Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Speaker A: Welcome to Babble. Ready? I'm Ricky Chavez. On this show, we talk about what it takes to prepare, adapt, lead and perform when pressure is real. But today we're going to look at it a little different. We're going to look at the readiness through severe weather moments when information has to be accurate, clear, useful, because the people that are out there watching, they may need to make a decision quickly. My guest is Albert Martinez.
Albert is with the Canal Meteo. He taught me that today, which is the Weather Channel. He has been doing this for many years. Albert helped expand weather communication for Hispanic and Latino audiences by combining bilingual storytelling with immerse reality and technology to make complex weather events and easier to understand and act on. Albert. Albert, welcome to the show.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: Thank you very much, Rick. It's a huge pleasure to be here with you.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: You know, you know, we were talking and you had a real, you know, have to. Have to talk about your trip. You just took a trip. Tell us about your trip to go
[00:01:08] Speaker B: see, oh my gosh, the eclipse. I was in Spain because we had the total solar eclipse. We'll have three total solar eclipse through the next three years. So this was the first one. It lasts for up to two minutes. I went with my family, so it was very special. It was my fourth solar eclipse, but the first one with my parents, my sister. So we went to Soria, Good food, tapas. And then we enjoyed during the sunset because it was a rare solar eclipse. It happened at the end of the day, so it was incredible. When the sky goes dark, you can see the stars and you hear how all the animals calm down for a bit and then everything starts over again. So it was a very great experience.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: So, you know, when you are thinking about weather and especially severe weather and communication, what does readiness mean before the storm and when it becomes an emergency, what is that all about?
[00:02:03] Speaker B: Readiness, I think needs to be on account day. I mean, we need to prepare ahead. It's not. We cannot be ready for, for a severe weather storm 24 hours ahead of the storm. So during a clear day like today in Houston is when we need to talk to people. Hey, do you have an emergency plan? Do you know how to evacuate in case a tropical storm hits the coast? Do you know if your area floods frequently or not? So we need to tell them and train them to be prepared ahead of time. Because when the warning is issued, you only have a few hours to act and sometimes less than that. In case of a tornado warning, you only have a few seconds to fight the shelter.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: So, you know, it's all about being bad already, right? So let me ask you this. You know, we had Harvey, we've had Ike, we've had Katrina. I mean, just many, many storms. And would you say that in your opinion, you know, the average person is ready for it?
[00:02:59] Speaker B: No. And that's a hard answer to say. We are not ready. Most of the people are not ready for a big hurricane like Harvey or Ike or Alicia. I mean, in 1983, each hurricane is different. And this is one of the biggest problems we think, okay, I survived Harvey. I can survive the next big hurricane. But each hurricane has different effects in terms of wind, amount of water, the storm. Sure, that can bring into the coast the tornadoes that they can produce. So we need to be prepared for each of them and think about all the people that moves through the years to areas that they never faced a hurricane before. So that's why most of us, we are. I mean, we are prepared, the meteorologists, but most of our viewers are not prepared. So that's why we need to train them, educate them through the year for those big weather events.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: So, you know, you have a pretty interesting story. Tell me, how did you become involved in weather?
What was the, you know, motivation?
[00:04:01] Speaker B: I'm from a very small town in Spain. It's called miracam. It's just 1000 habitants. So it's a very little town surrounded by fields. So during my childhood, I mean, I used to listen to the farmers saying, oh, my God, this hailstorm can blow all the fields. I mean, we need rain. The drought is hard to produce. So be connected with the nature. Put all those inside me. And I ended on broadcast, I always like to say, as an accident, because I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to be a math or physics teacher. But during my college years, I did an internship on a TV station in Barcelona. And I started to enjoy the communication field in a different way. Like a teacher. A teacher communicates to students.
Broadcast meteorologist communicates to viewers. And through the years, I ended in Madrid in Television Espanola, national tv. And one day I got an email from a news director in Texas asking me to join Univision in Dallas. And that happened 15 years ago. So it's like a blink in my eyes. And long story short, here am I.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: So could you imagine being that young child in that small town in Spain? And did you even know where Houston was?
[00:05:18] Speaker B: Yes, because of the movies. I mean, Spain City, Houston. We have a problem. Right?
[00:05:23] Speaker A: Okay, okay. Everyone knows Houston.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Oh. But one of the things that surprised me is that I thought Houston was on the coast because I think a lot of people think that Houston is next to the Gulf coast, and it's not. I mean, it's a long drive to Galveston. So, yeah, I knew Houston ahead of time. I'd never been in Houston before I moved to Texas. And I enjoy it a lot. I mean, Houston is an incredible city, multicultural, a lot of museums, art centers.
So, I mean, I like that. I mean, and of course, we have dinesa, and every time I have a long weekend ahead, I go there just to rewatch all the exhibitions that they have. And, yeah, I think Texas in general, or Houston in particular is the best place to live if you are a meteorologist, because we have everything you can
[00:06:12] Speaker A: dream for, you know, and the funny thing about it, I make this joke I tell my friends because, you know, my wife came to Houston kicking and screaming. She didn't want to be to come to Houston. She's from Indiana. And then I finally got her down there, and now she would not leave, Right? But, you know, you can be driving, and the joke is, you know, Houston's 65 miles from Houston. You know, everything's an hour away in Houston, but you can be on one side of town and it can be raining, and I'll be talking to my wife, and she'll be in Katie, I'll be in Tom Baldwin. I'm like, man, it's stormy here. She goes, there's nothing going on here. And how is that?
[00:06:47] Speaker B: Because it's so big. I mean, it's one of the biggest DMAs in the US and this is one of our biggest concerns at Canal Meteor. I mean, we need to cover all the area. Not only Houston, we cover the entire US and during hurricane season, we expand to the Caribbean and Mexico because of the hurricanes. But here in Texas, if we talk about Houston, as you said, it's not the same north Houston than south Houston. Think about this. Cities like Houston, they are huge. So they create microclimates. It's called heat island effect, because all the buildings, all the concrete, all the roads. So sometimes you have a storm in Katy that tries to move east, but because of downtown, Houston cannot go through. And sometimes it dissipates or it moves north because of the coastal winds. So it's so difficult sometimes to forecast where the storm will pop up in Houston. And this is what we do. I mean, we try to go as hyperlocal as possible, because at the end of the day, you want to know when it will rain on my zip code, I don't care if I'M I mean, Houston is huge. So think about how many zip codes. And this is one of the most popular questions we got on social media. Hey, will it rain on my 77 exactly.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: You know, like yesterday I was.
Was driving into Tomball, and I was talking to somebody on the phone, and, oh, it was my daughter. She had just came to track me with her daughter, and she said, oh, it was so hot. And I didn't even realize. So I got my air blasting in my, in my car and I looked out on, on the, on the dash and it says 108.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: Yes. I mean, humidity is terrible. I always say or explain when I tell people that they live in Houston, that Houston exists. But thanks to ac, without acs, no one could live here in Houston. Think about the first settlements, big houses where the wind can flow from the porch to the backside of the house. But now we live in tall buildings, in houses, small houses. So we need AC. I mean, we go from a bubble of our AC at home, our car with AC, our job with AC. So we need AC all downtown, you know, all the gallerias underneath with ACs and shops and restaurants because it's so hot. And this will be our future. I mean, with climate change, with global warming, Houston will be hotter than it is right now. And the humidity, it will be higher because hotter Earth means more evaporation, means more humidity into the atmosphere. And, you know, when you combine high temperatures plus humidity, you have the heat index high. No. Or nowadays we call it bulb temperature. It's the same. I mean, it is what we feel when we go outside. So we need to think that this is just the beginning of a new scenario that we'll have to deal with.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: You know, so how do you keep so calm and when you're, you know, being precise about and communicating the information about the effect of safety in the weather out here, because I think this
[00:09:49] Speaker B: is important for the viewers. If I'm going on air and say, and I start to shout, say, hey, go there. I mean, people will. Okay, for maybe a few seconds, they will panic, but then they will forget the message. So it's important to stay calm. I mean, like, stay calm and act accordingly to the message that I'm trying to give it to you. If it's a tornado, I mean, I couldn't remember how many tornadoes outbreaks in Dallas or Houston I cover in 15 years. Or hurricanes like Harvey. I mean, those kind of coverages sometimes goes for hours. I mean, a tornado outbreak can last for 3, 3, 5, 8 hours. A hurricane like Harvey Lasts for a week. So we had 12 hour shifts. So you need to be calm and you need to give clear messages to the viewers. It's not the same to say, hey, it will fall 6 inches of rain.
Okay, I can understand what 6 inches of rain means. But if I tell you, hey, move your car, when the water reaches the porch of your house, you will know when you'll have to move the car. So clear messages, staying calm and is essential. And nowadays with social media, we have to enforce this because if not the clickbait is what it wins. And most of the time, the clickbait comes with the wrong message.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: So, you know, readiness is not just knowing the danger, that danger exists, it's understanding what it means. What matters most is what action should I come up with? What should I do? And after the break, we're going to look at how technology, especially immersive reality, can make invisible a complex a weather that changes and makes it better for you so that you can handle it at any time. We'll be right back with Albert.
What do you think?
Welcome back to Battle Ready. Stay connected to this show and every NOW Media TV favorite live and on demand anytime you like. You can Download the free Now Media app on Roku iOS or you can do if you're on the go all the time, you can actually go to www.nowmedia.tv. we're back now with Albert Martinez. We're talking a little bit about the weather, how to react, how he stays so calm when he's putting out these crazy weather forecast and how come it's so different in Houston from one zip code to the next. Albert, welcome back.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: Thank you very much.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: So, you know, we were talking about, you know, being calm and clickbait and what things go on. What is the most important thing you would tell a viewer about being ready for crazy weather now?
[00:12:34] Speaker B: So be prepared. I mean, first of all, they need to understand the difference between different kinds of weather and warnings. I mean, Here in the US we have more than 200 kind of warnings or alerts in terms of weather phenomenon. So they need to understand and think about this. We need to understand them in English and then translate into Spanish. And who speaks Spanish is not the same. The Spanish from Mexico, from Colombia. So we need to adapt the message. So first of all, we need to tell them the difference between a watch, a warning, an advisory, an alert, and tell them what to do in each situation. So that's why through the year we like to train them. I mean, tell them what to do during every season I mean, summer, hurricane season, heat season, I mean, high temperatures. Now we are into fall, so severe weather season and winter is around the corner with winter weather, freezes.
So we need to explain them what we can expect and how we can be ready ahead of time. That's the most important message.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: So what does immersed reality allow you to communicate that a traditional weather map or graphics sometimes cannot?
[00:13:44] Speaker B: It allows us to explain the weather phenomenon in a very visual way. For example, during Harvey, we were the first Spanish TV station here in the US to use augmented reality graphics to talk about the storm shoots. I mean, during Harvey, flash flood, we're around Houston. So we were the first one to bring a car into the studio, a virtual car, and interact with the car, showing the viewers what six inches of rain means, what a foot of rain, three foot of range, and how the world can carry out a car through a road. That's why it's important, never go through a flooded area. We were the first one. And since then, everyone started to use the immersive reality. Now we are inside the graphics itself. At the beginning.
At the beginning was the chroma key, the green screen that everyone seen through their life. Then we put the graphics in front of us. That's augmented reality graphics. And immersive reality graphics is when you combine together the green screen plus the graphics in front of you, and it's like you are inside a hurricane, inside a tornado, inside a winter storm. And you can explain what you can expect to the viewers so they can be ready ahead of time.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: So when you're, you know, thinking about getting ready for a storm and you're talking to your viewers, and I'm gonna say, you talk because it's amazing how you. You're explaining everything, you know, what is your thoughts about the message you're trying to convey to them.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: I try always to be as clear as possible. I always think about. I'm talking to my mother, to my grandmother, to Meeta. So the message needs to be clear. I mean, as I said, I mean, we can give a lot of information. We know everything. I mean, we try to know everything. We check all the weather data ahead of time. We check all the models so we know the patterns, how the storm can move. It could be a severe storm, it could be a hurricane. We know all that information, but we need to communicate in a clear way. So the viewer that is watching us. For example, if we break into programming during La Novela and we say, hey, there is a severe storm in your area, you need to take shelter right now or Ahead of time. I mean, a hurricane is coming to your area, you need to plan ahead and think about if you need to evacuate your house. I mean, the message needs to be clear. And this is one of the most important things that I always like to say. I bring it from Spain because, I mean, we have a long traditional of innovative communication of weather phenomenon. And at the beginning, Latino weather cast here in the US Were the girl that just talked about the weather. But now we need to go into the signs of the weather. And this is one of the things that we notice that people like. And if the message is clear and they believe me because they've been seeing me for 15 years, then it's easy to talk.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: So where do you see the biggest opportunity for immersive technology and how it's going to improve public safety in the years to come?
[00:16:48] Speaker B: It will change completely, especially with AI in the past, to create an immersive reality graphic. It took months of work with a graphic team of maybe three, four, five graphic designers, eight hours a day for two months or three months. Now you can do all that with just a couple of prompts on your laptop at home, and you can create something stunning, similar to what we used to do before. So this will change. I mean, it changed completely the scenario. So this creates two things. One, we need to fight the fake news. I mean, a lot of people create those kind of graphics just to propagate, I mean, fake news. So we need to fight them. But then we can use that technology. It's like Spider man powers.
A big power comes with a big responsibility. I mean, we can use on our end to tell the viewers, hey, this is what we can expect so we can plan ahead.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: So can you describe one of the most emotional broadcasts you had and when you were trying to really convey what was going on outside and how you felt that you were coming across to everybody?
[00:18:00] Speaker B: I mean, the first one, it was my second year here in the U.S. so 14 years ago, it was a tornado outbreak the day after Christmas in Dallas. So Christmas Day was very hot. I mean, it's Texas, so it was very hot. But the day after Christmas, on the 26th, a line of instrument started to move through Dallas Metroplex and it produced a lot of tornadoes. One of those tornadoes go through I20 at rice hour. So a lot of people pass away because of the tornado.
Pull those cars from the road. I mean, that event, when you see the tornado on the radar so clear, then you see some pictures from the viewers, then you notice that your job helps people to stay Alive. I mean, that was the first one. And of course, through my years covering tornadoes and hurricanes, like Harvey, Maria, Dorian, Michael in the Florida Panhandle, when you see all the damage that each hurricane can do and you can tell the people, be prepared ahead of time. And then you find that people maybe a week later, a month later, in the supermarket and they tell you, hey, I was watching your weather coverage, and thanks to you, my family is safe. That's the biggest reward a meteorologist can get.
Nothing goes beyond that. I mean, give a clear message to the viewers so they can be prepared. And when the storm hits, they are ready for that.
[00:19:26] Speaker A: So, you know, when the weather changes. Right. People always complain about the meteorologist. Right. Like, why is this? Why is that? How do you feel about what. Give me a meteorological opinion of what's going on when. When a person's all emotional about it's raining outside. He didn't say that.
[00:19:44] Speaker B: Yeah. And especially with the cell phone apps that, hey, my cell phone says it's a sunny day and it's raining right now.
I mean, what's a model?
All those apps use model data. I mean, so it's a grid, it's a square that it could be like 1 km per 1 km or 5 km, 5 km. Think about this. I mean, 5 km per 5 km, it's all downtown Houston in just a square. So it's not the same raining in downtown than in Memorial Park. So it's a big distance. So we need to go into all this knowledge through the years and say, hey, if the storm moves this way, then this area is the one that will see the rain or not. So we need to play with all the technologies nowadays, thanks to AI. As I said, AI is a very powerful tool. We have weather data models that go down to meters, to yards. And that's incredible because it helps us, for hyperlocal weather, be very accurate and tell them, hey, the stone ghost through this street and this neighborhood, and then it will dissipate. So, yeah, I mean, we need to fight the.
The misunderstanding. Let me say it on that way. Misunderstanding of how weather data works. And most of the time, the data that your cell phone gets is from an airport. It's not from where you are located. It's from the nearest airport to you. So think about this. I mean, how far is Josh Bush Airport or Hobby Airport from downtown Houston?
So it's a big difference if it rains close to the airport than in your area.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: So, you know, I'm gonna have to ask this. So I watch all these storm Chaser movies where these guys chase these tornadoes. I mean, is that real? I mean, is that scary? What's going on with that?
[00:21:29] Speaker B: I mean the first time I saw a tornado, I mean it was maybe 10 miles ahead, I mean it was in Oklahoma, so it was far from where I was.
I was with a stormchaser team. And when you see it for the first time, I mean it's you, you freeze. I mean the sky, the color of the sky, the shape of the tornado, it's like a northern light. It's something that you've seen a lot of time on movies, pictures, but when you see in real life, it's stunning. I mean for me, as a mirager, maybe other people will be very scared and they'll type
[00:22:03] Speaker A: stunning. But yeah, scary man.
[00:22:05] Speaker B: Yeah, sure, for me, I mean it's incredible to see them. I mean, but because we are prepared and we know where to be towards the storm to be safe and to take a picture and inform the people. Same with hurricanes. I mean I covered, I counted 15 hurricanes through my career here in the US so far. So each hurricane is different. I mean being Houston during Harvey flood was the biggest problem. But for example Michael or, or Haileen in North Florida and Georgia, rainfall and strong winds were the biggest problem. Think about the Tempest stadium, that the roof disappeared because of the tornadoes and the winds of that hurricane. So each system is different. In my case, I like to be there because I can show the people what they can expect so they can be ready ahead of time. So it's always the same message. I mean, if I can show the viewers what's the problem or what's the issue with that weather phenomenon, then they can be prepared. The same with the heat, with the draw, with flash floods or winter weather.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: Okay, next, you know, we're going to talk about what we will go through in the readiness and how what's always overlooked when reacting to people and in the different language and context. We'll be right back with Albert.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: So that way.
[00:23:38] Speaker A: Welcome back. It's Rick Chavez with the Battle Ready. I'm with Albert Martinez and we've been having a bunch of different conversations, you know, about whether how to react, how to actually communicate to the audience in a way that'll keep them calm and relaxed. Now we're going to talk about a few other things, but before we do that and Albert, how would somebody reach out to you or actually see your channel online and maybe continue a conversation with you? They want to know more about meteorology,
[00:24:04] Speaker B: easy way canal meteor. I mean they can find Canal, Meteo, everywhere we have a website. This is the one that we are looking right now. See at the top we have the tropical warnings, the local warnings. In your area, of course we have the streaming. But if you have a cell phone with Android or, or iPhone, you can download the app. We also have Roku app and Amazon Firestick app. So anywhere, just find Canal Meteor, Meteo or Canal Meteor, we are there to help them.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: Okay, so during the break, you know, we were talking and you know, the beauty of being a host and having such amazing guests on here, I can talk about whatever I want. And so I was telling you, I watched the movie and you had to correct me on the name Pressure. And it was about the Normandy invasion and the meteorologists that were arguing the English one and the US one. And you know what I remember is how arrogant the English guy was and how determined the American guy was, but how important that conversation was. Let's talk. What are your thoughts about that movie?
[00:25:10] Speaker B: I mean, that movie, it's based on three bands. One of the things that I miss on the movie is that at the end, the they didn't show the real people that were involved in that movie. So the first time they tried to do the invasion, I mean, more than 700 soldiers passed away. So they decided to find two meteorologists, one the best one in the United Kingdom and the best one in the US Put them together and try to forecast, I mean, think about this. Before satellite area, they tried to forecast the weather three days ahead, at least three days ahead for the invasion of Normandia. So what they did was something incredible. They started to call all the weather stations across the United Kingdom, some ships on the ocean, Iceland, Spain, and they draw the first weather map of the Atlantic high pressure area and low pressure area, and they tried to forecast where that area will move so they can expect rain or a sunny day during the invasion and during the movie. I will not spoil people because I want them to watch the movie because it's so good. I mean, it happens something, it rains, but then something happens that, of course, thanks to that, we won the battle. But yeah, it was the first time we used the weather, the surface weather maps to forecast what's going on on the Atlantic that we never seen it before.
[00:26:39] Speaker A: And now that was, you know, many, many, many years ago.
So in today's world, how much different would the technology and everything be to help you actually forecast something just like that?
[00:26:56] Speaker B: I think if we need to go through everything that happened after that, we need another podcast, another episode.
[00:27:02] Speaker A: Oh, sure.
[00:27:02] Speaker B: But Just if you condense everything together. Satellites. Thanks to satellites, we can see what's going on on the earth surface or atmosphere, oceans in real time. That's incredible. I mean, we started to launch them in the 50s and since then they improve constantly. But nowadays we have of course, the hurricane flight that they can go through, big hurricane inside the eye. But also we have drones, and I mean ships without tripulation that they can go through the hurricane and take measures of the temperature, the water, the waves. And all those data goes into the weather models, the traditional ones. They need a lot of hours of calculus to solve the problem, the mathematical problems to plot the maps. Now we can also use AI and Google is one of the first one to use it to create weather models that they can run very fast. They use climatological data and they are sometimes more accurate than traditional ones that happen in just two years.
Think about this, satellites, drones, AI, all these put together for weather. It helps us to give to the viewers more accurate weather forecast and alerts.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: And one of the big conversations now that you keep, you, you brought up the AI. One big conversation now is how scary it is that the speed of, of AI growing and getting better. How do you feel that AI would be, will affect your career field in meteorology?
And are you worried at all?
[00:28:45] Speaker B: First of all, fake news, I mean, fake news. I mean, I'm doing my PhD in fake news.
So the biggest problem, a year ago when you saw a picture made with AI, you can notice, okay, that's AI. Now it's almost impossible also AI tools to figure out if a picture is made or a video. With AI, they don't know. So this is one of the biggest problem, I mean, fake news in terms of images, maps, you know, Albert, we
[00:29:13] Speaker A: were talking, you brought this up AI. So with AI being so involved in all the indicators and you know, everybody's been really scared about how AI is just taking over, you know, how is it going to affect, you know, your career field of meteorology and, and how you present or how people are presented to the, you know, to everybody that's out there.
[00:29:33] Speaker B: I mean, inside the office at Canal Metro, it helps us a lot because we can use AI to do things that it used to take us hours or weeks. Now we can do it in minutes sometimes or hour or days. No. So it helps us in a lot of things inside the company. But for example, in terms of social media or communication, I mean, AI plays a big role. I mean, now you can create fake AI image of a storm hitting downtown Houston easily on your cell phone, put it on social media, and can go viral. But figuring it out if that image is true or not now is difficult because also, AI tools that try to detect these kind of things, they are not the best.
So we need to fight that kind of fake news. Video, fake news. I mean, think about. It's easy. There are a lot of videos of myself talking about weather on YouTube. So you can grab one video, a few seconds, and then create an avatar with my voice saying something that is not correct. So that's why AI will play a big role into the next few months or years where we'll need to fight the fake news. But also it's a great tool to
[00:30:42] Speaker A: work, you know, as you're talking about that and, you know, explaining the avatars and how people can clone your voice and everything. You know, I would think that a good idea would be an AI that can determine if the AI is real or not. What do you think about that?
[00:31:02] Speaker B: I mean, I'm doing my PhD on that. So it's pretty hard because you can put in some AIs, but think about this. The companies that are behind those AIs, they need to do this. They can put some notes or details on the messages that that AI produces. For example, if it's a voice, maybe a wave or something in that voice that another AI can detect. If it's a text, they can change something in the code of the text. So when you copy it, you can figure it out. But this needs to be made with the big companies. So that's the problem. But for example, in terms of weather, AI helps us a lot because now we can run calculation that used to take hours or days. Sometimes we can do it in a few minutes. So this helps us in terms of giving the right message to the viewers.
[00:31:56] Speaker A: So also with AI, it can help with the language, right? Like the different versions are the different dialects. So, you know, when you, when you're talking about AI and languages, can you give an example of how an explanation can be made better for the viewers to see when you're describing information on weather and how accessible it is?
[00:32:16] Speaker B: That's a great question, because at Canal, Meteor is what we do every day. I mean, when we created the app for iPhone and Android, at the beginning it was just in Spanish, but then we thought, okay, there are a lot of Latinos and Hispanics that sometimes English is their more common language. And then they use Spanish at home or with Abuela or Latia. So we decided to put the app and also the website online. Bilingual so we use AI to do that. Why? Because we have tons of data.
I mean, we go parlocal. You can find the forecast into your zip code. And AI is good for that because it can translate the message. And we said at the beginning, it's not the same. If I tell you, hey, it will fall 6 inches of rain, or be careful when the rain reaches the porch of your house, then you need to move the car.
When we translate into Spanish, especially into Spanish, we try to simplify the message as much as possible so we can reach more people. And as you said, it's not the same as Spanish from Mexico, from Costa Rica, from Puerto Rico, or from Argentina or Chile or. Or Spain. I'm from Spain. So we need to adapt the message so it's understandable for all of them at the same time so they can react accordingly.
[00:33:32] Speaker A: You know, you're talking about being from Spain, and, you know, I learned to speak Spanish, so my dad's Mexican and my mother's German, but my dad never taught me Spanish, which is very common in the US for the Hispanic or the Mexican community.
So I get to Germany, and I marry a young lady from Puerto Rico. So I start speaking Spanish the way they speak Spanish. I remember the first time I spoke Spanish to my dad. He's like, why are you speaking like a Puerto Rican? I'm like, well, that's the way I learned it. But there's so many differences in the meanings of words. How is that in your, you know, world of meteorology, are there different words that a person from Spain would understand?
A description versus Puerto Rico or Mexico or Cuba?
[00:34:24] Speaker B: Yes, a lot of them. When I moved from Spain to Dallas, I mean, the first thing that the news director gave me was a piece of paper with a list of 100 words that I cannot say on air because of their meaning. I mean, words that, for me, I mean, for example, I mean, the. The jacket. No, I mean, you cannot say that. That word into a Mexican audience because it has another meaning. So you need to adapt the message. For example, coche, carro. I mean, auto. So we try to manage all the different words in the same. As sometimes during the same weather segment, we use all of them because we want to reach as much people as possible. I mean, we can say condo cir means drive a car, but some people say maneja instead of conducir. So, yeah, I mean, this is one of the good things of Spanish. It has a lot of variations, and we need to play with all of them, but we need to be very careful. Especially during big weather events because we need to give the right message and we don't want double senses on what we are, what we are telling them.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: Well, and I can imagine because you have such a big audience, you don't really realize what culture, what type of Hispanic person or Latin person will be listening to it. And the different meanings will confuse somebody, I would imagine.
[00:35:48] Speaker B: Yes. And also think about the units.
I mean, we are based here in the US So of course our biggest audience is here in the US So we talk about Miles Fahrenheit, all the imperial, the units. But thanks to Internet, I mean they can watch us everywhere in the world.
If someone watches us on Mexico talking about the hurricane Polo that is on the west coast of Mexico and we talk about inches, miles per hour for them, that sounds unrecognizable. I mean they need to hear kilometers per hour or south, whatever degrees.
[00:36:27] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:36:27] Speaker B: So I mean, that's one of the things. It's related to the language and the unit. So we need to adapt our message and AI helps us a lot with all these kind of things.
[00:36:38] Speaker A: Well guys, we'll be right back with the next segment and we'll talk with Albert after this message.
[00:36:48] Speaker B: See.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: Welcome back to Battle Ready. Stay connected to this show and every NOW Media TV favorite NOW live and on demand anytime you like. You can Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS or unblock any non stop bilingual programming in English and Spanish. If you're on the move, you can catch the podcast version on www.nowmedia.tv. from business and news to lifestyle, culture and leadership and even put it on now. Media TV is streaming around the clock and and ready whenever you are. So now we're coming back with Albert Martinez and we're going to talk a little bit more. I mean our conversation has been so amazing. We've talked about movies, we've talked about dialects of Spanish, we talked about getting ready. Now we just talk about the overall reason for meteorologists to be so calm on tv. Right? So Albert, welcome back.
[00:37:48] Speaker B: Thank you very much.
[00:37:50] Speaker A: So, you know, I think, you know, one of the conversations we had was, was about the movie pressure, right? And how amazing it was for your career field to have such an impact on the war. Right? So in today's world, if you were to really talk to our viewers and talk to them about how important it is to be battle ready for the next possible storm, what would you tell them?
[00:38:19] Speaker B: That they need to prepare ahead of time. That's why Canal Meteo, we are there to help them I mean, during a clear day is when you need to sit with your family at home and plan for the winter weather, for the hurricane season, for the severe weather season. You need to think about, hey, do I need an emergency kit at home or not? The water, the food in cans so you can keep in a closet for the entire season. That's easy to do and it can save you a lot if something happens to your location. I mean, this is the most important message. I mean, go to our platforms, download the app, go to the website, and go to the preparedness and get ready ahead of time. Because when the warning is issued, you only have minutes or sometimes less than that to go to your shelter, to go to your safe place. So it's not the moment to think about where I go. You need to know all this ahead of time. You need to know if your street floods. You need to know if your area has evacuation routes or not. You need to figure out which family member who lives in another state or in another country will contact if something happens to us. And we need to spread. So all this needs to be done during a blue sky day, so when the battle happens, we are ready for that.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: So were you saying that on your site you have a preparedness area?
So they would go to your website and they would click on preparedness. And what does it have? Just kind of a list of things to think about or what does it exactly?
[00:39:49] Speaker B: It depends on the weather phenomenon. During hurricane season. It talks about, first of all, what's the cone? So people can understand the meaning of the cone of the hurricane and the effects like storm shorts, the tornadoes, the rainfall, and then a list of what to do before, during and after the storm. Do I need to put windshields at home? Do I need to prepare my house ahead of time? And then what to do during the storm and after. For example, where are the shelters in my area, where I can find the evacuation routes in my county. All this is there on the website. Now that we are heading into fall and into the middle fall and winter, we have severe weather preparedness. So what to do during a tornado warning, what to do during a severe storm warning and during winter weather for freeze, how we need to prepare the house, the pipes. I mean, you know, here in Texas we have sometimes a couple of freezes that can blow up the electrical grid. So then we are without power for a few days or sometimes weeks. So we need to be ready for all those events. And we have all that information on the app and on the website.
[00:40:57] Speaker A: I know that, you know, over the years that I've been living in here in the Houston area, I, I remember in our first house, we didn't have a generator and the weather went out. And we were lucky, right, that one of the guys in our neighborhood worked for ready ice at the time. So, you know, we got in a truck and went to the ready Ice place because. And got like a whole truck full of ice for the neighborhood, but generators. You know, now I live on a property that we have a generator. And when we had, we were there about a week, a week and a half, and we had this storm and all the power went out and we had that generator. It was like amazing.
[00:41:36] Speaker B: And you mentioned generators. And this is one of my biggest worries because you need to know where to install it. I mean, you cannot install it inside the house because it can produce carbon monoxide. You cannot put it in the garage. You need to put it outside. So for me, one of the biggest investment that anyone can do is a smoke detector. You can buy a smoke detector, it costs a few dollars.
The battery is almost a year. So you put in different rooms of your house so in case there is a power outage and you need to use generators. I mean, you cannot use fires inside the house or candles. So those smoke detectors can save your life. So this is one of the things that we always tell the viewers. I mean, you need to be ready, but also you need to know how to do those things.
[00:42:24] Speaker A: You know what I. So one of the other things I, I remember that I learned that in the fireplaces, right? The, the, the gas fireplaces, that when the electric goes out, if you pull the face plate out, typically they have a battery pack at the bottom, right. And I, you know, I was on my phone, it was cold. We were, it was so cold in the house and it was horrible. And I just, I don't know how I did it. Google. Just what made me even think about it. I was trying to figure out how to turn my fireplace on and the battery, my controls didn't work. And it said pull the face breakout. And what I did was I just happened to have two D batteries. I popped it in, I hit the thing and it was working. And so those are things that I say you need to be ready for because you never know what the weather is going to be like. And in Houston it doesn't matter. Can be a different weather zip code, right? So let me ask this. So when you know what is working in this fast moving weather coverage taught you about, you know, adapting with conditions, changes when they just are always changing faster than the original plan.
[00:43:37] Speaker B: Oh, my God. And with climate change, everything goes faster than we expected before. So that's why, as I said, this helps us to reinforce the message. Be prepared ahead of time. Think about this. I mean, winter storm goes into the US through the West. So we know that if it's hitting California right now, in two days it will be in New Mexico, West Texas, then in the Mississippi Valley, and a week after it will be in the Northeast area.
So that's the easy part. I mean, when we can track a system like this. But sometimes the weather is so hyperlocal. But think about the monsoon right now in Arizona, West Texas or northern Mexico. I mean, those mounts of rain, I mean, in the desert where. In the desert where flash flood happens very quickly. So that's why it's so important to know where I live if I move to a new area. You need to do your homework and figure it out. What are the threats of my area? Tornadoes, hurricanes, floods. So all this needs to be done ahead of time. Because with climate change, we know for sure that hurricanes, we don't know if we'll have more or less hurricanes, but they will be stronger. Severe weather events with tornadoes, they will be stronger. Winter weather events, they will be stronger. Doesn't mean that each winter we will have a lot of snow and cold weather. No, it means that when those weather phenomenons will happen, they will be stronger than it used to be because the Earth is warmer. So the air masses are the contrast between cold air and warm air is bigger. So the energy that you have for those storms is huge. So that's why we need to be ready.
[00:45:21] Speaker A: You know, one of the things that I always remember is as an HR professional, I remember during the freezes, I would, we would listen to the Weather Channel to be able to put out a message just whether or not the people should come in or not. Especially, you know, in Houston, we have all these bridges and we do not have the infrastructure to put the sand down or the ice or the salt down. So I can remember people trying to go up the bridge and then, you know, go sliding back down and things like that. And you know, you know, what a good part, a big part you guys played in making sure the safety for our employees was. So that's pretty amazing. So tell me, in your experience with the Weather Channel, what does it now mean for being battle ready to you?
[00:46:09] Speaker B: Battle ready means to plan ahead of time. It's like in a battle, I mean, you need to plan the invasion ahead of time. I Mean, you cannot do go and that's it. No, you need to prepare the troops. You need to prepare. Okay, we'll go here, we'll do this, then we'll do this. So it's the same in the real life, in with the weather. I mean, we need to sit with the family members and plan the battle ahead of time so then when something happens, we are prepared. So this is the most important. Through my years at the Weather Channel, I mean, it was first division in terms of weather coverage. So I learned all these things and now I'm bringing all this into the Latinos and I'm just giving the message not to the Latinos and the Hispanic communities.
And the most important, I mean, just talk and just believe the local meteorologists that you trusted through the years because that's the best way to stay informed. And of course, platforms like us, Canal Meteor, I mean, we are there to help you at any moment, at any time.
[00:47:09] Speaker A: So, Albert, for viewers who want to learn more about you, your work and follow you, what is a good way for them to follow you and get connected with you?
[00:47:17] Speaker B: If you want to follow us on cell phones, Android, iPhone, download the app of Canal Metio. We have social media. They can find me, Alberto Tiempo, anywhere, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, that's my LinkedIn profile. They'll have all the information over there too. We have Canal Meteo on social media. If you have Roku, you can download the app. If you have Amazon Firestick, we have an app too. So yeah, I mean, everywhere we are there for the people.
[00:47:42] Speaker A: Robert, thank you for joining us on BattleReady. Know today's conversation was very enjoyable, you know, and, and the big thing for us is you are a big example of motivating people to become battle ready for every day. But it's not battle ready for today. It's battle ready for the battle. Stay tuned and thanks for joining us today on Battle Ready.
