Long-time Nebraska meteorologist Ken Siemek recounts memorable tornadoes, forecasting challenges and decades of keeping viewers informed.
His voice and warm, familiar laugh feel like home to Nebraskans who watched meteorologist Ken Siemek’s forecasts on Channel 10/11 for 44 years. So, he was a natural choice to host our new local program about the history of severe storms in Nebraska.
He’s smiling when he reminisces about the early days — when weather forecasting included markers and hand-drawn fronts on a plastic map of the state. It’s a far cry from today’s high-speed technology, training and data.
“I had six different colored magic markers and would draw cold fronts and warm fronts and clouds and suns,” he said. (If one dried out mid broadcast, it wasn’t a glitch; it was a scramble.) “When you had power failure in the early ’80s, that meant your magic markers were running out of ink and you had to send somebody down to the hardware store.”
Siemek’s smile fades, and he becomes serious when the conversation turns to the impact of severe weather in Nebraska. If you ask what storm stays with him, the answer comes quickly: the 2004 Hallam tornado.
“I would probably have to put the Hallam tornado right at the top of the list,” he said, recalling how close it came to even greater devastation. “Just to think about that had me shaking.”
Siemek explains that the variety of weather Nebraska experiences made his job difficult and uniquely urgent. “With tornadoes, you sometimes have minutes to react,” he said. “The randomness, the speed with which they develop have always made tornadoes, to me, the most dynamic threat.”
That urgency defined his view of the job and the media’s role in it through every storm. “It was flat out the most important thing I ever did,” he said, describing Nebraskans as more than just viewers. “We looked at things like we were forecasting for our family.”
Siemek sees today’s expanded platforms and the variety of ways to access weather information as positive, but with one caveat: “It’s a great thing, as long as where you’re getting your information is a trusted source.”
Nature's Fury: Nebraska's Extreme Weather premieres at 9 p.m. CT, Monday, June 1 on Nebraska Public Media and YouTube.