CANON GREATER HARTFORD OPEN

June 30, 2001

Greg Quinn

Mark Russell

MARK RUSSELL: Greg Quinn our Weather Channel meteorologist and the local meteorologists have indicated we've got a very good chance of severe weather tomorrow afternoon. So rather than take a chance with that we consulted with the Hartford JAYCEES and the Canon people and ABC television and we are going to finish tomorrow hopefully right before 3 o'clock to try to avoid this weather and get the golf tournament in. Kind of an unusual situation, but looking at this forecast and knowing this ahead of time we thought that would be the best thing to do to get the golf tournament in and judging from the severity of this weather, give the spectators a chance to get off the golf course and take some shelter if need be.

GREG QUINN: Very strong cold front moving through, unseasonably cold, talking 25 degree temperature change probably from tomorrow afternoon 'til Monday morning. Atypical for this time of year. We are looking at the first day of July tomorrow. Give you an idea already, this afternoon we have had a lot of severe weather through Massachusetts and parts of New York, U.S. Senior Open has been out of play now for over an hour and a half. I think they had hail, lightning, strong winds of that kind. That's what we are going to be dealing with tomorrow. The way the situation sets up we could actually have stronger storms here tomorrow than they are, just the north of us. We are only talking 30 to 50 miles north of us. So, the situation looks like the cold front will come through tomorrow late afternoon into the evening. All the storms and severe weather most likely ahead of this system, most likely have a line of storms move through New York down through New England, late afternoon tomorrow and into the evening ahead of this line of storms, that's probably where you are going to have severe single storms or line of storms ahead of that. All and all, it looks like a rough afternoon evening for most of New England tomorrow on Sunday.

GREG QUINN: I think the whole -- probably ever since Tucson and Phoenix everywhere we have had weather problems. It's just been a very active year. Some years it's a calm spring and this year the spring has lasted obviously into early summer. We have got a situation like this where you combine very warm temperatures with a cold strong front. We had it at the Kemper; we had it at Memorial, had it Buick Classic, just been a very rough spring and basically the PGA TOUR schedule seems to be following the storm track.

MARK RUSSELL: Greg basically blames it on global warming.

GREG QUINN: (Laughs) There's not too many proponents of global warming out this year so far. Cool weather we have had, really a mix of very hot, very cold weather. But yeah, even in New England last couple of weeks we have had severe weather each of the last two Sundays. So just by looking at what is going on, you know, over the last couple of weeks you'd have to think that it is just a very atypical situation, and looks like we are going to get another round of it tomorrow.

MARK RUSSELL: In thinking about Westchester, that weather was mainly coming from the south. But this is a cold front coming and I don't have -- you folks that have been out there today I don't have to tell you how hot it is, so you get a clash of those two air masses, we could have some very severe weather and we just want to avoid that. We get the players off their quick but once again we are concerned about the spectators. Give them a chance to take cover.

GREG QUINN: Yeah, I think given the situation the earlier you finish the better. Obviously it's going to be hot again tomorrow afternoon, you get into that mid to late afternoon into the evening hours, that's when you are most likely to get the severe weather. Yeah, I think hopefully we will be all right finishing by 3.

MARK RUSSELL: We are starting about as early as we can tomorrow.

GREG QUINN: Yeah, there was absolutely a threat of severe weather today. A lot of those storms that went through Massachusetts you are talking 30 to 40 miles lying north of us. We also just in the last hour I have seen several strong storms with hail. One popped up about 20 miles north of us. We have several storms now right now the south, southwest. And southwest only 20, 25 miles.

GREG QUINN: Absolutely.

GREG QUINN: Today was a concern basically what happened. It would be very late in the afternoon into the evening. It looks like it is just going to get more active next couple of hours. So very fortunate that we finished but I think it pretty much went the way we thought it would. And we are done playing and it looks like we are going to get some weather here in the next couple of hours.

GREG QUINN: I was not here but I am aware of the situation. I understand what happened. You got to take this as not a normal situation. We have had -- if you took your, say, everyday cold front that might come through in early July, that's possible. May weaken before it gets here. This situation I think is strengthened. I know it's strengthened over the last three, four days, watching it mid-week it is a very potent late season system. So I think you are dealing with a different beast, so to speak. You have got very strong northerly winds, this is originating from central Canada, I mean, I think it's a different situation and you need to be cautious because it's atypical. It's set up to have severe weather; at the very least, strong thunderstorms in much of the New England area.

GREG QUINN: That's right. After what happened two years ago we wanted to get a very good consensus on what is going to happen. Talked to many of the local affiliate's meteorologists here, chief meteorologist for the stations around town, everybody confers, go look at the National Weather Service, storm prediction, you know, in Oklahoma everybody believes that we are going to have a breakout tomorrow afternoon, evening, so just got to hope for the best and trying to avoid the bad weather.

MARK RUSSELL: Absolutely. If we have severe weather warning we are going to take a very close look at that and do everything we can do to keep people safe. I mean, if we just ignored this, sent them out there and with the forecast people, they would think we were crazy. I can't tell you what a help that Greg Quinn from the Weather Channel has been for us. He is awesome.

GREG QUINN: Thanks.

MARK RUSSELL: Especially in a situation where guys next 35, 40 minutes we are going to have some bad weather. I can say it's very easy to get the players off quick but when you have got all these spectators out there, we want to give them a chance to take shelter also. They can't go into the clubhouse or hang out in the locker room like the players can. They have to get back to their cars and a lot of times it's a shuttle situation, so we are not going to take a chance with that.

MARK RUSSELL: They would tape. Broadcast times still will be the same time.

MARK RUSSELL: Correct.