AC-T: Ray Russell goes from weather hobbyist to WNC forecasting guru

Here’s an excerpt from the Asheville Citizen-Times article:

“Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it.”

Ray Russell, a computer science professor at Appalachian State University, didn’t set out to prove Mark Twain’s wisecrack wrong. He just wanted to get a better forecast for snowstorms across the High Country of Western North Carolina.

What started as a hobby with the weather station kit his wife bought him for Christmas almost 20 years ago has boomed into a thriving online business.

Clicking on RaysWeather.com, an average of 300,000 unique monthly visitors troop to about a dozen domain names that cover Surry County at the Virginia state line down the Blue Ridge to Asheville and Waynesville.

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About Jake Frankel
Jake Frankel is an award-winning journalist who enjoys covering a wide range of topics, from politics and government to business, education and entertainment.

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