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Dr. Greg Forbes is a renowned expert on severe weather and serves as the Tornado and Severe Weather Expert for The Weather Channel®. He specializes in reporting on hazardous thunderstorm weather conditions, including tornadoes, damaging winds, hail, floods, and more.
Born and raised in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Dr. Forbes developed a keen interest in meteorology during his 7th-grade class’s study of the subject. He pursued his education at The Pennsylvania State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in meteorology.
Continuing his academic journey, Dr. Forbes obtained his master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Chicago. Under the mentorship of Dr. T. Theodore Fujita, renowned for his invention of the F-scale used to rate tornadoes, Dr. Forbes focused his research on tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. His doctoral research centered around the 1974 Superoutbreak, one of the most severe tornado outbreaks in U.S. history, studying its impact and characteristics.
After completing his Ph.D., Dr. Forbes served as the field manager for Project NIMROD, a groundbreaking program aimed at studying damaging thunderstorm winds, including downbursts and microbursts. He later joined the faculty of the Department of Meteorology at Penn State in 1978, teaching courses in weather analysis and forecasting, natural disasters, and related subjects. In June 1999, he joined The Weather Channel as a valuable addition to their expert team.
Dr. Forbes’ extensive experiences extend beyond the classroom. He has surveyed the paths of approximately 300 tornadoes and windstorms, including major events like Hurricane Andrew and Typhoon Paka. His research at Penn State also involved leading weather forecasting efforts for various field research programs across the country.
Throughout his career, Dr. Forbes has collaborated with national weather services in the United States, South Africa, Spain, and the Netherlands, contributing to research and consulting projects. He has conducted studies to enhance lightning forecasting at the Kennedy Space Center and was even the forecaster in Sweden for a NASA project focused on measuring the North Polar ozone hole during the winter severe weather “off-season” of 1999-2000.
One of Dr. Forbes’ notable contributions is the development of The Weather Channel TOR:CON forecast, an index specifically designed to estimate the likelihood of tornado activity within a given time period within a 50-mile radius of a location. TOR:CON ratings are integral to The Weather Channel’s severe weather coverage across its network and digital platforms.
Dr. Forbes has authored numerous papers on tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, and various meteorological topics. He has also co-authored and co-edited books such as “Natural and Technological Disasters” and “Images in Weather Forecasting,” which delve into the use of satellite and radar imagery in weather prediction. His significant contributions to the field have earned him recognition as a fellow of the American Meteorological Society.
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Greg Forbes continues to provide invaluable expertise and insights as a trusted authority on tornadoes and severe weather for The Weather Channel®.