Severe-weather expert Dr. Greg Forbes

The Weather Channel’s veteran severe-weather expert Dr. Greg Forbes will headline Hanover College’s 50th-anniversary commemoration of this historic occurrence with a special campus presentation. Forbes will offer his unique insights into the notorious 1974 Super Outbreak at 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 3, at Fitzgibbon Recital Hall, Lynn Center for Fine Arts.

The presentation is open to the public. General admission tickets are available online, free of charge. Tickets will be scanned at the door upon entry.

Forbes, best known as The Weather Channel’s severe weather authority, was featured on the network from 1999-2019. Through two decades, he made behind-the-scenes and on-air forecasts and supported The Weather Channel’s timely coverage with discussions of dangerous thunderstorm weather hazards such as tornadoes, damaging winds, hail, floods and lightning.

Forbes became interested in meteorology in middle school and later received a Bachelor of Science degree in the field at Penn State University. He furthered his education at the University of Chicago, where he would earn both master’s and doctoral degrees.

While at the University of Chicago in the early 1970s, Forbes studied tornadoes and severe thunderstorms under the guidance of Prof. T. Theodore Fujita, the world-famous meteorologist and tornado scientist who developed the Fujita Scale that differentiates tornado intensity. Fujita also discovered narrow, intense thunderstorm downdrafts known as “microbursts.”

Ultimately, Forbes’ thesis examined the 1974 Super Outbreak, using aerial and ground investigations to document tornado paths. The discoveries advanced the concepts of tornado “families” and multiple-vortex tornadoes. The research also confirmed the hook echo, as seen on weather radars, as a significant clue for the development of tornadoes.

Forbes’ goal was to be a forecaster and he had no intention of being a television meteorologist. After earning his advanced degrees, he served as field manager for Project NIMROD, the first measurement program to study damaging thunderstorm winds from downbursts and microbursts.

In 1978, Forbes returned to Penn State as a member of the Department of Meteorology faculty. As an assistant and associate professor, he taught courses in weather analysis, forecasting and natural disasters, among other topics. In 1999, he joined The Weather Channel as a forecaster, researcher and on-air personality.

He is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and is a past member of the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the National Research Council. He served as member of the development team of meteorologists and wind engineers who developed the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which replaced the original Fujita Scale in 2007.

Though now retired, Forbes conducts limited weather-related research and makes occasional storm-related appearances on The Weather Channel.