John Wheeler

Fargo

Meteorologist at WDAY-TV (Fargo, ND)

Meteorologist at WDAZ-TV (Grand Forks, ND)

Meteorologist with WDAY-TV, WDAZ-TV, The Forum since 1985. B.S. in Meteorology Iowa State University. Opinions are just mine.

Articles

John Wheeler: Old-fashioned forecasting method often led to inspired insights

4 days ago | inforum.com | John Wheeler

FARGO — In the 1980s, when this meteorologist was a college student and then a young professional, it was my twice daily task to copy the coded weather station observations onto a map and then draw the isobars, isotherms, isopleths and other contour lines for weather analysis. My first effort took about three hours; but after a few months, I could easily plot and analyze a weather map of the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest in less than half an hour. It became a pleasure to draw those lines.
John Wheeler: That delightful calm period at sunset

5 days ago | inforum.com | John Wheeler

FARGO — During spring and summer — in the absence of a shower, thunderstorm, cold front or some other sort of disturbance in the atmosphere — the air will often become wonderfully calm right around sunset. This happens because of a cooling of the air in the lowest 200 to 300 feet of the atmosphere. During a sunny afternoon, the ground gets very hot, heating air in this lowest layer of the atmosphere.
John Wheeler: The latest spring on record

6 days ago | inforum.com | John Wheeler

FARGO — Frost in May is a fairly typical and nearly annual occurrence. However, a string of freezing nights along with scattered areas of snow is a little less typical. Still, it is not unprecedented. The Fargo Moorhead weather record from 1907 indicates 16 of the 31 nights during May were freezing. Eight nights were 25 degrees or colder. It snowed four separate times during the month, including a 2.9" snowfall May 13-14.
John Wheeler: Drought of 1988-89 was, perhaps, the worst weather disaster of the last 50 years

1 week ago | siouxfallslive.com | John Wheeler

FARGO — Widespread drought across much of North America, particularly in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest, during the summers of 1988 and 1989 was, perhaps, the worst weather disaster of the last 50 years. Thousands of heat-related deaths were associated with the drought, as well as damages exceeding $60 billion ($160 billion in 2025 dollars). It was the worst drought since the 1930s. The cause of the drought is still not entirely known.
John Wheeler: Most tornadoes are not killers

1 week ago | inforum.com | John Wheeler

FARGO — Around 1,300 tornadoes, on average, touch down somewhere in the United States per year. Around 60 deaths per year, on average, are caused by these 1,300 tornadoes, meaning there is fewer than one death for every 20 tornadoes. The most common EF0 (wind speed 65-85 mph) and EF1 (wind speed 86-110 mph) tornadoes rarely result in fatalities.
John Wheeler: Earth's terrain is not as spectacular as it seems

1 week ago | grandforksherald.com | John Wheeler

FARGO — To drive across the plains of northern North Dakota to the Turtle Mountains is an amazing sight. Suddenly, the land rises around 400 feet and the flora and fauna change with the altitude increase. In western South Dakota, the Black Hills suddenly rise 3,000 feet above the plains and shortgrass gives way to Ponderosa pines. West of Denver, the Palmer Divide is a sudden rise of up to 8,000 feet above the high plains of Colorado.
John Wheeler: Spring thunderstorms often make the air quite cold

2 weeks ago | inforum.com | John Wheeler

FARGO — When the air is fairly dry, as it often is in spring, it is still possible for it to rain. When the air is dry near the ground, it can still be humid aloft. When rain falls from a cloud into dry air, some of the rain is evaporated, which cools the air. Evaporation cools the air because of the energy used to evaporate the water. A shower or a thunderstorm that drops heavy rain into dry air causes the air to cool dramatically.
John Wheeler: Storms do not 'always' weaken just before hitting your location

2 weeks ago | inforum.com | John Wheeler

FARGO โ No, thunderstorms do not always change direction or weaken just before hitting your location. People watch the horizon or their radar pictures and see storms that appear to be headed straight for them with large hail or heavy rain or damaging wind or something. Then it misses or isn't as bad as advertised. First of all, storms wobble all the time, but you usually don't notice unless it happens just before hitting you.
John Wheeler: Very large hail is very rare

2 weeks ago | grandforksherald.com | John Wheeler

FARGO — Thunderstorms are caused by local columns of rising air called updrafts. Often enough, these updrafts strong are enough to overcome the force of gravity long enough to send raindrops up into the colder tops of the clouds where they freeze. Tiny hail usually melts on the way down but small hail (the size of peas or dimes or nickels) is a relatively common occurrence during summer. Very large hail is very rare.
John Wheeler: Climate change and tornadoes

2 weeks ago | inforum.com | John Wheeler

FARGO â Is our warming climate changing the threat of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms? From the political sides of this debate, this question is usually quickly and easily answered either âYes!â or âNo!â In the real world, few things are so simple. The trend across the United States in recent decades is a slight decrease in the overall number of tornado days along with a slight overall decrease in the number of tornadoes annually.

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