After 41 years with the weather service, Joe Pedigo retired in October of 2007. Mr. Pedigo officiated at the first "official" weather spotter class Michael Redman attended in the early 1970s, and I worked with him while he was the first "Community Preparedness Meteorologist". He began the annual statewide tornado exercise on May 7, 1974 with a tone-alert weather statement and a proclamation signed by Governor Christopher Bond.

In his last forecast discussion, he wrote, "..quite a change from typing the forecasts on a manual typewriter and handing your products to a 'communicator' to re-type them on paper tape and take turns with everyone else sending them out at 70 words per minute, then resending those tapes on the Illinois weather wire after Chicago sent theirs; plotting RAOBS by hand; having access to 'barotropic', then 'baroclonic' charts; of coloring the 'faxes' and hanging them on the wall; taping the satellite pictures on the 'Fujita' wheel to animate the clouds." Mr. Pedigo also made the first weather radio broadcast.

In an electronic mail exchange he made these comments about Michael Redman's work with the St. Louis County Program: "I can remember watching clouds and storms since I was 4 or 5, and taking weather observations on a daily basis since I was 9. If it's in your blood, there's not much you can do but yield to it. Anyway, I have a grandson to do a lot of hunting and fishing with. I think I might come in and help get information during severe weather sometimes... just to keep a finger in it.... and I hope to do some hot air balloon forecasting around as well. Thanks again for all your (Michael Redman's) hard work and your DEPENDABLE storm information....you can't always trust what you hear...but I always could depend on your information. That helped a lot...." Joe Pedigo will be missed!

(in Mr. Pedigo's position of Community Preparedness Meteorologist eventually became the Warning Coordination Meteorologist. He was succeeded in that position by Susan Touzinski, Guy Tucker, and James P. Kramper.)

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