BREMEN – Neighbors gathered for their normal monthly neighborhood watch meeting Monday night at the Beat 8 Community Center in Bremen. This month, they had a very special guest- WBRC FOX6 meteorologist Wes Wyatt.
This was Wyatt’s second time to speak at the center, his appearance coordinated by community organizer David Vines. Wyatt is one of a handful of big-name speakers who have or will speak at Beat 8.
“The goal of tonight’s event is to get the community together,” Vines said. “Last month (the topic was) was gun safety, and next month is diversity and we’ll have State Representative John Rogers.”
Wyatt said that he and his fellow meteorologists at WBRC like to get out in the communities and share some of the things they’ve learned, especially with all the severe weather of late.
“Anytime we are invited out here it is one of the, I guess, rewards of what I get to do, meeting folks,” he said. “At night, I know we can’t talk, but I know there are a lot of folks on the other side of that camera who tuned in.”
Wyatt said the focus of his presentation, which was complete with photos and personal anecdotes, was to help people better understand what the newscasters are saying in the event of severe weather.
Wyatt said among those things not brought to the forefront is severe heat.
“Thunderstorm threats, lightning threats, heat,” he said. “When you think of severe weather you immediately think of tornadoes, but heat’s the number one killer of anything in weather. People need to take this stuff serious and it will sneak up on you.”
Wyatt explained that he likes to use opportunities like the one on Monday to touch on things and elaborate in a setting that a 3-minute broadcast doesn’t allow him.
About 25 people were in attendance at the Beat 8 Community Center, of all ages, among them Alabama Rep. Corey Harbison, R-Good Hope.
Find the Beat 8 Community group on Facebook at http://qrne.ws/beat8.
