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Hello my name is Caleb Bhagwandin and welcome to Tropical Weather Cafe.

I first began tracking the weather in March of 1993 when I was 4 years old, a powerful mid-latitude cyclone came blasting through the eastern half of the United States, coined the "Storm of the Century." It brought with it a derecho, which is a long line of severe thunderstorms occurring over a long duration. This derecho was responsible for 11 tornadoes, one of which moved through Treasure Island which is not too far from where I live, and the strongest were three F2 tornadoes, which brought winds in excess of 157 mph.

Additionally, the strong straight-line winds from the derecho drove a powerful storm surge into the west coast of Florida, where Pine Island was pummeled by a 12-foot storm surge and Tampa Bay was slammed by a 7-foot storm surge. Further north in the cold sector of the cyclone, snow fell as far south as Jacksonville, Florida, thundersnow was reported in Mobile, Alabama, and in Birmingham, Alabama blizzard conditions occurred.

maximum snowfall accumulation: 56" Mount La Conte, Tennessee
coldest temperature: -12 F (-24 C)
lowest barometric pressure: 960 millibars (mb), equivalent to a category 3 hurricane.

I began my meteorology career with Bay News 9, as a weather producing intern for two consecutive summers in 2015 and 2016, where I forecasted the weather for 7 counties in the Tampa Bay area, updated the 7-day forecast and weather sections of the Bradenton Herald Citrus County Chronicle. I also monitored the Baron Critical Weather App and Social News Desk for weather pictures sent in by viewers uploading them into the WSI Max System for on-air broadcast. Additionally, I produced and edited weather time-lapse videos from various sky cameras. Lastly, I wrote forecast discussions for the closed captioning and provided updates to the weather ticker "CRAWL" during severe weather.

I transitioned into teaching in 2021 where I began my career in education as a paraprofessional and an on-site substitute teaching high school math. In 2023, I was promoted to a full-time Science Teacher, where I taught innovative science principles and delivered engaging hands-on experiments to curious, aspiring student scientists.

My hobbies include: Blogging about the weather, where I am an avid member of Yale Climate Connections (YCC), creating weather reels, playing and teaching the game of chess, dancing, going for walks in the park, playing basketball, and watching football on Sundays.

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