Before he was even in the first grade in Texas, John Robinson would read the weather reports in the Houston Post each day and look for the "Weather Bee," a cartoon feature in the newspaper that offered forecasts.
He'd scan the paper, mesmerized by the temperatures, rainfall totals, predictions and other data provided daily.
"I always loved weather," Robinson said. "I had my heart set on it."
He turned that love into a career for four decades. On Jan. 2, after working as a meteorologist since 1974, Robinson, 62, will retire as the National Weather Service warning coordinator at the North Little Rock station.
During his 40 years, Robinson has seen improved radar technology, quicker issuance of weather warnings and watches, the use of social media as a weather-watching assistance and more advanced computer systems.
He has served on a committee that helped refine the scale that meteorologists used to determine tornadic strength nationwide, and he has scanned the paths of scores of destructive tornadoes across Arkansas.
"Anyone with that much experience will be deeply missed. He was always helpful to us in getting weather information to us," Gov. Mike Beebe said of Robinson.
"It was a wonderful ride," Renee Fair, the station's meteorologist in charge, said of Robinson's work there. "He is a devoted kind of guy to his job."
Fair, who will also retire Jan. 2 after 40 years, promoted Robinson to the warning coordinator position in 1998 as part of the service's "modernization."
She said Robinson would often try to convince her to name him the coordinator. "He was persistent," she said. "He is not satisfied unless he does his very best."
Robinson earned his meteorological degree at Texas A&M from 1970 to 1974.
"It's very rare to find someone who got into college and then decided he wanted to be in weather," Robinson said. "Most of us have wanted to do this since we were kids."
It was either weather or his other fascination: highway signs.
"The only other thing that interested me were traffic signs and signals," he said.
As a youngster, he saved his money and bought the U.S. Department of Transportation's traffic signs manual. He said he still has the book.
After graduating, Robinson interned at Arkansas' only National Weather Service station -- then located at Adams Field in Little Rock. The service moved to the North Little Rock Airport in 1975.
He's been in Arkansas since, save for an 11-month stint in which he worked as a forecaster for Miami International Airport in 1978 and 1979, providing weather information for air traffic controllers.
While in Florida, Robinson often contacted aircraft he'd see on radar to get the pilot's observations of cloud formations. Because he was so close to Cuba, Robinson would sometimes end up getting weather reports from Soviet aircraft flying in the area. He also saw low-flying, unmarked aircraft flying near the Everglades at times and assumed they were drug smugglers.
He returned to Arkansas as a forecaster in 1979, when he often spent three hours of his eight-hour shift typing forecasts and weather advisories to send out on the weather service's teletype machine.
"We could send 60 words a minute then," Robinson said. "There would be times when we'd have three people standing there waiting to get our warnings out. There'd be times when warnings from Missouri would expire before we got them."
Now, Robinson can program a warning and notify television stations, emergency responders, the Arkansas State Police and weather radios within seconds.
"Back then, it was, 'Did we have a warning out before it happened?'" Robinson said of the length of time it took to warn people. "Now it's, 'How many minutes ahead did we warn?'"
Advances in the radar systems have also led to quicker, more detailed warnings.
When Robinson first worked at the weather service, he used the WSR-57 radar, which provided a sweeping black-and-white view of clouds.
In 1993, the weather service began using Doppler radar, which gave meteorologists much more information.
In 2012, the service upgraded to its dual-polarization radar -- a 30-foot radar that sends horizontal and vertical pulses to gain an enhanced picture of storms. The radar can determine the difference between rain and sleet and see debris clouds formed by possible tornadoes. It can even pick up images of flying birds and clouds of mosquito swarms.
When he began his career, meteorologists could detect about 10 percent to 15 percent of the tornadoes that touched down on radar. Now, with the advancements, forecasters can track at least 85 percent of them.
"When people are faced with danger, they seek reinforcement," he said. "They hear a tornado warning, and they need to see for that reinforcement.
"We can look at the radar now, and we're pretty convinced it's there," he said. "We can get people to safety quicker."
Although he's seen dozens of tornadoes on radar, Robinson has seen only one in person. He watched from the old weather service at Adams Field as a twister bore down on Twin Lakes in 1974.
The worst one, he said, was this year's tornado that killed 16 in Mayflower, Vilonia and El Paso.
"It was really chaotic that night," Robinson said of the April 27 tornado. "It's always hectic here. Phone are ringing, reports are coming in.
"But when we started getting the reports of the fatalities, it got really, really quiet."
There are reminders of tornadoes all through the weather service's building. A long hallway leading to the forecasting room is adorned with large photographs of twisters. An endless loop of a satellite image showing the formation of a tornado plays on a large projection screen in a conference room. Other radar images of twisters are on computer monitors in various cubicles.
Climatologist Brian Smith, who has worked at the North Little Rock service for 14 years, said Robinson has often mentored him.
"He is meticulous," Smith said. "He knows Arkansas weather. His wealth of experience has been beneficial to all of us."
Other than Fair, meteorologist John Lewis has worked with Robinson the longest. Robinson was the lead forecaster in 1994, when Lewis interned in North Little Rock.
"He is extremely detail-oriented," Lewis said. "He's loves weather now as much as he did when he began.
"The office has a lot of sameness like that," he said. "And now, when John leaves, it's going to be different."
Robinson said he will miss his co-workers, but he won't mind sleeping in on cold, icy mornings when other forecasters are expected to provide forecasts on inclement weather at 4 a.m.
He expects he will drop in at times to visit his friends, but he also plans to watch how television stations report the tornado and thunderstorm warnings the service issues.
Although the service's office on Remount Road has three television monitors, meteorologists don't often get to watch television when storm systems approach. Instead, they are huddled over the six computer monitors at each of their work stations, tracking radar images to determine if dangerous storms are forming and issuing warnings and watches as quickly as possible.
There's no time to watch television.
"I want to see how after all these years what television [storm] coverage is all about," he said.
State Desk on 12/26/2014