My videos and channel principally entail weather-related phenomena that occur in Montreal's West Island, specifically thunderstorms (diurnal and nocturnal). Some of the videos also feature aspects of space, notably with respect to planetary bodies. As I am an avid spectator for the Montreal fireworks competition, which has the title of the world's largest fireworks competition, some of my footage additionally encompasses various fireworks displays that take place during most of the Summer on a weekly or bi-weekly basis in Montreal. Though most of my videos are closely tied to aspects that define the natural environment, you will find some footage illustrating a variety of video games that I sometimes take in between - not only are video games a favorite pass time of mine, but they additionally serve to increase the diversity of the overall video content that I post on my channel. Some of my storm videos and accompanied weather photography have been featured on TheWeatherNetwork and some news websites.

My channel aims to discuss meteorology, climatology and weather forecasting, so I enthusiastically welcome any sort of comment pertaining to these fields. I also post personal seasonal weather outlooks, mostly for the seasonal extremes of late Fall-Winter and late Spring-Summer. Despite the intent and focus of my channel, I do not want anyone who visits to feel limited or pressured to discussing solely weather or climatic events. You are, therefore, encouraged to leave comments concerning anything you wish, so long as there aren't any vulgarities. :)

I very much appreciate everyone taking the time to look through my videos and visit my channel while occasionally leaving comments on both. I sincerely hope that whatever videos I choose to upload in the future will continue to provide the necessary entertainment factor for all viewers!

***2011 SPRING-SUMMER WEATHER OUTLOOK BELOW*** (please refer to last four paragraphs)

Greetings,

My name is Travis, and I dwell in Canada. I suppose that I have a fairly wide set of interests, though it's arguably true that most of them seem to be concentrated towards what is occurring in the sky.

As I'm sure most have already guessed, I'm enamored with the presence of thunderstorms of all types. I do some minor storm chasing during the late Spring and Summer whenever the weather turns severe, but I moreso typically turn my attention to taking multiple photographs, along with some video footage, of the different t-storm stages leading up to the main storm event itself. Montreal, Quebec, does see some impressive thunderstorms in the Summer and Spring, most notably in the West Island, and towards the South shore, though this activity, unfortunately, is just not as frequent as further Southwest into Southern and Southwestern Ontario, which is where I'm hoping to eventually focus my efforts in storm chasing down the line. Aside from chasing storms, I have also recently taken the initiative to become a part of the official severe weather watcher volunteer team for Environment Canada.

My interest for storms "sparked" when I was as young as barely 3 years of age after a vicious, flash-flooding storm in July, 1987. Ever since then, I have been growing increasingly fond of all the gorgeous thunderstorm phenomena that Mother Nature has consistently crafted in the sky year after year, all with delightful authentic appearances. As the years marched forward, as did my level of passion, and so I kept on studying t-storms and all their exquisite features, properties and dynamics. Progressively, I naturally soon developed fascination and inspiration in all aspects of weather - I began developing my knowledge when I was about 6-7 years old. One aspect that thrills me the most of any atmospheric phenomena is definitely the infamously powerful electrical discharge known as lightning. My deep interest in it can be derived from the notably infinite number of shapes that it can readily take on, in addition to the radically fearsome sound wave that accompanies it: thunder. The same holds true for clouds as well, particularly the cumulus variety - these clouds truly are something to behold as they grow into their superior stages that you see before you on particularly unstable afternoons. I admire that greatly in viewing those once elegant little puffy clouds (humilis) explode into mighty mountains of "cauliflower", if you will, in response to the heavy moisture (especially in Eastern North America) and hefty heating commonly witnessed in the Summer and mid-late Spring. Seeing a gigantic cumulonimbus bursting in the late afternoon sky with ferocious lightning, wind, rain and hail brings me much joy, I think.

Other than storms, I love to star gaze and I enjoy fireworks to the optimum extent. Seeing that we have the largest fireworks competition in the world here in Montreal, you can probably guess that I'm quite the avid spectator for the event. Turning away from the skies, I love to swim, bike, play baseball and especially badminton when it comes to sports. Finally, I do so much enjoy the realm of writing (often when focused on weather reports and climate change). Finally, I'm well into video games. :)

My main dislike is Winter - I don't like it at all. I cannnot stand the constantly frigid cold temperatures, the snow and the overall bleak conditions. I do love Spring and Summer by far as seasons, and I typically like temperatures constantly ranging from 27-42 Celsius (81-108 Fahrenheit) along with copious amounts of humidity and haze. I generally don't like anything below 24-25 C (75-77 F).

***It turns out that my Winter 2010-2011 outlook was mostly correct, as we had seen abundant snowfall across much of eastern Canada, New England and the North-central U.S. Temperatures were average to slightly below.

Reviewing the ENSO models, we had markedly seen a rapid weakening of La Nina in February, likely because of a strong Kelvin wave associated with recent activity in the Madden Julian Oscillation. La Nina itself should continue to weaken through the next few months until near-neutral conditions are present in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific.

Assuming near-neutral conditions from La Nina, I believe that much of eastern Canada will see average to slightly below average temperatures for Spring and Summer 2011 along with average to above average precipitation. There may also be a slight increase in severe weather for southern Ontario, Quebec and the U.S NE for Summer. Above average precipitation is possible for much of the northern U.S but below normal for the SW. I believe that tornado season will be fairly active in the central and eastern U.S from April to June and towards the NE for late-Spring/Summer.

The aforementioned Kelvin wave could signal El Nino conditions by end-Summer into early Fall.

~Trav.~