On March 12, 2001, I walked into Bay News 9 as a young meteorologist. Fresh off three years in Iowa and one in Upstate New York before that, I had no idea that I would still be here 20 years later.

A lot has happened over the last two decades. When my wife and I moved here, we had a 10-month-old son. We have had two more children since then. Our oldest is a Florida State Seminole, another will be off to college this year, and we have one in middle school.

Over the last 20 years, there have been many memorable and interesting weather events. After leaving Tornado Alley and extreme cold, I wasn't sure how often we would have to deal with significant weather. Let's just say, it was often. Despite many days of the year having nice, sunny weather, the Tampa Bay area has its share of weather challenges.

Here is a list of some of the more memorable weather events that I have covered, in no particular order.

I had been here just six months and we were all still struggling with the aftermath of September 11, 2001. A weak low pressure area actually formed over Florida and moved into the Gulf of Mexico. On September 11, a tropical depression formed. It was very disorganized at the time. But, on the early morning of September 14, a strengthening tropical storm shifted northeast by about 50 miles and came ashore in Sarasota County, nearly at hurricane strength. 

I remember alerting our morning staff around 2 a.m. that we needed to get our reporters ready earlier than expected due to the shift of the storm.

High wind and heavy rain were felt throughout West Central Florida. Even though Gabrielle wasn't tremendously notable, it does stand out to me as it was my first bout working tropical weather. 

I was working the evening shift on February 1, 2007. We were expecting a line of strong thunderstorms ahead of a cold front and there was a risk for severe weather. Shortly after midnight, the weather quickly deteriorated over Citrus County. A tornado warning was issued and there were several tornadic storms moving from west to east across the county. 

After being live for over an hour covering the storms moving through Citrus County, I remember feeling powerless as they moved into Sumter County, which was outside of our viewing area. "How were those folks going to get the info?" I wondered.

The damage in the Villages was extensive. Dozens of homes experienced almost total loss from the EF-3 tornado.

The winter of 2009-2010 was the second straight winter with unusually cold weather for Florida. We often discuss the possibility of wintry precipitation and how unlikely it is. But, on a weekend morning in January 2010, it happened. Sleet fell in Pasco County and snow flurries continued in the afternoon in Polk County and over on the east coast of Florida.

I remember getting several emails with pictures of "snowmen" on patio furniture. People were waking up to accumulating sleet on colder surfaces. It was quite the novelty building the "snowman" in Florida. Of course, they were very small and melted quickly.

The 2004 hurricane season was really one big event here in Florida. I actually believe that the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons can be viewed as a "weather event." But, that is a discussion for another time.

The 2004 season started out quietly. Then, in August, it got going. The first and really most notable storm of that season was Hurricane Charley. Charley was taking a unique approach that was going to parallel the west coast of the state then turn northeastward, but the forecast challenge was when the turn would happen. Because of the uncertainty early on, the entire west coast, from the Keys up through the Big Bend, was under a hurricane warning, despite Charley being a small storm.

Charley made its landfall near Punta Gorda on August 13, 2004 as a strengthening Category 4 hurricane with 145 mph winds. I remember driving into work that afternoon, fortunately on the dry side, and the weather was farily quiet in Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties where I lived and worked. Eventually, Charley knifed its way into our area through Eastern Manatee County and Polk County, essentially behaving like a 20-mile-wide tornado. 

That night covering Charley's path through Polk County, I remember my news director coming into the weather office reminding me that most of our Polk County viewers needing important information were without power. Since many were listening on radio, there was more thought about how I was communicating the information.

The damage from Charley was extensive and our viewers in Polk County hadn't really had a chance to recover before Frances came through from the east coast over Labor Day Weekend, followed by Jeanne a few weeks later.

Also during that season, Hurricane Ivan was a threat in September but stayed off the west coast and slammed into the Panhandle.

This was another early-morning weather event. Storms coming in from the Gulf on a Sunday morning in January 2016 became severe before 4 a.m. in Manatee and Sarasota Counties. What made this event so challenging for me was that storms continued into the rest of our area and while covering them, we got word that there were two fatalities in Manatee County near Duette. 

There were many tropical storms in the Gulf over the years. Some caused wind damage, some heavy rain, some storm surge, but Hermine in 2016 stands out as notable. Hermine eventually became a hurricane before making a landfall in North Florida, but was a tropical storm for our area. 

When Hermine was in the Gulf, it was fairly disorganized. That larger, sheared storm meant there was a large area of rough weather on the east side of the storm. Our area spent more than a day under its influence.

The summer of 2016 was very wet to begin with and Hermine made it much worse. Parts of Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties saw over 20 inches of rain. Flooding was extensive and several high water rescues happened in Pasco County. Wind damage was pretty significant in Hernando County, as well.

Of course, there are many other weather events, and I am sure many of you have your most memorable of the last 20 years. I am sure that over the next many years, we will continue to have more weather events of various degrees of severity. I am looking forward to sharing the nice sunshine with you and getting through the tough weather times, as well.

Here's to many more!