☂ Meghan Evans ☂

I spoke with an Emergency Management Agency official of Luzerne County after the historic flooding in Wilkes Barre, Pa., forced thousands to evacuate. He told me it would be days before many of the residents would be able to return home.

A Chilean plane crashed on Friday, Sept. 2, 2011, killing 21 people aboard, including a popular Chile TV host. I interviewed AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Eric Leister about the weather conditions at the time of the crash, because the circumstances sounded suspicious. The plane had attempted to land a couple times before radio contact was lost. Leister told me that a strong cold front was approaching with strong winds in the vicinity.

The popular TV host, Felipe Camiroaga, was among the passengers traveling to the Juan Fernandez islands. He was flying to the island to do a program on the reconstruction following the magnitude-8.8 earthquake and tsunami that wiped out the island’s main town on Feb. 27, 2010. This was a great loss for Chile.

The terrifying video of a tornado crossing the New York Thruway near Amsterdam, N.Y., was captured from a car on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2011 by Youtube user linalia. She wrote about the experience: “I had pulled over to ride the storm out & got much more than I bargained for.”

I was working the overnight shift on Monday, Labor Day, when I found this video. Even though I was working the graphics schedule, I recognized the importance of getting this video out to the public as soon as possible. I noticed that major media networks had not picked up the video yet, and I wanted to make sure AccuWeather.com was ahead of the rest.

I took an excerpt of the video using Final Cut Pro, and posted the story on AcuuWeather.com. With my background in Meteorology, I was able to add a weather summary that gave AccuWeather.com the edge over other media outlets as well.

With extreme drought conditions gripping Texas, nearly three million acres have been charred by fires in Texas this year. Unfortunately, many houses and structures have been destroyed by the fires. I included a YouTube video in this story to show some of the devastation caused by the Bastrop Fire.

A recent study released in the June issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society looked at how much the weather impacts the economy, and the findings may be surprising. I was able to speak with Jeff Lazo, an NCAR scientist and the lead author of the research released, about the study.

As Tropical Storm Arlene slammed Mexico earlier in the summer, I posted this news story. I wanted to show the impact of the tropical storm through images and videos with all of the buzz on social media. I edited the video in the news story using Final Cut Pro. The raw footage is courtesy of Youtube user maxpozarica who captured flooding in Poza Rica.

Even South Texas got in on the rain from Arlene, and I interviewed Expert Senior Meteorologist Bob Smerbeck to get his expert opinion on how much rain would fall in the Lower Rio Grande.

This is scary stuff! A deadly amoeba found in fresh bodies of water in Florida. Drought and heat can elevate the threat of this amoeba.

Flooding along the Souris River, or Mouse River, proved too much for the levees in Minot, N.D., causing devastating flooding. In this news story, I explain the weather conditions that led to the flooding. I also produced a video to accompany the story, using Final Cut Pro.