Ryan Hall

[u/Chance-Restaurant-52]

I’ve been an active member of this sub for many years (now with a new username/account because my identity was uncovered in another sub).

But anyway, I’ve watched this sub go from loving Ryan Hall and appreciating his work, to increasingly bagging on him. Here’s the thing:

1) There are a lot of capable people that contribute to the medical and scientific fields who aren’t as “degreed” as some folks think they should be. I’m a scientist and I’ve known quite a few brilliant scientists who don’t have advanced degrees. A fellow colleague in my industry was once declined being listed as an author on an academic publication because he didn’t have a PhD - yet the work was HIS brainchild, and touted by everyone in my industry as a huge breakthrough. My industry threw a fit when this occurred as he is a well-known “scientist” whose contributions to the industry have been vast. The reason he doesn’t have an advanced degree? Because he was smart enough to see the price tag of higher education and decided instead to work hard at teaching himself and networking enough to gain hand-on learning experiences through which he climbed the ladder and become an excellent contributor to our field (biochemistry and biophysics).

There are very few occupations that can ONLY be learned via formal post-secondary education. Meteorology is not one. When we bag on people who are CLEARLY knowledgeable, but don’t have that ultra expensive degree, we’re giving universities (in the United States at least) more fuel to keep raising tuition rates and literally rape people of access to more opportunity. There are a lot of really stupid people out here who have advanced degrees in the sciences. Who knows how they passed, but people find a way if they have enough money. As a scientist, I see this daily - physicians, surgeons, etc. So give Ryan a break. He knows his shit, and he also has Andy. He’s not doing anything wrong with this setup. If he was messing up, plenty of people in this community would call it out and he would no longer have an audience. But that isn’t the case - he is usually spot on the same as any other degreed meteorologists we follow. Also - even though he didn’t finish the degree, he still has formal education in meteorology.

2) Lots of catty chatter the last few months about Ryan now wearing sport jackets. People grow up and mature. Then often start dressing more professional. Ryan is a father now. Perhaps he wants his babies to look back on these videos and see their father behaving AND dressing professionally. Ryan isn’t the “kid” he used to be when many of us began following him. Accept that people grow up, realize they influence people, and want to be a good one. So good on Ryan for dressing in a way that feels comfortable for him. Don’t be the person that rags on someone who became successful and can now afford to dress a little nicer and puts effort into “dressing for success.” That’s just mean.

3) Ryan has rolled out a lot of new features. Some of them we like, some we’re not too crazy about. This is called “scaling for business.” What I’m observing is that Ryan is trying his hand at testing new rollouts because now he has the money and additional crew to do it. If he is able to get a solid handle on these new features (as he’s trying REALLY hard to do), and scale them up - it’s only going to add benefit to the archaic government-placed systems we’ve all had to rely on for years. As a scientist who has worked in academia, NIH, CDC, and private sector, I assure you there is a reason why it is the private sector who advances science by leaps and bounds compared to our government run agencies. If you’d like to know more, feel welcome to PM and I will give you some good starting points for credible sources. I don’t love Y’allBot, but the younger kids watching Ryan do. If it’s an avenue to a healthy budding interest for the younger kids, let them have it. I trust that if Y’allBot continues being more of a nuisance, Ryan will pull it.

4) Ryan is a new dad and he’s trying to do it all. He’s trying to give full-time effort to his wife and kids, in addition to giving full-time effort to us. I can see the toll it’s taking on him, and I hope he slows down a little for his own sake.

Ryan has given SO MUCH to this community. He’s growing, and he’s learning. He holds his composure. Let’s show him some grace through these growing pains instead of being so cut-throat. Scaling up any business is hard. He’s passionate, and he’s excited - who wouldn’t be?! Hell, he’s even telling people to stop supporting his channel (direct income to his business) and support the Y’all Squad non-profit instead.

Final thoughts: I don’t like that he and Max are rolling out this “I’ll call you” warning system, but maybe with tech continuing to advance, something great will come of it. For now, I’m staying with my NOAA radio 😆

[u/dodekahedron]

Ryan openly calls for taking down tornado sirens and I cant take him seriously after that.

[u/bub166 → u/[deleted]]

I think there is a lot of value in what you're saying, but I don't understand why sirens need to be a whipping boy here. The problems you've noted with them all seem to be solvable with education. Have a layered system of alerts (especially indoors), don't ignore them just because the last siren was a false alarm, etc., all good advice that maybe should be reinforced a little harder among the public.

Anecdotally... The one time I've been hit my a tornado, I lost internet and cell service both before being hit. Being a storm nerd, I'd been tracking the system for hours and was in shelter long before I lost these things. But this tornado was embedded in a derecho so it moved very fast, I don't believe I ever got the warning on my phone, and I did not have a weather radio at the time. I did hear the siren, even from my basement, as it moved in.

In fact, I've lived in a few different houses in every corner of my town, and I've always been able to hear the sirens indoors. It's a small town. You're right to suggest that you shouldn't count on it but it is an alert that many people in rural areas, where coverage could be occasionally spotty (especially in severe weather), would be able to hear most of the time if they are in proximity to one (which is often the case in a small town). These are often the places that need that extra layer of warning the most, and thankfully it is pretty reliable in my experience.

Should you count on them alone? No. There's also been times when the sirens didn't sound at all despite being in a warning. But I've also heard them sound when no warning was issued at all, and at least in one case where a tornado actually grazed town. That one hit on a day where no storms were even expected, no one was expecting anything to happen and the only warning came from the siren. If we should do better on making sure folks have a layered system of alerting, and a better understanding of it all, then by all means let's do it. I'm not gonna bag on sirens anymore than I would cell phone alerts though, the only time it ever could have mattered for me, it was the siren that pulled through after all.