If you’ve watched KRDO-TV’s Good Morning Colorado sometime
during the last eight years, then you’re familiar with
meteorologist Marty Venticinque.
Marty and Tamera Venticinque reside in Monument with their three
children; 6-year-old son Cooper, 4-year-old daughter P.J. and
1-year-old daughter Jerzie.
“Monument is ground zero for weather,” Marty said. “That’s why I
live here.”
Venticinque said his last name is Italian for the number
25.
“According to legend my ancestors were slaves in Roman times,”
he said. “They had to win 25 battles to gain their
freedom.”
Venticinque earned a meteorology degree from Metropolitan State
College in Denver. However, his involvement with weather goes back
to his employment with the National Center Atmospheric Research.
NCAR and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration pooled
resources for weather information.
During his employment with NCAR, Venticinque was an intern with
Channel 7 in Denver. As fate would have it, Venticinque was pressed
into service doing the weather, thus a career was born.
Venticinque started with KRDO-TV in the summer of 1999. His day
begins at 4 a.m. and ends at 1 p.m. During this time he is
responsible for the morning TV weather between 5-7 a.m., network
breaks between 7-9 a.m., radio weather on tape and live between 5-9
a.m., plus a Web cast.
Venticinque takes full responsibility for his weather forecast.
“I look at the same information as the national weather service in
Pueblo does, so I make my own call on the weather,” he
said.
He said the hardest part of the job is not figuring out what is
going to happen, but how to communicate effectively about what to
expect in three minutes.
This fact he learned when he predicted one of his first
snowstorms would have an accumulation of 1 to 2 inches, “No big
deal,” he said. He learned that any accumulation causes problems,
since then, he pays attention to selecting the right
words.
He relies heavily on his weather research background, adding to
the operational side of TV weather forecasting.
Venticinque shared some inside weather know how, plus bashed a
few weather myths:
Terrain is not the premium factor in forecasting. Mountains
don’t move; they are not an excuse for a poor forecast.
Upslope is the least important thing to worry about in
forecasting.
Forecasting is all about pattern recognition.
The more air that is lifted and the higher it is lifted, the
heavier the precipitation will be.
Certain storms take on certain characteristics and certain
patterns, which historically help in predicting the current
weather.
Doppler radar is important because it can determine the motion
of particles in the atmosphere.
Snow fall, cold air aloft, and moisture content are the
ingredients for a storm, but it’s where a storm matures that
completes the presentation. “We can get whacked,” Venticinque said
if the storm matures just before, or as it reaches the
area.
The weather maps one sees on TV are issued by the National
Weather Service. Helping to produce the map are weather balloons
sent up in Denver twice a day. The information from the balloons is
sent to the East Coast and fed into super computers.
The March 2003 snow storm required Venticinque to rely on a
neighbor’s snowmobile to get him to work so he could inform others
concerning the weather via TV.
Venticinque’s hobbies are, storm chasing, flag football, and
free time with the family.
“Anyone that wants to stop me and talk about the weather – feel
free,” Venticinque said.