Talk To Tom

Retirement is a milestone many people look forward to, but it also begs the question, what next? Do you take longer naps? Travel? Spend more time with family and friends? The decision really comes down to the individual, but it’s always nice to have a little help from those who have been there and done that. Former CBS meteorologist Mark McEwen has had a storied career full of impact. He finished his broadcast career as an anchor at News 6 in the early 2000s following a major stroke. Now, two decades later, he is back, sharing his retirement advice with News 6 Chief Meteorologist Tom Sorrells during his final episode of Talk to Tom. “My advice is - stay busy. Find something whether it be March of Dimes, or soup kitchen, or whatever. You don’t want to sit on the couch,” he said, “I’m thinking of moving to Brooklyn and becoming an actor, I don’t know,” Sorrells said. McEwen said when he retired his wife told him, “You need to get out of the house.” So he decided to get into the classroom. “I substitute teach. I teach at Lake Howell High School, Winter Springs High School, Haggerty High School and Oviedo High School,” McEwen said. If it’s not teaching McEwen said, “Find something to stay busy.” We are all looking forward to whatever Sorrells chooses to do in this next chapter. If you would like to send your memories and well wishes to Tom, you can send them to [email protected]. To hear more retirement advice from Mark McEwen, and some of the incredible stories from his time in front of the camera, including why Tony Bennett gave him a painting of himself, why a country star commissioned a ring for him, and so much more check out Talk To Tom. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch anytime on News 6+.

Central Florida won’t get a full solar eclipse on Monday, but one is coming and that means much of Central Florida, including Disney World will be plunged into darkness in the middle of the day. News 6 Chief Meteorologist Tom Sorrells talked to Derek Demeter, the Director of the Emil Buehler Perpetual Trust Planetarium at Seminole State College of Florida. “There’s going to be an eclipse that’s going to go right over Orlando, Florida in August 12, 2045,” Demeter said. He told Sorrells it would likely happen during the afternoon and, “It’s going to be one of the longest eclipses in a long time.” He explained the one in 2045 will go for 6 minutes and 30 seconds. Sorrells said experiencing a solar eclipse in person is unforgettable. He said he went to Greenbriar, Tennessee to experience it in 2017. “I went back home to my hometown to watch it because I knew it was coming. All of my relatives were like, ‘Really, you came home for this?’ ‘Well yeah!’ Then my mom who wanted to see me very badly was like, ‘Well, I’m glad you came home, but I can’t believe you came home just for the eclipse.’ I’m like, ‘Mom!’ So, she watched it with me outside and she burst into tears,” Sorrells said. When the moon steps in front of the sun and creates a false night in the middle of the day, Demeter said you can expect some unusual things to happen. “Temperature drops, you hear birds, you hear insects, it’s just really incredible, and one thing that people don’t understand, if you do get a clear sky, you have a 360-degree sunset,” Demeter said. So, imagine, being in the center of Magic Kingdom and the sky goes dark for more than 6 minutes. While that phenomenon is still 21 years away, Floridians can experience Monday’s partial eclipse from their own backyard or the parking lot at their job. Just make sure to grab a pair of glasses to protect your eyes. Or you can watch the livestream through the Emil Buehler Perpetual Trust Planetarium at Seminole State College. The planetarium also offers a lot of other engaging programs surrounding space. “Our most common show that we do is called Central Florida nights and that is essentially a guided tour of the night sky. So, we take a look at what currently is in the sky, constellations, planets, if there are any meteor showers or things like you know lunar and solar eclipses,” Demeter said. You can catch their next Central Florida Nights presentation on April 26. It starts at 8:30 p.m. and goes until 9:30 p.m. Make sure to get there early because the show often sells out. Demeter is an animated narrator and even works in a few jokes, making the tour of space fun for the whole family. Even after you step out of the planetarium, the fun doesn’t end there. “My favorite part too is they actually get to go outside with one of our telescopes and see some of the things they saw in the planetarium,” Demeter said. The cost is $6 for adults and $4 for students and seniors. Only cash and checks are accepted. Learn more about the eclipse, the planetarium and the planets that surround us on Talk to Tom. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch anytime on News 6+.

A lot of people choose to drink filtered or bottled water to avoid the taste of the tap. James Adamski is a geology professor at Valencia College East in Orlando. He said the flavor, “all comes down to the chemistry of the water and the plumbing.” Though he said he understands people’s preference for bottled water, he also said pumping the water out of our natural springs and shipping it across the country is unsustainable, especially since we are already pulling so much water out of our aquifer for our daily use. “We are using it at a much, much, much, much, much, faster rate than nature can replenish it,” Adamski said. If we were keeping all the water for ourselves he felt things might be different. “If they were only bottling it for residents in Florida then maybe we wouldn’t see that much of a change,” Adamski said. If we keep pulling water from Florida’s aquifer at the rate that we are Adamski said we could end up with a bigger problem on our hands. “The springs, like Wekiwa Springs near my house, Blue Springs, Silver Springs, they all come from the same aquifer and if we use the water at a faster rate than it’s being replenished, then ultimately what we are seeing through our research is the spring discharge is declining at these springs.” He said over the last 20 years Wekiwa Springs has dropped below the preferred level 60 times and Rock Springs has fallen below that level 30% of the time. Adamski pointed out that a declining discharge could impact tourism as many people come to our state to enjoy our natural habitats. Over time he said it could also impact the quality of the water. “When you withdraw the fresh water from the aquifer, especially if you are more towards the coastal areas, and eastern Orange County, toward Tampa area, then the freshwater gets replaced by what we call saltwater intrusion, so overtime the aquifer gets saltier and saltier until it becomes unpotable.” Adamski did point out that bottled water makes up only a portion of the water pulled from Florida’s aquifer but said the combined withdrawals could leave a nasty mark on the aquifer which supplies about 90% of Florida’s drinking water. To learn more about Florida’s aquifer and how people are impacting our drinking water check out Talk to Tom. The podcast can be downloaded from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch anytime on News 6+.

News 6 Chief Meteorologist Tom Sorrells took off, flew through the clouds, and conducted an emergency landing on the water, all without leaving the ground. He took his podcast, Talk to Tom, on the road to Lockheed Martin in Orlando and test-drove their Prepar3d flight simulation technology from a modified cockpit. Chris Metel is the Program Manager for Prepar3d. He said the technology has been an important tool for pilots and others interested in flight. “Flying is very expensive, this is cheaper, it’s safer,” he said. Metel said the software has been used to train people working with the government and in the commercial airline industry. “We have people using it from F35 pilots, learning about the airport, learning about the cockpit, to a private pilot who is learning to fly for the first time,” he said. Metel said it allows them to experience traveling through different weather conditions like rain, lightning, and forest fires before they ever have to fly through them in real life. It also prepares them for the unexpected. “You don’t want to practice an engine failure in a real plane, but you want to be prepared when that happens, and this gives you the opportunity to do that,” Metel said. Beyond the sky, Lockheed Martin said its technology is also being used in the classroom. “A lot of schools use it for STEM activities. We actually have a lab at the Orlando Science Center that is populated by Prepar3d, so students can learn about aerodynamics or about planes. Me personally, it helps get them interested in aeronautics and engineering and hopefully become part of our team someday,” Metel said. Learn more about Lockheed Martin’s unique technology on Talk To Tom. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch it anytime on News 6+.

Several sharks have been spotted off the coast of Florida recently. That includes Breton, a 1,400-pounder, who pinged just north of Cocoa Beach last week. Dr. Harley Newton is the Chief Scientist and Veterinarian for the shark research group OCEARCH. She said Breton is just one of the 92 sharks her organization has caught, outfitted with a tracker, and released. Newton told News 6 Chief Meteorologist Tom Sorrells during a recent episode of Talk to Tom that OCEARCH wants to catch and tag eight more sharks, to reach its goal of 100. Newton said OCEARCH started tagging sharks in Cape Cod back in 2012. At that time she said they didn’t really know much about the oceans’ giants, but over the years they have been able to learn more about their migration, preferred habitats and diet. Part of that migration includes an annual trek around the Northeast to the Southeast coast of the U.S., which skirts Florida, and ultimately ends with them wintering in the Gulf of Mexico. Their travels can be tracked on the OCEARCH app and website. Newton said even though they have learned a lot since 2012 there is still more to learn, especially about reproduction. That’s why OCEARCH is looking specifically to catch and tag eight adult sharks that are within the reproductive stage of their life. She said it is no easy feat. “Weather is always a challenge — and it really is about having the right day on the water,” Newton said. But Newton said they have a great team. “We have an incredible master fisherman who looks at all the different aspects of oceanography and water temperatures and really picks the places where we want to go.” Newton said the goal is to share the information with other shark researchers so more can be done to protect Great White Sharks. She said OCEARCH’s most recent expedition left from Jacksonville and that they plan to open their global headquarters in that city in the near future. But their work will not be limited to the waters solely around the Sunshine State. In the Summer Newton said she will be heading over to explore the waters just outside of the Mediterranean Sea, not far from Spain and Ireland. Learn more about OCEARCH and their study of great white sharks on Talk to Tom. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts and watch any time on News 6+. Just download the app for your smart TV to see every episode of the show.

A record-breaking number of launches have happened on the Space Coast this year. That number is only expected to keep growing, as is the pollution the launches leave behind. Dr. Daniel Murphy with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said, “When the rockets burn up you get vaporized aluminum, you get vaporized copper, other metals, and that burn-up is happening at 40 to 80 kilometers, so well above 100,000 feet.” But, he said the vaporized metals don’t stay put. “We were finding products from the burnup of rockets, that happens much higher in the atmosphere down in the stratosphere at about 60,000 feet. So finding what’s left over of the burn-up at much lower altitudes than people expected I think,” Murphy explained. He said the research is new. “We made measurements on a NASA airplane from Fairbanks, AK last February and it was looking at the data from those flights that we really started recognizing these metals,” Murphy said. It’s not clear what it all means and Murphy said more research is needed. “We don’t think there is going to be impacts at ground level to people’s health and things, but what we are concerned about is that the stratosphere is the altitude where the ozone layer is and we don’t know for sure right now that there are any bad impacts from these metals, but it’s also a new thing to have found and we don’t know what the impacts are and I think there is always concern if you put some new material in at the same altitude as the ozone layer,” he said. According to Murphy, one of the next steps is studying the tropics, where he said scientists may discover particles from rocket launches are actually floating upward from the ground level into the atmosphere. To hear more about the space junk found in the air and how space companies are reacting, check out Talk to Tom. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch anytime on News 6+.

When the weather drops below 70 degrees, Floridians are known for pulling out the boots and scarves. But alligators, snakes, manatees and spiders don’t have a winter wardrobe, so how do they stay warm? News 6 meteorologist Samara Cokinos went down the rabbit hole to find out and joined News 6 Chief Meteorologist Tom Sorrells on Talk to Tom to share the interesting and unusual ways they stay toasty. Spiders They do something similar to car manufacturers. “Spiders make their own so-called anti-freeze,” Cokinos said. “They have a chemical inside of their bodies that prevents ice from forming inside their bodies.” She also warns they can be squatters, “Starting in September and October they start to be more active, you’ll see them out making webs and stuff and then all of a sudden you will notice them in your home. They are trying to come inside because it is getting colder and they need a place to be for shelter and of course, if they lay their eggs, your home is their home.” Birds They are more like us than you think. “They actually shiver — those muscle contractions actually allow for their body to maintain some type of heat or make heat, kind of like when we shiver, same type of thing that they are doing,” Cokinos said. Alligators These reptiles take advantage of the sun. “If you ever see an alligator in the winter out in the middle of open land, in the sunshine, mouth wide open, that’s exactly what it’s doing,” Cokinos said. “It’s regulating its temperature, because they are cold-blooded reptiles, they like to bask in the sun to regulate their internal temperatures. It doesn’t get any more Florida than that does it? Snakes These cold-blooded creatures turn leaves into blankets. “If you are going to be collecting all the leaves that you just raked up, but they have been there for a few days, you may want to check that pile of leaves because snakes like to hide in those leaves because it also provides them warmth,” said Cokinos. She also said they are a bit less active during the winter months, but could also pop up from under a downed tree. Bears They get a thicker blanket, eat a big meal, and take a nap. Cokinos pointed out, they grow thicker fur and start chowing down. “You’ll notice they’re looking a little extra fluffy and that’s because they eat more to pack on the pounds, so when they are less active in the winter they can conserve a lot of that energy and use that stored fat for energy,” Cokinos said. She said they also hibernate, though they don’t have to sleep for as long as their counterparts up north because our weather is not quite as cold as some of the more northern states. To learn more about how Florida’s wildlife, including manatees, stay warm in the Winter check out Talk to Tom. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch any time on News 6+.

Right after watching the Talk To Tom episode about great white sharks heading to Florida, fishing boat captain Allyn “Big Al” Graham reached out to the show to say he has reeled in a lot of blacktip and bull sharks in the Mosquito Lagoon. “We caught 18 bull sharks in the backwaters of Edgewater this summer, some of them were 8 feet long,” Graham said. So, News 6 reached out to him to learn more and see what is biting right now. Graham said that in all of his years fishing in the lagoon, he had never seen so many big sharks in the backwater and that reeling them in was tough. But, now that it’s winter, Graham said he and the people he takes out on the water are seeing more fish than sharks. He said right now he is catching mangrove snapper, black drum, whiting, sheepshead, ladyfish, redfish and snook. “Our lagoon is coming back to life” after nasty algae issues plagued Florida’s waterways, he said. As January approaches, Graham said clients can expect to catch more trout and he knows the right fishing holes to take people to, adding he’s not afraid to hop around if the fish are not biting. “I have the biggest flats boat in our county, 25-foot Carolina Skiff that floats with 7 people on it in 10 inches of water, and sometimes we are moving up in that 10 inches of water to get those fish,” Graham said. If you are interested in fishing the Mosquito Lagoon, you can learn more about Big Al’s Inshore Charter Service on “alk To Tom. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch any time on News 6+.

Pythons have been hunted in the Florida Everglades for years, but, new research shows the invasive species may be trying to establish itself closer to Orlando. “A colleague of mine has tested certain aquatic areas for the presence of eDNA,” Research Ecologist Kristen Hart with the United States Geological Survey said. “Imagine being in a bathtub and someone says, ‘Was a human in here?’ You can test it for skin cells. She has done that in places near Kissimmee and things like that to say ‘Yeah, there’s actual evidence of the Python DNA being in these places.’” Osceola County is just north of Brevard County where two Burmese Pythons were recently trapped. One was found a few weeks ago at the T.M. Goodwin Waterfowl Management Area. Another was found last October at the Kennedy Space Center. Hart said Burmese Pythons are very adaptable and they are acclimating to colder temperatures like those in Central Florida “quicker than we expected.” She also said the predators can climb trees, are good swimmers and can go underground. They’ll even share space with gopher tortoises to survive cold snaps. Hart said the python population in Central Florida could multiply quickly if a male and a female python ended up in the same place together. “If they can find each other, this is the breeding season. By the time they are (2 years old), they are mature. So they can make babies. This is the sexy season too, so it really depends what the conditions are around the finding of those individuals. If they were out and about in a wooded area or something — I mean they are looking for mates right now.” Hart said the USGS is considering genetic solutions to sway the population and that annual hunts help to educate the public, but there is still a lot of work to do. “I don’t know if we are in the eradication game at all, I think we are just in the control plan. They have been here for 40 years. In some places down here (South Florida) they are established,” Hart said. She said the Burmese Pythons are apex predators and the closer they get to humans the more at-risk dogs, cats and livestock will become. To learn more about the snakes and how they are adapting to colder temperatures check out Talk to Tom. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch it anytime on News 6+.

People across the country love Florida and it turns out sharks do too. OCEARCH recently spotted a 10-foot, 460-pound great white shark swimming along Daytona Beach. OCEARCH Senior Advisor for Science & Academics Dr. Bob Hueter told News 6 Chief Meteorologist Tom Sorrells more are coming. “It’s kind of like winter snowbirds, the sharks start heading south in the fall as the temperatures drop up north. We have probably about a dozen species that are on the move right now. The one that is the most prominent is the one we work on on OCEARCH the white shark otherwise known as the great white shark,” he said. Hueter said the migration started about mid-October and it runs through November into early December. “By early December, they are typically off the southeast coast, off the Florida East Coast, and then a great number of them go all the way around the Keys and into the Gulf of Mexico, the eastern Gulf of Mexico primarily,” Hueter said. He said the sharks stay anywhere from one to 100 miles offshore. During this migratory period, OCEARCH will be studying the sharks. Their research expedition takes off from Jacksonville on Nov. 27. A team of scientists bring great white sharks onboard and tag them so they can track their activity. So far, they have already tagged 92. The team also collects samples and data such as genetics, diet and potential contributions to the pharmaceutical industry. “We even have a project by a microbiologist who is taking bacterial samples from these sharks and she has discovered these bacteria produce antibiotics that are effective against some of the pathogens that have become resistant to our normal antibiotics in human medicine, including MRSA. So, there is a possibility here that it may lead to a drug for people that will allow us to treat human disease,” Hueter said. Learn more about the sharks traveling along Florida’s coast and the research being done on them as they migrate by checking out Talk to Tom. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch it anytime on News 6+.

If you have lived in Florida for any amount of time you are probably familiar with red tide. It leaves fish dead along our shorelines and people coughing as the wind blows toxins in the air. Now a team of scientists believes they have the answer to solving the problem. They are using giant test tubes to test their new solution in the Sarasota Bay. Dr. Kristy Lewis, a former University of Central Florida professor, said she has successfully sunk the toxins associated with red tide to the bottom of her giant test tubes which measure six feet across and 14 feet deep. Her team was able to do this using a specially charged clay powder that binds to red tide and removes it from the surface of the water. “The clay removes the red tide cells from the water columns within four to eight hours of being applied, then it sinks it down and the water column clears up. We have seen that over and over again in all of our tests,” Lewis said. She said her team is also working to make sure the cure is not worse than the problem. So far they have run tests on blue crabs and she said they were not harmed by the solution. Lewis said the clay method has been used for decades in Korea and China but has not been used here in America yet. She hopes after more testing is done it will be embraced. She believes her team could get the green light to use helicopters to start spraying impacted waterways, similar to the way officials spray mosquitoes, within the next three to five years. To learn more about Lewis’ work with giant test tubes and how they are being used to clean Florida’s waterways check out Talk To Tom. You can download it from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch it anytime on News 6+.

Rebecca Soto said she just wanted to beat the rain when she took her dog for a walk outside of her Lake Nona home back in August. Little did she know that choice would nearly end her life. After she stepped outside, her husband said he heard a loud noise. “It set the alarms off in our apartment,” Lauro Soto said. When he went outside, he said he found her on the ground. “I knew she was unresponsive because of the way she was laying face down and when I flipped her over, I called to her and nothing,” he said. Lauro said he started doing CPR and called 911. When talking to first responders on the phone, he said strangers stepped in to help. “I had never met these people in my life, they just stopped and helped do CPR while I was trying to talk to paramedics,” Lauro said. When an ambulance took his wife to the hospital, another stranger drove him to the emergency room. Over the next week, Lauro said doctors did a lot of tests on his wife. “They told us obviously there is not a lot of data on these types of incidents. They have had incidents where people will get struck by lightning and it’s obviously fatal, other times they will just pop right back up and go back to whatever they were doing,” Lauro Soto said. Rebecca Soto didn’t pop right back up, but two and a half months after the strike, she is doing better. She said at first she was sleeping nearly 20 hours a day. Now her sleep schedule is closer to normal, but she is still being patient with herself. “I get tired a little easier now,” Rebecca Soto said. “So, I try to take things slow. Listen to my body. I joke with my friends, ‘I have a two-activity-per-day limit now.’ If I have work and an appointment then that’s it for the day. So just taking things slow.” To hear more about Rebecca’s road to recovery check out Talk to Tom. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch anytime on News 6+. The couple also has a GoFundMe to help with the cost of Rebecca’s recovery if you would like to contribute.

Whether you are enjoying a “staycation” or going out of town, a rainy day can ruin your outdoor plans. That’s where Sensible Weather comes into play. The service allows you to insure your trip for about 10% of the total cost. Then, if it rains up to a certain threshold, you get up to 100% of your money back. The founder, Dr. Nick Cavanaugh, said Sensible Weather works with theme parks and particularly water parks. Here in Central Florida the company partners with the Coco Key Hotel & Water Park. Sensible Weather said it also focuses on concerts, camping, boat rentals and skiing and is available in all 50 states. This past summer, it expanded internationally. You can buy the protection while purchasing your experience or add it after the fact. If it does happen to rain, you can wait it out and still be reimbursed for the bad weather. “It’s built specifically for protecting experiences and maximizing what you can get out of a given day,” Cavanaugh said. After further expanding its rain coverage, Cavaugh said Sensible Weather plans to focus on heat waves next. To learn more about Sensible Weather and protecting your vacations and events check out Talk To Tom. You can download it from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch it anytime on News 6+.

The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-2 tornado with wind speeds up to 115 mph touched down on Thursday in Palm Coast. The tornado touched down near Belle Terre Parkway and Pine Lakes Parkway just before 5 a.m. Palm Coast fire officials said 50 homes were damaged. Neighbors walking around Bayside Drive and Baltimore Lane woke up to roofs torn off of homes, pool enclosures inside of pools and fences ripped apart. One victim told News 6 a piece of wood from her neighbor’s yard flew through the roof of her bedroom while she was sleeping. “It was just like unbelievable, just like something out of a movie, like what are the odds of one 4X4 sticking in the roof and coming right over top of the bed. That’s just pretty crazy,” Tonya Mitchell said. Other homeowners made it out with less damage but are still cleaning up branches that were ripped off of trees. Hear more about the damage left behind, how families are reacting, the mess in the streets and what you need to know before you get behind the wheel and the science of how storms like this form on Talk to Tom.

If you have lived in Florida for a few years, you have likely encountered lovebugs. They are known for flying through the sky while “stuck together,” splattering into windshields and front bumpers. But, if you are new to the state, you may not have noticed them because there are fewer flying around lately. Dr. Norman Leppla is a professor at the University of Florida who specializes in the study of bugs. During a conversation with Tom Sorrells on Talk to Tom, Leppla said, “They (lovebugs) have been declining for years. As you know, years ago, they were just massive numbers, even causing problems on our highways. Now they have slowed down.” He said they usually come in the spring and fall around May and September with a little variation depending on if you are in the northern or southern part of the state. But lately, he just hasn’t been seeing them. “It’s not subtle, they’re really not here this season,” Leppla said. He said part of it could be influenced by the weather. “Their development is subject to temperature, humidity. Lovebugs are particularly vulnerable to drying out or to drowning, so they have to find just the right place and maybe this year and in past years, that hasn’t been happening.” Leppla is also not ruling out pathogens or predation. He pointed out lovebugs are not the only insects experiencing a decrease in their population. He said the number of pollinators has decreased — as well as of lightning bugs — and the cause is not clear. But, unlike bees and other pollinators, Dr. Leppla said lovebugs likely will not be missed if they disappear from Florida, as they are not native and instead migrated from the Yucatán. “They can just go back, and I think most people won’t care,” Leppla said.

News 6 Chief Meteorologist Tom Sorrells discusses Hurricane Nicole and his personal journey to becoming a meteorologist. Submit your questions and feedback by visiting https://www.clickorlando.com/weather/2022/10/19/new-show-talk-to-tom-allows-you-to-discuss-weather-with-news-6-chief-meteorologist/.