, across much of the United States. It was one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history. It was also the most violent t ...

where he and Fujita did aerial and ground investigations documenting tornado paths and furthering ideas of the

tornado family A tornado family is a series of tornadoes spawned by the same supercell thunderstorm. These families form a line of successive or parallel tornado paths and can cover a short span or a vast distance. Tornado families are sometimes mistaken as a si ...

and of

multiple-vortex tornado A multiple-vortex tornado is a tornado that contains several vortices (called subvortices or suction vortices) revolving around, ''inside'' of, and as part of the main vortex. The only times multiple vortices may be visible are when the tornado i ...

es. It was with those data he confirmed in a 1981 article that the

hook echo A hook echo is a pendant or hook-shaped weather radar signature as part of some supercell thunderstorms. It is found in the lower portions of a storm as air and precipitation flow into a mesocyclone, resulting in a curved feature of reflectivity. ...

is an excellent clue on a weather radar for the development of tornadoes. Forbes served as field manager for the

Project NIMROD Project NIMROD (Northern Illinois Meteorological Research On Downburst) was a meteorological field study of severe thunderstorms and their damaging winds conducted by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). It took place in the Greater ...

, the first measurement program to study damaging thunderstorm

winds Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...

from downbursts and

microbursts In meteorology, a downburst is a strong downward and outward gushing wind system that emanates from a point source above and blows radially, that is, in straight lines in all directions from the area of impact at surface level. It originate ...

. 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 Hurricane Andrew was a compact, but very powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that struck the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana in August 1992. It was the most destructive hurricane to ever hit Florida in terms of structures dama ...

and

Typhoon Paka Typhoon Paka, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Rubing, was an extremely powerful and long-lived storm that devastated Guam and the Marshall Islands in December 1997. One of the strongest Pacific typhoons ever recorded in the month of De ...

. As part of his research at Penn State, he was lead weather forecaster for numerous field research programs around the country. He continues limited research and was on the development team of the

Enhanced Fujita Scale The Enhanced Fujita scale (abbreviated EF-Scale) is a scale that rates tornado intensity based on the severity of the damage a tornado causes. It is used in the United States and France, among other countries. The EF scale is also unofficially ...

which in 2007 replaced the original

Fujita Scale The Fujita scale (F-Scale; ), or Fujita–Pearson scale (FPP scale), is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is determ ...

from 1971. Forbes announced he would go into semi-retirement on July 6, 2018.

Personal life

In May 2014, TWC president David Clark announced on Forbes'

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

page that Forbes had

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel ...

, but that his prognosis was good as the cancer is treatable and had not spread. Forbes and TWC subsequently released a

PSA PSA, PsA, Psa, or psa may refer to: Biology and medicine * Posterior spinal artery * Primary systemic amyloidosis, a disease caused by the accumulation of abnormal proteins * Prostate-specific antigen, an enzyme used as a blood tracer for pro ...

urging people to have regular checkups and, when necessary,

cancer screening The objective of cancer screening is to detect cancer before symptoms appear, involving various methods such as blood tests, urine tests, DNA tests, and medical imaging. The purpose of screening is early cancer detection, to make the cancer easie ...

s. In December 2014, Forbes wrote on his Facebook page that his doctor found no traces of cancer in his body. On January 12, 2017, The Weather Channel announced on its Facebook page that Forbes has decided to go from full-time to part-time status, due in part to his "colon cancer scare" three years earlier. He also pointed out that he had turned 66 the previous summer, and expressed a desire to travel "while my health is good." On July 6, 2018, Dr. Greg Forbes announced his retirement from The Weather Channel; he would return the following spring in limited capacity before formally stepping down later in 2019.

References

External links

TWC bio

Facebook page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forbes, Greg Living people Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences alumni University of Chicago alumni Journalists from Pennsylvania Pennsylvania State University faculty People from Latrobe, Pennsylvania 1950 births The Weather Channel people American television weather presenters