WGNO

Jim Cantore: ‘we get the happy side of the storm sometimes’

PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI – Tropical Storm Gordon may have largely missed portions of the Gulf Coast, but it made a big impact along the Florida Panhandle into lower Alabama.

News With a Twist reporter Kenny Lopez caught up with the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore on Buffett Beach in Pascagoula to talk about Gordon and how it stacks up against the dozens of other storms Cantore has covered in his legendary career.

“This was not as bad as George. I was here back in 1998,” Cantore said. “It was not as bad as Nate, that we had last year here. But that’s what happens when a storm goes to our east – we get the happy side of the storm sometimes. That doesn’t mean we didn’t have heavy rain, we didn’t have some tree damage somewhere, and certainly some power outages here in Jackson County.”

Despite missing out on some of the action that has made him a meme-worthy weather icon, Cantore said he’s never disappointed to miss the worst of a storm, especially after riding out Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“Sure, is there a swashbuckling part of me that wants to ride out every storm deep down? But the more I see what these do, how they just cripple areas and forever change the Mississippi Coast, I’m done. One’s enough,” he said.

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