Paul Otto, Meteorologist with Freese-Notis Weather, will be the featured speaker on Thursday, March 14 at 6:15 p.m. at Lavender Crest Winery, 5401 US Highway 6, Colona. Dinner will be served followed by an update from Tom Parchert, River Valley Cooperative. Reservations are required and must be made by March 7 to guarantee your attendance.
Paul Otto grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin and then moved to St. Louis, Missouri, when he was a child. He was that child that was always looking out the window to study the geography while taking car trips with his family throughout the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. He used these trips as an opportunity to figure out how the land and water features changed with every mile and how these features working in tandem and sometimes against one another.
As a teen, his focus narrowed to studying the weather for selfish purposes as any approaching winter storm could mean that he did not have to complete that evening's homework, if he could just figure out its severity for his area. In college, Paul studied Meteorology at the University of Missouri-Columbia and took every opportunity to get involved in radio, television, and agriculture. In agriculture, he filled in for the State Climatologist over holidays so that atmospheric measurements could still be carried out at the campus research farm.
On television, Otto was brought on as the weekend Meteorologist after serving as an intern. He honed his radio skills through the University of Missouri's Journalism School as part of KBIA's Morning Edition. Before graduating, he was fortunate that Freese-Notis Weather in Des Moines reached across what was then the BIG 8 boundary to interview a Missouri Tiger.
When Paul Otto started working for Freese-Notis Weather, early in the summer of 1993, I quickly realized that he was right in time to witness the unfolding of the Flood of 93'. It started innocently enough as slow moving, but intense thunderstorms over small lakes in northern Iowa each afternoon, day after day, that built over the course of a month to overwhelm the river basin. The situation reached levee breaking potential when the thunderstorms became a nightly ritual as well that ultimately became the Flood of 93'.
As a Meteorologist, Otto looks forward to providing short- and long-term forecasts that are exact and therefore serve a purpose for his listeners. He aims to give them all of the information they need in order to carry out and develop their own plan of action.
Cost for the single session is $35.00 (if not pre-registered cost will be $40.00). To make reservations, please call the Henry County Farm Bureau (309) 937-2411, Rock Island County Farm Bureau (309) 736-7432 or Mercer County Farm Bureau (309) 582-5116.
The Market Outlook Series is sponsored by the Henry, Rock Island and Mercer County Farm Bureau Marketing Committees in conjunction with: Gold Star FS; BankORION; COUNTRY Financial - Alan Davis, Crop Insurance; Central Bank; COUNTRY Financial - Brent Bigham, Tracy Bigham, Chad Nelson, John Waugh; Big River Resources; River Valley Cooperative; Diamond Ag; Wyffels Hybrids; Compeer Financial (Aledo & Geneseo offices); COUNTRY Financial - Dan Kniss, Mike Geuns, Eric Henderson, Julie Hessler, Tom McKie, Jerry Samuelson, Erin Spivey, Katie Spivey, Cassie Stahler; Blackhawk Bank & Trust; Hertz Farm Management.