About

My name is John Scott Berta.  I am a Computer Science/Programming/Technology teacher as well as an amateur photographer, drone pilot, and weather forecaster.  I became interested in weather at a very young age.  When I was in junior high school, (and there was actually weather on The Weather Channel and music on MTV) I used to watch The Weather Channel for hours, fascinated by winter storms and hurricanes.  Hurricane expert Dr. John Hope, meteorologist Jim Cantore, and Dr. Jon Nese were inspiring role models as weather became one of my favorite hobbies.  I began predicting ‘snow days’ in High School and continued into adulthood.  About 7 or 8 years ago, I began posting my winter weather predictions on my Facebook page for family and friends.  I gained a decent following of people who felt I was pretty accurate.  I have been toying with the idea of launching a site for a few years and decided to finally make it a reality.

Disclaimer:  

I base my predictions off computer model forecasts, my studies of climatology, historical weather data, personal experience, seasonal trends, gut feelings, and luck.  I do this for fun and I am in no way, shape, or form calling myself a meteorologist.  I do not post on meteorology forums because most of them expressly forbid what I do and quite honestly professional meteorologists would probably laugh at me.  I do this for amusement and entertainment of readers.  I have zero formal meteorology training with the exception of an Intro to Meteorology class I took during my freshman year at Penn State 21 years ago.  I plan to approach this site from a teaching perspective and help readers actually learn about the weather, as opposed to just providing a forecast.   At this time, my forecasts will primarily focus on the eastern half of Pennsylvania and nearby areas.

About this site:

This site will be home to my amateur weather forecasts, drone stuff, and aerial photography/videography.    In June 2017, I acquired my FAA Part 107 certification which allows me to do commercial aerial photography.  If you are interested in my services, please feel free to contact me.   Constructive comments and questions are welcome on all parts of the site.  (Registration is required to post comments.)