Many meteorologists have a weather story from a young age that began a lifelong passion for meteorology. Carrie was born and raised in Raleigh, NC where she experienced a variety of extreme weather events. Two especially memorable events were the EF4 Raleigh tornado from November 28, 1988 and Hurricane Fran tracking over Raleigh in the fall of September 1996. Carrie has vague memories of the 1988 tornado aftermath but remembers Hurricane Fran well as she was in middle school at the time. On the night of September 5th, 1996, Hurricane Fran made landfall just south of Wilmington, NC as a category 3 storm. Through the early morning hours of September 6th, Fran proceeded to track to the northwest eventually moving directly over Raleigh, NC as a category 2 storm. Carrie remembers being riveted by the howling winds and sound of trees snapping. The next morning, her mom, dad, and little brother went walking around the neighborhood to see the damage. The destruction was terrible but thankfully her family and neighbors were fine. However, Raleigh was in shambles where many were without power for weeks. She remembers seeing the community rally together where neighbors helped neighbors and those with generators shared things like freezers and air conditioning. September can be quite humid in central NC, especially after a hurricane. The combination of weather curiosity and watching a community come together lead to Carrie studying meteorology in college and to an eventual career in meteorology.

A few years after Hurricane Fran in 1998, Carrie and her family moved to rural northeast Wake county (NC). They still live on the same farm with horses, chickens, cats, dogs, and soon to be honeybees! Through high school and college, Carrie showed horses competitively and helped her family run a horse boarding business. Living on a farm continued her passion for the weather. Animal caretakers and farmers live their lives based on weather conditions. Daily checks of the weather and subsequent decisions for animal care were a daily part of Carrie’s high school and college years. There were several more major weather events in the late 1990s and early 2000s that solidified Carrie’s passion for meteorology. Two of the most memorable were Hurricane Floyd in 1999 and the almost two-feet of snow that fell in January of 2000.

Carrie began her weather career as a meteorologist with the National Weather Service (NWS) in Juneau, AK. Her fiancé (now husband, Paul) was already working in Juneau as a meteorologist when she moved up there. They stayed in Juneau for a year and a half then moved to northern Virginia where Paul moved to another agency and she worked at the Sterling NWS office. The photo to the right was taken about one month before their son, Johnnie, was born. It was taken by Getty Images and will occasional popup on articles about the weather. Seeing it always makes her smile as it’s not just Carrie out there launching the balloon. She decided to stay home with Johnnie after he was born and went back to school for a Masters Degree in GIS. Her two professional passions are weather and mapping. Carrie named her company Equus Weather as horses were what ultimately lead to her study of meteorology. Equus is the Latin name for “horse”. She believes conveying information in a geographic perspective is one of the most powerful ways to display data. Take a look at the Map Gallery page to see some mapping projects. Also, please check Hope Farm at Cedar Fork Creek’s page to see what fun things are going on at the farm and new projects that are underway.