There are honestly few things that go back further than me knowing I was transgender (even if I didn't finally accept it until 2020): I've always been an avid LEGO fan, I loved pro-wrestling (when it used to be good), I enjoy a good video game, and...
I LOVE WEATHER!!!!
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| This was me "chasing" snow this last winter... don't mind the awful makeup... I heard that there was snow in our local mountains, and I just had to drive up there! |
Seriously! For as long as I can remember, I'd drop the video game, put down the legos, and run to the living room every time the weather report would come on. I would go outside and play in the rain, look outside when it rained (my grandma would tell me I was acting like it was raining silver dollars... well it might as well have been), and if there was a storm coming, I'd be the crazy person running outside when everyone else was running inside. Even to this day, if there is a chance of thunderstorms within a few hundred miles of me, I'll go "storm chasing" if I have the time (since I live in California, storm chasing simply means driving into a thunderstorm of any kind... but no supercells or tornadoes or any of the good stuff). I'll share some pictures at the bottom of this post to prove it.
This passion hasn't gone away, and I hope it never does. Weather is fascinating, and in the warming world we see ourselves in today, we need more and more people passionate about our atmosphere!
But one thing that has been pretty cool is that I've come across a pretty decent (if not downright mind-blowing) number of trans women who also love weather. I'm not going to shout them out by name here, but they are doing some pretty cool stuff. One works in consulting meteorology, another is a fellow academic who works to link climate communication with the arts, and another who is a weather enthusiast who got into media because of it (it wasn't until I met her personally that she told me she was a weather nerd and was excited to pick my brain about weather). I also know of at least one trans vlogger who also loves weather and has thought about going back to get a degree in it. Considering Meteorologists are not very common, it's even less common to find one that is trans... and I found four... not including myself!
Earlier this year, I was on a trans podcast called the Trans Narrative Podcast (linked here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-trans-narrative-podcast/id1635218110 for Apple, though a quick Google search should help you find it in your preferred streaming service)... the head producer, for some reason, has taken a shining to me and has tried to get me to guest host future episodes. Just last night, I was contacted by her because she is planning on featuring a trans meteorologist and wanted to see if I'd be willing to be a part of it... it took me a second to realize that I knew (and have regularly talked to) the guest, and after a quick back-and-forth, I'm now hosting that episode. I'm pretty excited actually because I can't wait to have a conversation with her about her passion for weather, her trans identity, and possible intersections of the two.
Speaking of that, seeing as I've come across so many transgender weather enthusiasts like myself, it kind of makes me wonder... I know research has been done on the neurological makeup and brain chemistry of transgender folx, and there have been some interesting findings (I'm not a doctor or a psychologist, so I won't even attempt to go into them here), but I'm pretty curious if there might be some kind of psychological or even biological setting that transgender people have that makes them more prone to being fascinated with weather. It may also be a matter of nurture and the environment we grow up in... or it may just be coincidence. But it's something I'm pretty curious about.
Anyway, if you are a fellow weather nerd that happens to also be trans, reach out to me! I'd love to chat. I may even get a group of us together someday on Zoom to nerd out.
Here are those pictures I promised... please note that some of these were taken either before or mid-transition so in many cases, I was presenting as "Terrence" when I took them... so I'm not posting any selfies of me next to the cute little thundercloud, but I promise that these are all my pictures.
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| I took this one just last week... beautiful rainbow! |
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| Getting pretty stormy |
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| I wandered into the hail core of a severe thunderstorm... and temporarily lost control of my car... thankfully I was okay, and the driver in the car behind me (which also lost control... completely unrelated to me losing control) was also safe. |
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| Double Rainbow! |
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| A view of the storm cloud as I was driving away. Textbook cumulonimbus! |
I love weather! Especially when I get to dress for it!
Hugs,
-Alicia
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