Welcome to the home page of Dr. Jack Beven!

 I'm an employee at the Tropical Prediction Center (TPC) in Miami, FL, and since January 4, 1999, I've been a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center!

Here's more information about me!

 My interests: First and foremost: Hurricanes and Tropical Cyclones! They're the reason for my job, and I watch them whenever and wherever they occur. I use to write a weekly summary of tropical cyclone activity around the world. These have now been restarted on a monthly basis courtesy of Gary Padgett. The summaries are available via e-mail, with the summaries and the associated track files also available through the Australian Severe Weather Tropical Cyclone Page.

For any questions you have about tropical cyclones, check out the Tropical Cyclone FAQ maintained by my colleague Chris Landsea at the NOAA Hurricane Research Division. For real-time and other information on tropical cyclones (or just about any other type of weather), try my weather link list at the TPC.

I write columns for the Mariners Weather Log for the weather in the TPC area of responsibility, including hurricanes. Be sure to check them out!

Yes, folks, I've gotten to fly into hurricanes and chase tornadoes. Check out my flight into Hurricane Luis, and my May 7, 1997 tornado chase! Those interested in flying into hurricanes should check out the Hurricane Hunters or the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center . Those interested in tornado chasing should check out the StormTrack Page or the home pages of my chasing pals Roger Edwards and Jim Leonard.

I'll be adding more chase photos as time permits, but none from 2005! This year was a dud!

In late June 2005, I traveled to San Jose dos Campos, Brazil, to participate in a conference on Cyclone Catarina, the first known hurricane in the South Atlantic Ocean. An English version of the press release on the conference is available from the Meteorological Society of Brazil. If you have a fast connection, my presentation at the conference is available as an 11 MB zipped PDF or as a 26 MB PowerPoint.

Finally, here's a list of web sites for my meteorological friends and acquaintances.

  Another interest: Volcanoes! Long-running eruptions are continuing at Soufriere Hills on Montserrat in the Leeward Islands and at Popocatepetl in Mexico. The Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program Page, VolcanoWorld , and Italy's Volcanoes: The Cradle of Volcanology sites are good starting points for learning about volcanoes.

I like to watch live volcano cameras. A camera displaying Popocatepetl is available from CENAPRED in Mexico, while cameras featuring Etna are now available from the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Catania. Lists of other cameras are available from the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory and Stromboli On-Line.

 Check here for Interesting Meteorological/Geological Images to be updated at irregular intervals. Currently, there are twelve pages in this section. Note: These pages will sometimes feature large, slow-loading images! (New interesting image site added on January 21, 2002)

  Yet another interest: Sports, particularly college football, college basketball, and college baseball. As a graduate of both LSU and Florida State, I have a keen interest in college sports. I often use the ESPN and USA Today Sports Web sites to keep track of events. LSU fans should check out LSUsports.net for their LSU sports fix, especially for the national baseball champions of 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 2000. FSU fans should check out the Official Site of Seminole Athletics.

Check out my Gallery of Sports Stadiums (last updated April 20, 2002).

I also show up from time to time on the newsgroups rec.sport.football.college, rec.sport.basketball.college, and rec.sport.baseball.college. Be forewarned: These groups can be rough-and-tumble place with low signal-to-noise ratios!

 One last big interest: Science fiction, particularly books and TV shows. I devote much of my attention to the British sci-fi TV show Doctor Who (DW), which has finally came back to TV and Britain and elsewhere in July 2005. Siobahn Morgan's Doctor Who Page is a excellent starting point to learn more about the series. I hang out on the newsgroup rec.arts.drwho.moderated as well as on the DW-related IRC channels. I also attended the (former) Visions and Gallifrey conventions when circumstances permit, as well as the Sci-Fi Cruise. Here are my photo galleries from Visions '95, Visions '96, Visions '97, and Gallifrey 2002. (To come eventually - Visions '98 and Gallifrey 2000 and 2001.) Also, here's a list of web sites by people on the newsgroup and the IRC channels.

Another favorite series of mine is Babylon 5, which has completed its planned 5 year run. The series also includes five made-for-TV movies, including the recently aired Legend of the Rangers. To me, this show is the current pinnacle of televised science fiction.

I'm also a fan of the wisecracking Mystery Science Theater 3000.

A related interest is the fantasy genre, including books and games. A particular favorite is The Lord of the Rings. In addition to the original books, I've got several computer games based on the series, including Interplay's "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Two Towers". And I must say that the recent Fellowship of the Ring movie was quite good!

I used to play a lot of Dungeons & Dragons, but I don't play much now. Why? Well, first myself and my playing partners went our separate ways. Second (and more importantly), too many of my characters met gruesome demises!

My e-mail addresses:

Disclaimer: I'm a federal employee. Inclusion of any link on my web pages should not be taken as an endorsement by the Federal Government, the Department of Commerce, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Weather Service, the Tropical Prediction Center, or anyone else in any way, shape, or form!