Page 10 - Discover Winter 2021

Weather Man CONTINUED
ambulance, as he thought he was having a heart
attack or stroke.
“Knowing the ambulance was on the way and
fearing I was having a heart attack made the attack
worse,” he said with a laugh.
When the EMT folks took his vitals, his
blood pressure was 210 over 125 (normal blood
pressure is below 120’s over 80) and his “resting”
heart rate was 137.
The anxiety attacks started sometime in high
school, Jamey says, when he develop a crush on a
girl and tried to ask her out on a date. The attacks
got worse once people started recognizing him from
TV, and they have increased in intensity over the
years and have become more unpredictable. Ironically
they feed themselves, since once you’ve had an attack
you’re fearful that you’ll have another. The attack
itself can be embarrassing to the victim. In Jamey’s
case, he sweats noticeably and profusely.
Prayer and meditation have helped him, and
“getting it out in the open”, i.e. talking about it, has
helped the most, he says. Plus he’s tried the usual
things like therapy and medication.
Most of us first came to “know” Jamey
from his weather reports on WSLS, Channel 10
in Roanoke, where he eventually became one of
the most popular meteorologists employed by the
Roanoke station. Along with his boyish good looks,
likable personality, and gentle ways, he was the
hometown kid in whom everyone took pride. He
grew up in Rocky Mount, where his dad has owned
and operated a local business, the Riverside Minute
Market, since 1986.
You might say that Jamey was bitten by the
weather bug when he was just in the second grade at
Rocky Mount Elementary. It was then that he saw
first hand the damaged remains of a shopping center
in South Carolina that had been struck by a tornado.
The power of that storm, evidenced by the damage
left behind, aroused his curiosity.
Shortly after that, while the family was
vacationing at Myrtle Beach, they had to evacuate
8 Discover Smith Mountain Lake WINTER 2020
because of an impending hurricane. They left too
late, and ended up following the storm inland rather
than out-running it. Most children, and even many
adults, would have been terrified. Instead, Jamey was
fascinated by the fury and strength of the storm. In
some way it must have spoken to him, because after
that the weather became the beloved super hero in
his life.
He began giving “weather reports” at home
using a spatula or butter knife to point to fronts on
his imaginary “weather map”. When he wasn’t in
school, the weather channel became his favorite TV
show to watch. Before long he was drawing his own
radar maps and forecast outlooks in crayon.
By the time he was in middle school, he
was using a dot matrix printer to produce a weather
report, which was faithfully hung in the hallway
at Benjamin Franklin Middle school with the
encouragement of his teachers. When he moved
to Franklin County High in 1992, he continued
providing the student population and the teacher
with his posted weather reports.
In 1993, Jamey met Steve Oakes, a friend
and classmate of his dad’s. Oakes had started his
own cable television station, Channel 12 and he let
Jamey come to the station and perform various tasks,
such as basic camera work. Jamey even helped out
by interviewing people at local events. Within a year,
he had created his own weather segment for “Rise
and Shine”, a biweekly morning show which is still
airing. He was 15 years old.
Along the way, Jamey met Bill Meck, a
meteorologist for WSLS, Channel 10 in Roanoke.
Obviously, Meck was impressed by the young
student’s enthusiasm and interest, as he gave him
access to the station’s weather computer through a
dial-up modem. Meck also taught Jamey how to
decode data which was used only by professional
meteorologists. Jamey also got to know Robin Reed,
who was Channel 7’s main meterorologist, a position
he held for decades. In recent years, Reed has moved
into news, replacing former anchor Chris Hurst, who
left the job to pursue a political career.
By the time Jamey was in his senior year