“Tropical Storm Gordon made landfall west of Mobile Bay last night like a disheveled sailor awash with beer and poor choices.”
Mark Malsick, SCDNR, from one of his severe weather emails.
Many in the Carolinas and throughout the world know Mark Malsick, at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, by his severe weather email. His email updates are wildly popular and are forwarded every time he sends one out. We talked to Mark on The Outfall to learn more about him and the secrets behind his growing email list.
How did Mark become the severe weather guru of South Carolina? After graduating from the University of Connecticut with a degree in geology and geophysics, Mark joined the Navy to pursue oceanography and meteorology. He spent time in the Pacific on an aircraft carrier and learned how to forecast weather in the middle of the ocean with no information except what he collected himself:
“You’re in the southern hemisphere. There’s no other forecasts but yours. So you’ve got to come up with it. You’ve got to figure out how to do the forecast, how to brief it, and how to use what limited data you have to come up with it.”
Mark Malsick
Mark got his first taste of mixing work and humor on the aircraft carrier. A daily “air plan” was circulated on the ship, and the person who put it out would add a Far Side cartoon related to something that was going on with the ship. It stood out to Mark that the person thought enough to find a cartoon to make a joke and make the brief more interesting. It was a way of taking something mundane and boring and making people want to read it.
During Mark’s last tour with the United States Naval Academy, the head of the Oceanography Department asked him to provide a daily forecast for the Academy. Mark did it, but in his own way and with his added humor. When Mark started working with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Hope Mizzell, the State Climatologist, asked him to provide the Department’s severe weather email updates, to which Mark said, “Okay – but you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.”
His original email list was only the people in his building. Now his severe weather updates reach over 21,000 people–and not just those in South Carolina. When we talked to Mark, he had just gotten an email from a fan in Australia. He was stunned. Mark thinks one of the secrets to his popularity is the fact that he keeps his emails short with the right level of science, humor, and respect for his audience.
“From the feedback that I get from some of the responses to this stuff, people are just sick of this doom and gloom from all the media. I mean, they know enough to get out of the rain. They know enough to put their windshield wipers on when they’re driving in the rain.”
Mark Malsick
Mark uses his wit to portray the ordinary in creative ways and with colorful terms. In the podcast episode, we also discuss some of the tools he uses for his predictions and why sometimes he does not agree with the National Weather Service. If you’ve not subscribed to Mark’s email list, the link is included in our show notes.
