By Jim Purpura. Posted July 22, 2011, 3:36 PM.

Hello to all the fans of WeatherCurrents. My name is Jim Purpura. I am a Temecula resident, and have just joined John Toman on WeatherCurrents.com as a Consulting Meteorologist.

I will be contributing to the discussion of weather across Southern California. I will also be involved in forecasts and updates of current and upcoming weather.

A bit about me: I recently left the National Weather Service in San Diego, where I was the Director since 2003. Before that, I was the Director of the Corpus Christi, Texas National Weather Service, and also worked as a Meteorologist in Norman, Oklahoma and Chicago. I have over 30 years of forecast experience to bring to WeatherCurrents.

We do have active weather here in Southern California, just not so much as in other areas. Wildfires, floods, tsunamis, and tornadoes are among the threats. Last year's earthquakes in Chile and this year's earthquake in Japan brought tsunami surges causing harbor damage in San Diego, Orange, and LA Counties. On May 22, 2008 an EF-2 tornado, the first ever reported in California, threw a semi truck into the air over I-215 south of March Air Base, and blew over 9 railroad cars weighing 63,000 pounds each. I am continuing to do research, and I believe the area of the Inland Empire from Murrieta to Riverside is actually California's "tornado alley".

Many of you probably are not aware that the city of San Diego was hit by a hurricane (in 1858), and tropical storms, and especially tropical remnants are not that uncommon in the region.

Furthermore, the dense population and highway traffic increases the risk of the public to exposure to weather events.

So let's get acquainted! "Tune in" regularly, and hopefully I can share what I know about weather with you, and learn from you as well. We have also talked about using Facebook and Twitter to better reach out. What do you think of that idea?

I'd be interested in hearing any comments, questions, or suggestions. Let's keep in touch.

Regards,

Jim Purpura Consulting Meteorologist WeatherCurrents.com

E-mail: jpurpura@weathercurrents.com