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<\/a>Miser\u2019s original snowstorm prediction Reddit thread from January of this year. <\/p>\n\u201cWhen we got closer to the event and there actually was a storm, people were like, \u2018Hey, this guy talked about this two weeks ago and now we\u2019re actually having a snowstorm,\u2019\u201d says Miser.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh ultimately got 11 inches of snow, but that didn\u2019t matter. StormFreak had made his mark. And as the views and comments on his posts grew, the \/u\/StormFreak persona gave Miser a remarkable way to express his interests in a way that other people enjoyed and benefited from, providing a sense of fulfillment far beyond what he could get from his day job in IT.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the storm, I put out a thank you post, just thanking people and opening up a little about my own mental health struggles, and that really seemed to resonate too,\u201d says Miser.<\/p>\n
Since the January storm, Miser has posted forecast models as \/u\/StormFreak weekly, garnering thousands of views and hundreds of comments on each. So successful are his Reddit posts that he began a Substack to find more people who share his interests, and he\u2019s been boosted to a strange, quasi-local celebrity status. He\u2019s discovered entire offices of workers who look forward to his posts, using his models to help them plan work and events, an impact he never expected to have.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was never setting out to create content or a blog or anything along those lines. It was really organic, how it developed,\u201d says Miser. \u201cIt\u2019s just crazy that people have found so much interest in it, but I\u2019m appreciative of it, y\u2019know?\u201d<\/p>\n
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Miser originally got into meteorology because of a fear of bad storms. Photo by Rob Liggett. <\/p>\n
Although he\u2019s lived in Pittsburgh the past 16 years, Miser grew up in Fort Wayne, Ind., an area that frequently experiences intense seasonal weather phenomena.<\/p>\n
\u201cBetween the tornadoes we experienced there and the lake effect snow when I went to college up near South Bend, I\u2019ve always been fascinated by the weather,\u201d says Miser.<\/p>\n
But Miser\u2019s relationship with weather wasn\u2019t always so cordial.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt started out, funny enough, as an anxiety. I was terrified of storms. I have very vivid memories of hiding under beds from storms,\u201d says Miser.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His interest slowly developed out of an effort to quell those fears by better understanding the science of meteorology.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver time, that anxiety turned into a fascination, not just with the weather itself, but how it happens, how it forms,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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Miser looks at possible weather patterns for the Western Pennsylvania region on his phone. Photo by Rob Liggett. <\/p>\n
By his teen years, Miser had a full-fledged passion for meteorology. TV weather personalities became more than just faces on a screen, but experts and mentors to learn from. While other kids collected signed baseball cards or photos of celebrities, Miser had a notebook full of signatures from weatherpeople.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a long time, I thought it was so nerdy, but I\u2019ve come to appreciate that passion of mine,\u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n
Though he\u2019s always used the username StormFreak online, Miser wasn\u2019t initially known for his weather predictions. He initially gained attention on Pittsburgh social media for his reporting on Covid-19 transmission rates in the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a systems analyst as my actual day job, so I like looking at data, understanding patterns, so when Covid happened, I was really fascinated with the whole thing,\u201d says Miser. \u201cI was very interested in how it was being reported, and it felt like the data was being underreported at the time, so I just decided to start aggregating the data myself and putting it out there on Reddit.\u201d<\/p>\n
He would tabulate case numbers based on available data and project how the curve might rise or fall over the coming days, allowing residents to better understand their personal risk level, and take necessary precautions. This eventually became its own Reddit subforum, \/r\/COVID19PGH, providing a space for sharing data, questions and personal stories during a time when we were more disconnected from each other than ever.<\/p>\n
Miser\u2019s posts did more than help people decide whether to mask up. Commenters consistently expressed how much the posts meant to them, helping them combat misinformation in their community, and providing comfort and clarity during a time of crisis when leaders in Washington could not.<\/p>\n
Bolstered by fellow Redditors willing to help moderate and post when he couldn\u2019t, Miser kept up a daily grind of compiling and posting COVID infection data for the Pittsburgh area for over a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ultimately, though, he had to leave \/r\/COVID19PGH in the hands of his helpers, because he had a new ambition on his mind: running for office.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, the 2016 and 2020 election cycles had a big impact on me. I became very disheartened by the state of politics in general,\u201d says Miser. \u201cI think you see this in my StormFreak posts, but I try to see both sides of a story and find the things that unite us, instead of the things that divide us. I wanted to bring that into politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Photo by Rob Liggett.<\/p>\n
Thus, in 2021, and in defiance of his anxieties about putting himself out there, Miser decided to run for Swissvale Borough Council. A newcomer to local politics, he reached out to Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam for assistance. With Hallam\u2019s expertise at his back, he organized his campaign, knocked on doors promoting his candidacy, and ultimately won a four-year term with 1,277 votes.<\/p>\n
Not only did he earn his seat, but in his lone term, he helped Swissvale make meaningful improvements in education funding and transparency.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest accomplishment was to provide funding to the Wilkins School Community Center for their maker space and playground enhancements,\u201d says Miser. \u201cI also helped to make police data accessible through our website and helped facilitate the regionalization of our police department with Braddock Hills.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Miser ultimately decided not to run again when his term ended in 2025. In addition to making only $180 a month for the time-consuming job, he said he found it deeply challenging to overcome the entrenched bureaucracy and conflicting interests inherent in governments of all stripes. He posted a reddit AMA (ask me anything) about the experience.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI think our government works great if everyone has the best intentions,\u201d says Miser. \u201cBut I think there\u2019s a lot of people who just want to be people in positions of power, and those are not the people who are most interested in your interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/a>u\/StormFreak\u2019s most recent weather predictions. <\/p>\n