John Wheeler

John Wheeler

Meteorologist

John Wheeler is Chief Meteorologist for WDAY, a position he has had since May of 1985. Wheeler grew up in the South, in Louisiana and Alabama, and cites his family's move to the Midwest as important to developing his fascination with weather and climate. Wheeler lived in Wisconsin and Iowa as a teenager. He attended Iowa State University and achieved a B.S. degree in Meteorology in 1984. Wheeler worked about a year at WOI-TV in central Iowa before moving to Fargo and WDAY..

Wheeler covers weather for WDAY TV and radio, as well as for The Forum and for inforum.com. Most meteorologists find stormy and extreme weather fascinating and Wheeler is no exception, but his biggest interest is severe winter weather.

A summer breeze will cool you down, but the process is entirely different than in winter.
Wind is turbulent, and thunderstorm wind is extremely turbulent.
Hail the size of baseballs or softballs requires an updraft of around 100 mph or higher.
Once air with higher humidity has had time to establish itself in the central parts of the Midwest, it will become far easier for humid air to be blown up here.
Raindrops are not shaped like tears, despite what we have been told.
This is why the sudden increase in greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels is such a concern today.
About half the tornado deaths, on average, are caused by the strongest 1% of all tornadoes.
When you hear thunder, there is often a loud bang followed by a traveling rumble.
A car is relatively safe in a lightning storm, but this has nothing to do with insulating materials in the tires.
The change in elevation from the top of Mt. Everest to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean is only 12.3 miles.