What is Foothills Action Network?
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Foothills Action Network is dedicated to making Alexander, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Cleveland, Lincoln, McDowell, and Rutherford counties, North Carolina a safe place to live, work and play by providing weather products that are:
- Up to the minute
- Reliable
- Educational
- Easy to use
Our forecasters use the latest weather technology, taking advantage of the best training available to offer you a daily forecasts and informing you of severe weather. We document important weather events, and prepare our community through ongoing education and outreach to deal with hazardous weather when it occurs.
Foothills Action Network has formed a vital partnership with local government bodies, sports organizations and event organizers. One example is our partnership with McDowell County Emergency Management. In times of a significant weather event one of our staff members is placed with the McDowell County Communications Department, in the mobile command unit, or directly with the Emergency Manager. We provide up to the minute forecasting for any emergency scene to keep emergency personnel and the general public safe. Our forecasters are certified in FEMA Incident Management Training.
F.A.N. provides educational services to all schools in the eight county forecast area. We have PowerPoint Presentations set up for early elementary age, 5th grade, and 7th grade students. Students in the 5th and 7th Grades have a curriculum set for weather that is set at the state level. We cover that curriculum in our presentations, its a real hands-on learning experience for the children we visit.
Students enjoy our educational products, we have received positive feedback on them. We feel that our outreach program have resulted in improved test scores at the fifth and seventh grade levels by a significant margin. We love going out and talking to the children in the many communities across the area. We also make regular visits to civic clubs, assisted learning centers and other interested parties who like to learn about Meteorology.
Meet The Weather Team
Chief Meteorologist Chris White is the founder of Foothills Weather Network and Burke Weather. Chris holds specialized training and is certified as a Fire Weather Analyst. Chris is employed with WxBrad Consulting Services as a Consultant Meteorologist for various contracted agencies, including Charlotte Motor Speedway and Speedway Motorsports.
Lead Forecaster Daniel Crawley is a native of McDowell County and weather enthusiast since day one with a passion for synoptic forecasting year round. Dan has over 20 years of spotter training experience across the Foothills.
Some of the big meteorological events that he have been able to observe include the inland impacts of Hurricane Hugo (1989), The March 93 Blizzard and the inland flooding associated with Hurricane Frances (2004). McDowell County much like the rest of the Foothills is prone to many different weather events…
When not covering the weather you can find Daniel at just about any local sporting events across McDowell County and Western North Carolina.
Sinead Peterson
Meteorologist In Charge Sinead Peterson, while born a Virginian, has lived along the Atlantic Coastline from Norfolk to Boca Raton to Kill Devil Hills. In 2011 she began her college education at North Carolina State University to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a meteorologist.
Accredited to the 1996 action disaster film, Twister, young Sinead found inspiration and a calling to learn about the science of meteorology, craft thoughtful forecasts, invocate the importance of Earth and climate sciences, and contribute to the safety of her community and beyond.
Now an Alumni, Sinead has her Bachelors in Science in Meteorology. Additionally, she is a certified storm spotter through SKYWARN National and with Spotter Network, Inc.
Through her classes and clubs at NC State, Sinead launched radiosondes, performed air quality analyses of particulates, dove into case studies an numerical weather analyses of historical weather events, competed nationally in weather forecasting competitions, and collaborated in amateur storm chases with colleagues.
Stuart McDaniel is the lead storm tracker and a great asset to the weather team. Stuart an Advanced Storm Spotter with The National Weather Service. Stuart also serves as the company photographer. His photography skills have earned several different regional awards with the best work done during the severe weather season. Stuart has an in depth knowledge of tracking and chasing storms across the area. Look for him streaming in our live videos during severe weather season!
A Caldwell county boy, John Brookshire grew up wanting to chase storms all over the state. At a very young age john fell in love with weather, in fact after the movie twister came out he wanted nothing more than to be a storm chaser. He has had 14 years of being in the military seven of those in the USMC and seven of those in the North Carolina National Guard . With his knowledge of weather and military experience of state activation, john brings several tools to the team .. Look for his live videos COMING SOON.