Ryan Mitchell: Welcome to Offline Days. today we have a special guest with Chris Bianchi with Denver, Denver Weather. Welcome to the show, Chris.
Chris Bianchi: Hey, thanks so much for having me. excited to talk about those kind of pre internet days. Those are feels far far far off in the distance now.
Coley: There's there's there's nothing yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: It does, it really does.
Coley: The internet has seems like it's been around for a while.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah. Yeah. well so tell us a little bit about, you know, before we kind of get into that, tell us a little bit about yourself, and how you've kind of risen to the esteemed position that you're in now in in the Denver weather scene.
Chris Bianchi: Well thanks. I appreciate that. Thanks for having me on, guys. I really appreciate it. Thanks for
Ryan Mitchell: Mm.
Chris Bianchi: thinking me and all this. I think it's gonna be pretty interesting to discuss kind of some of the pre internet versus internet and how that's shifted my job a lot quite a bit. But so I'm originally from the East Coast. I grew up in the New York suburbs and in southern Connecticut technically, but I grew up about forty five minutes outside of New York City. and I always had an interest in weather from literally age of four or five. And I went to school in Boston, went for journalism undergrad, and then I moved out to Denver. and when I came here, I actually moved here for a sports job, sports sport sports reporting gig. did that for a couple of years, but I was getting my meteorolog meteorology certification meantime. and during that time I just really felt hard for the weather here because it's anybody who's Bindu, Colorado, Denver knows it's it it is an extremely difficult place to forecast. weather forms here and and then it moves out across the East Coast. So you see these big storms come and they start here. where where the Pacific and the Gulf kind of meet together, where the continental divide, we've got a whole bunch of different we altitude, we got everything, you name it. so I kind of felt hard for the weather here and I've been here for sixteen years now and I love Colorado. So many things about it, but I would say it's the weather that that truly keeps me here.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, yeah. It's and you know, you say weather and obviously, you know, there's a lot of complexities with the weather, but you know, having the most sunshine, you know, like it's it's a great it's a great place, you know, to to live based off of just it seems like endless amounts of sunshine that we get here. But, you know, kind of having that high desert climate as well. It's super dry. So when people come and visit, they try to try to hike and you know, they almost pass out because we're we're so high up. But yeah, it's it's it's it's cool that you've you've made the the journey back, you know, or you know, from the east coast. Who are you who are your sports teams on the east coast growing up?
Chris Bianchi: So funny, I grew up a Colorado sports fan, diehard Colorado sports fan. my parents
Coley: Amazing.
Ryan Mitchell: Okay.
Chris Bianchi: immigrated to really my mom, they both immigrated to Colorado. So they came here first, they got married here in Denver. they actually got back together here in Colorado. They're both from South America originally. and when they got here, they just loved Colorado. And so I grew up kinda liking Colorado. because of that and I kind of was trying to be a little different as a kid. So I said, I'm gonna be a Colorado sports fan. So I grew up up and the Broncos were really good back then and the ads were really good too. So I was just like I'm I'm a Colorado sports fan.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, that's cool. That's cool. it's kind of a little off topic, but I thought it'd be funny to ask you if if tornadoes had theme music, what song would you choose?
Chris Bianchi: boy. I mean first song that pops in my head is Thunderstruck, but like that's you know,
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: that's you know, that's obviously got a different connotation that might be overly obvious. man
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: What about Sandstorm by Darud?
Ryan Mitchell: Ooh, ooh.
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: 'cause it's just like the slow build up and then the the the chorus that feels like the song.
Ryan Mitchell: I like it. I like it.
Chris Bianchi: What do you think? Yeah.
Coley: I I was thinking Hell's Bells. Hell's Bells.
Ryan Mitchell: what do you think, Coley? Mm.
Coley: Yeah. Because
Chris Bianchi: Yeah.
Coley: that also has that slow build. And they hit at different parts.
Ryan Mitchell: I'm thinking for me I would choose Eye of the Tiger because I feel like people like surviving, trying to survive it, are like needing to pull out the Eye of the Tiger to to come out
Chris Bianchi: Yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: on the other side. So yeah. And I know we're getting into are we into are we officially into kind of tornado season now? I mean, 'cause I know some recent stuff in Wisconsin and some other areas, so
Chris Bianchi: Yeah, so we're actually kinda done with tornado season, honestly. Well, we're
Ryan Mitchell: Mm.
Chris Bianchi: still in it. it's more the northern tier states this time of year. so what you think of distinct tornado season goes from roughly late March until mid to end of June. s you can get tornadoes year-round, right, across the US, but this time of year would be more the upper Midwest, the Dakotas, Montana, and even
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: what we forget about too is like Canada, like Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the the the prairie provinces of southern Canada can get slammed with EF three, EF four equivalent tornadoes too. So it's just really far north now.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, yeah. And I always hear this unfair thing people say about weathermen. They're like, and it kinda irritates me 'cause I wanted to be a weatherman. They're always like, Well, they can just they can just say anything and be wrong, be right, and and you know, nothing you know,
Coley: Mm-hmm.
Ryan Mitchell: anytime they're wrong nothing nothing is affected. So what what are your thoughts of that controversial opinion there?
Chris Bianchi: I mean, I hear it a lot, obviously, and I would say out of the videos I post, I'd say there's at least three comments, somebody saying to that degree, some some extremely unoriginal version of that. But you know, I think I think one thing that maybe we need to do a better job of in my profession to to to kind of lend to that criticism a bit, I think there's two things that I try and do that are a little better of. One is reminding people that we're predicting the future. So like if
Coley: Yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: Right.
Chris Bianchi: I kick it back to you, you know, what's the Broncos record gonna be? And, you know,
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: you hear that on sports radio, but nobody holds them to account, right? You know, nobody's like, like, you know, X, you
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: you said that they were gonna be eleven and six last year, but they were actually fourteen and three. Like, you know, you don't have their comments saying that. so for starters, it's just reminding people that we are predicting the future. I do think we need to do a better job of just like reminding people of that. and number two is
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, yeah.
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: Well it is I think it's more of a probability based science, right? Like what really I am is a I'm really a scientist. I'm really a nerd. And so it's reminding people that like if we say there's a good chance for rain, it's not a I hate the term forecast, for example. I'm not saying that this is gonna happen at your house, that you're gonna get X storm, you're gonna see Y amount of rain. I'm saying there's this probability that you're gonna have it. And to be honest, I think that as an enterprise, we need to do a better job of communicating. And that's I try and do that. I try and frankly show the humility behind the signs of like
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: I don't know what's gonna happen in your house, man. Like I I would love to. If I did, I'd be probably doing something different, making a lot more money. You know, I just like
Coley: Yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: I mean I I love my job. That's a critique of that. It's just like I hope that makes sense. It's just like I there's y you know, I think that's what it really is.
Ryan Mitchell: No, it does. I think a lot of people are just jealous
Coley: Yeah yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: and wanna be weathermen too. So, you know, I mean
Coley: Yeah. I
Chris Bianchi: Yeah. It's fun. It is fun. I love it. I do love it.
Coley: I feel like on the flip I
Ryan Mitchell: I mean I like to just watch s go ahead, Goli.
Coley: was just saying, I feel like on the flip side, it's amazing that you can predict that it's gonna be 98 degrees and you hit 98 degrees. Like that the the the science behind that is fantastic.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: I totally agree. I think people forget that too. Like, look, okay, if I don't know, like think about the early May snowstorm we had here in Denver, like four or five days out, we'd pretty good idea that there was gonna be pretty high impact May snowstorm, you know, which is obviously highly uncommon, where you're gonna go from eighty to snow in about two days. And I don't know, think about a hundred years ago or even seventy years ago that that fifty years ago, 40 years ago, that
Coley: Right.
Chris Bianchi: knowing that was a real challenge. And you know, weather accuracy for weather forecast accuracy is exponentially better than it was twenty, thirty and certainly fifty, sixty years ago.
Ryan Mitchell: For sure, for sure. One of my favorites is is a legendary Jim Cantori.
Chris Bianchi: yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: definitely I feel like he's he's he looks like the rock these days. A hurricane can barely move that guy. I mean he can
Chris Bianchi: I I'm lucky enough to call him a friend. He's a good friend of mine. we've become kind of pals over the years. Jim Jim,
Ryan Mitchell: Cool.
Chris Bianchi: Jim and I really one thing about Jim that I think comes out and I try and emulate, he's certainly one of the people I look up to. and that's certainly a common thing in the weather world. And he's beloved by fellow metrologists because he has a true passion for weather that's reflected on television. He loves the stuff,
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: and so do I, and I try and show my passion as much as possible. And I think Jim is like the embodiment of the best way to show your passion for the science in a you know, in a down to earth manner.
Ryan Mitchell: I agree. I agree. And you know, it's like I think people just really remember the weathermen with personalities over the years, you know. It's I don't know what it is about the weatherman that has just over time has just kind of captured the hearts of everyone, you know. you know, it's just
Coley: Did do you remember the was it the early 2000s with Nicolas Cage, the weatherman? Who was that?
Ryan Mitchell: yeah, yeah, yeah.
Coley: He got a milkshake thrown at him. Have you ever
Chris Bianchi: yeah, he's like in a midlife crisis, right? And he just like he's he's just miserable, at least to start. He's like a weekend meteorologist of some sort in Chicago, and it seems like he's like hated by the city. And yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember
Coley: That every time he gets something wrong
Chris Bianchi: that. Yeah. You just get pelted with a snowball.
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: you know one thing about Denver, I I appreciate too is people I think here get it more than other markets that we are predicting the future, and people are a lot more forgiving here. than a lot of other
Ryan Mitchell: Mm-hmm.
Chris Bianchi: markets. I don't know. There's always there's always, you know, jerks who are gonna comment
Coley: Well
Chris Bianchi: in the comments, but that's
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: the majority of people get it. They get it. Like
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: they're like, dude, you're trying to figure out what's gonna happen in three days. Like you said it was gonna snow three to six inches, or that was your best guess, and it snowed two inches. Like, I'm good, man. You know, thanks.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Coley: Like that that's impressive.
Ryan Mitchell: I think every e yeah, go ahead, Collie, sorry.
Coley: It's it's just impressive that like even the fact that you know that it's gonna snow in two days and it does, even if it does a trace, it's yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah. so kind of transitioning, you know, we wanted to get, you know, just more insight on your your history. So thanks for providing that. And I feel like now kind of going to the topic of offline days, life before the internet, you know, what's you know, what were you like in mid middle school, high school? What do you remember from those days?
Chris Bianchi: Yeah, so I'm thirty eight, so just you know, I would be at the kind of in that weird millennial where half my childhood was the internet, half of it wasn't. it was just kind of coming into play. It was the AOL dial up thing for the majority of my
Coley: Okay.
Chris Bianchi: late elementary, middle and certainly by high school is more DSL and stuff like that. But my parents never really like were big internet tech junkies. And so I
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: lived a mostly offline or certainly elementary, middle, and early high school. So I've always been a huge sports fan. I've also loved playing sports. So
Ryan Mitchell: Mm-hmm.
Chris Bianchi: that was essentially what I did. I was never a big I I I played some video games, for example, and I watched some TV, but I was always a big outside kid and running around again, mostly sports, one way or the other, watching it or playing it. That was Me growing up playing a lot of soccer, a lot of tennis, baseball.
Ryan Mitchell: Mm.
Chris Bianchi: I played pretty much anything I could, football, my friend. I was too small to play, you know, in high school or anything like that. But I was just I I really enjoyed sports and that was kind of what kept me, I think, primarily offline.
Ryan Mitchell: Right, right. And and that's you know, do you have like kind of typical to pre internet, do you have memories of just playing staying out till the sun goes down with the neighborhood kids? Was that was that your kind of neighborhood scenario?
Chris Bianchi: Yeah, I was pretty lucky. I had one of those kind of what seem I would imagine is probably a more more rare sort of setup like that. So yeah, I I I I played a lot with kids, rode bikes, played wiffle ball, played soccer, s whatever, frisbee in high school a lot. And honestly, like until you know, I don't know, it wasn't For for me I've mostly been not a super internet driven person until my ch my job requires me to be obviously online a lot and
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: I've kind of built a a pretty notable social media following and I say that that that requires me to be online a lot more. but aside from my job, I'm I'm like I don't know, I'm not a huge like TikTok scroller or Instagram scroller because that I I use it sometimes for like news and stuff, but I kind of credit my childhood. for the fact that my parents were just never huge online people, even when it was coming out. And I just I just like sports and I like being outside. And and my wife is kind of also a big wants to be outside and kind of person as well.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah. And I feel like that's a good it's a good balance 'cause it's easy, as you know these days, to kind of go in the deep end of of just social media and comments and all of a sudden you're scrolling hours and hours per day, you know. so yeah, so I feel like now it's just we've seen the world change so fast in twenty five years, you know, like since the early two thousands. How is like the weather Like your job changed with technology, over time.
Chris Bianchi: Yeah, I think that's really interesting, Ryan. I think that's a really interesting intersection is like I think for me personally, my life has not changed a ton. Again, I'm still a huge I still play soccer. I still I I just came back from a run. Like I'm always outside, I feel, and I try to be at least going camping this weekend. Like, you know, that that sort of thing. where I think things have changed a lot for me, at least in my experience, has been how we do our jobs as meteorologists. so for example, in the early two thousands, late nineties, early two thousands, as the internet was coming on board, your intersection with the internet was mostly just writing a web article. but
Ryan Mitchell: Mm.
Chris Bianchi: most of what we did, and still to this day what we do a lot of is radio hits and building weather maps and things like that. But you know, twenty five, thirty years ago, it was a lot of hand drawn weather maps, right? It was creating synoptic weather maps and drawing down areas of low pressure and high pressure and accessing that you know yourself through again before the internet it was sometimes back in the 70s and 80s it would be a meteorologist drawing on a whiteboard or a glassboard a low, a high, a cold front, a rain blob. And that has changed so dramatically in the last twenty five, thirty years. And you know, I think f for the better for the most part, but I do think you know, for example, Mike Nelson, who's a legendary meteorologist here in Denver, he still to this day draws synoptic weather maps, like a a a a US map showing highs and lows, because it gives you a good fundamental and under understanding of what's going on. Like, think of like doing, you know, when you were in third grade and you would do a math equ sorry Like sixth, seventh grade, and you were doing like a math equation, you had to show your work.
Ryan Mitchell: Right.
Chris Bianchi: Like, think of drawing that big map as like showing your work. And
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: Mike Nelson kind of drilled into me. And I I still try and do that. I I'm admittedly not as good as he is at doing it, but that's what meteorologists had to do back in the day. And that is the kind of offline part that I would like to integrate into the online world a little bit. But now, now our jobs like Honestly, the TV aspect is like one of the boxes I check. Back then, 25, 30 years ago, not only were everybody got their information from the news. So the way I tell my job now is so different from back in 1995 and 2000, right? You looked to the local meteorologist, you watched on TV, you would know at five seventeen you're gonna get your seven day forecast, your five day forecast. Now, because of weather apps. Pretty much everybody knows kind of what the weather is. And now it's a bit more context driven. It's like ACDC concerts at Empower on Tuesday. Am I gonna get rained out, Bianchi? Like that's kind of more where
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: it's moving. It's more specifics. It's more, my weather app shows a snow little thingy next Tuesday. Is that actually gonna happen or is that off base? whoa, it says 102 next week. Is that for real? You know, it's kind of more that.
Coley: What?
Chris Bianchi: rather than like saying it's gonna be eighty six in Littleton and ninety five in Thornton, right? It's it back then it was more and I'm not mocking that at all. It's more back then that was how you got your weather. Now it's you generally know what the weather is and it's how can I build off of that and can I time it out and be more specific.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, yeah.
Coley: It's a living it's a living organism, right? It's it's constantly
Chris Bianchi: Exactly.
Coley: changing.
Chris Bianchi: Exactly. And I think that's
Ryan Mitchell: It is.
Chris Bianchi: the coolest part of it. Like that's why I'm like so such a buff, such a geek about it. But yeah, exactly right.
Ryan Mitchell: I mean with AI and everything, do you feel the weatherman's job is safe in the next ten to twenty years?
Chris Bianchi: Yeah, I know it's like the Yes. Just t
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: it's gonna change.
Ryan Mitchell: Okay.
Chris Bianchi: to be honest about it, I don't know if I'll be wearing a suit and tie and doing weather in front of green screen in ten, twenty years. I hope so. We I mean we
Ryan Mitchell: That would that'd be a shame if not, 'cause you look sharp.
Chris Bianchi: Stop, stop. Thank you. No. it's like like okay, I mean I'll go from a bigger perspective, like I mean, this is getting a little away from the weather, but like I still I I scream as loud as I can to anybody who'll listen that local news is still the best way to get your information. and
Ryan Mitchell: Mm-hmm.
Chris Bianchi: I'm I'm I'm obviously biased here, but like should you be learning about the Middle East from like an eighteen year old on TikTok? Like, you know, like
Ryan Mitchell: No.
Chris Bianchi: i And that's how people get their information, right? And should we be learning about politics from like a little Instagram story from a friend of a friend, right? it's just like Local news is the best way to get your information. I also mean that in terms of weather, right? I I mentioned those analogies about the Middle East or politics because it's the same thing with weather too, because you have 18 year olds who will get 8,000 shares on saying this weather model shows it's gonna snow five feet at your house next week and everybody gets excited, right? And that's I'm constantly battling that disinformation.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: but the I I again I know that's like a bit more of an existential crisis that goes beyond weather. but to answer your question, AI is going to revolutionize how we do the weather. I think dramatically. I use AI weather models all the time. The way that AI works, two things about AI. Number one, AI models, what they do is they obviously will adjust what, forty or fifty years of weather data and they look at the historical anomalies and will base their predictions based off of that and they get better and better, they learn over time, right? so that lends really well to weather. because
Ryan Mitchell: Mm-hmm.
Chris Bianchi: right now the weather forecast models we use are just basically huge giant math equations that represent the atmosphere and all the dynamics that go around it. So
Ryan Mitchell: Hm.
Chris Bianchi: it's a totally different approach. and it's going to get better and better. And I'm already seeing that. I'm already seeing the AI AI models. In fact I look to the AI models probably first now than I do the numerical, the math equation models. And that's new. That's new.
Ryan Mitchell: interesting. Yeah. Okay. Like how new? Like in the past year, six months? Past year. Hmm.
Chris Bianchi: Past year, past year. Maybe and really six months now, honestly. It's more like six months. so that it's it's changing quick and that is really good. I think your weather apps and data are gonna get really good too. And I think within our lifetime it's realistic to expect pretty darn accurate two week forecasts. That's that's a I don't think that's a super popular or super widespread opinion. I'm probably going out on a bit of a limb by saying that, but I think it's safe to say within 10 to 20 years, you're be getting two week weather forecasts that are pretty accurate and stuff within five days can be really accurate. that I think that's gonna happen soon. So what does that mean for me? I don't know. I think it means I have to be nimble. it means I have to be, you know, what are people's consumption habits could be more important importantly, but still, I still think my job is gonna stick around, right? You know, let's say it's more to the two week window. I'm still gonna have people being like saying, I'm getting married in eleven days in Larksburg, like is it gonna rain at my wedding? You know? you know, there's a concert two weeks out, like is it is it gonna rain then? Like I think just the the window will move, if that makes sense.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah. Speaking of marriage, didn't you just get married? Or was that a while ago?
Chris Bianchi: Mm. three years. I celebrated my my wife and I celebrated our three year anniversary this week. So yes. Three years of what it
Ryan Mitchell: Nice. I saw it I s I saw it on your Instagram and I thought I thought it was recent. So yeah, it's that's that's three years though.
Coley: Okay.
Ryan Mitchell: That's that's nice. How's it how's how's how's the three years been s thus far?
Chris Bianchi: Great. yeah, my my wife is my my wife is my you know, my biggest supporter when it comes to this. she
Ryan Mitchell: No.
Chris Bianchi: she really enjoys a lot of the meteorology side of things and she sh she's
Ryan Mitchell: That's cool.
Chris Bianchi: a she's not afraid occasionally to mix it up in the comments. if she sees something Sony ripping me, she'll sh sh she'll hop in there.
Coley: She's your biggest troll too.
Ryan Mitchell: Ha ha ha.
Chris Bianchi: she'll hop in there and and do that. But no, it's it's I'm I'm pretty lucky. I've got a really supportive wife. Like, you know, doing what I do, I I work
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: weird hours. I work a lot. I work more than the normal person. You know, I go out in public, I get recognized, I do events. you know, for example, as we record this podcast, you know, we're going camping tonight. So my wife brought in, went grocery shopping and brought in camping gear and stuff, right? So my my wife is very understanding and about a I have a weird job, right? Like a weird job with weird hours. And my wife is pretty understanding of that, which is
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: not a guarantee.
Ryan Mitchell: No, that's not. That's not. I think also what everyone wants to know is how are you gonna deliver more snow for us this winter?
Chris Bianchi: Man. Yeah. Gosh.
Ryan Mitchell: Ha ha.
Chris Bianchi: Hey, you know what? To
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: be honest, my colleague, my my beloved colleague Corey Rapidhagen, I he he we always say it was
Coley: Love Corey.
Chris Bianchi: like Corey's the man, he's the man, he's he is he is the embodiment of like the cool Colorado bro. I aspire to be Corey. But he you know he says this to me all the time. He's like, Well, when people ask me that, it's like Couldn't possibly be worse than this winter, could it? I was like, True. So will it snow more in this past winter? I've got a pretty good feeling, yes. You know, I know there's a lot of talk about the Super El Nino. I've been part of it. I think the Super El Nino stuff is for real. Like in terms of we are going to be looking at a Super El Nino and some really weird weather. Now, what does that mean for Colorado specifically? It's still a little T V D. I'd rather be on this side of things than on the strong La Nina side of things like or sorry, weak La Nina side of things like we were last winter. but what does that mean specifically? Does that mean your house or your ski resort is gonna get nailed all winter long? That's a bit more of a question, but like
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: I say, like the probability you'd probably rather have this set up than what we had this past winter. But it'll probably be a wall run or two.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, I just need to know before Yeah, I just need to know before the end of this call if I should buy a ski pass. So that's that's just messing with you. Just messing with you.
Chris Bianchi: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Coley: Yeah. My my daughter
Chris Bianchi: I mean I've gotten that question a bunch, so
Coley: My daughter hate hated yeah my daughter hated the ski season last year. She's on the winter park ski
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Coley: team and sh and she would she would tell me that she's like dad the snows suck today and was like I don't really know what to tell you. w
Ryan Mitchell: Sorry. yeah.
Chris Bianchi: Sorry.
Coley: we want to be honorable of your time for sure. do a quick rapid fire.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I gotta I gotta I got some some some some rapid fire here if you're if you're r ready for that. okay,
Chris Bianchi: Yes.
Ryan Mitchell: so we'll do a couple here. Nintendo sixty four or PlayStation?
Chris Bianchi: And sixty four for sure.
Ryan Mitchell: Okay, okay.
Coley: Yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: let's see. Family matters or fresh prints?
Chris Bianchi: Fresh prints.
Ryan Mitchell: Fresh prints, yeah. I agree with that one.
Coley: Yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: let's see. Dunkaroos or Gushers?
Chris Bianchi: Gushers a hundred percent. I still I
Coley: no.
Chris Bianchi: still enjoy me a nice gusher.
Ryan Mitchell: yeah, that's I would always get one yeah, I think they're my mom would always put in the you know, not every day for lunch, but the days that she did, it was a special day. so this is a a a a good one. Blockbuster or Hollywood video?
Chris Bianchi: We had a blockbuster where I grew up in Connecticut, we had a blockbuster really close, so I was a blockbuster kid.
Ryan Mitchell: Nice, nice, okay. and last one here, we're gonna go with let's see, Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network.
Chris Bianchi: these are great memories, by the way. digging up some
Coley: Ooh.
Ryan Mitchell: Mm-hmm.
Chris Bianchi: some good old stuff here. A hundred percent Nickelodeon. I was a huge rugrats. Rugrats was Nickelodeon, I think, right?
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: so Rugrats. Yeah, I think I I lean more I didn't like Ed Ed and Eddie, which is Cartoon Network. My sister loved it. but yeah, yeah, Nickelodeon.
Ryan Mitchell: So many great cartoons from back in the day. Saturday cartoons, you know. It's just they just don't
Chris Bianchi: Well.
Ryan Mitchell: make like they used to, you know.
Chris Bianchi: They don't.
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: They don't. No, it's you know, again, it's it's a new world, but it's good to I like this because it's good to remember the the day the old days and kind of take away some some things for now as well.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, we're the last relics, you know. Like we're we're we're we we have the new and some of the old. So I feel like we can kind of bring bring both to the table. So it's important that
Coley: Exactly.
Ryan Mitchell: that we keep, you know, keep the the past alive a bit. But anyway, we want to be respectful of your time, Chris. So certainly appreciate you hopping on here. It's been fun listening to all you know, all the experience that you have, your story. you know, everybody everybody loves loves you here in Denver, so keep Keep rocking it and you know, just just thanks for your time.
Chris Bianchi: Thank you guys. I appreciate
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: it so much. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate you both. And can't wait to listen to this and and listen more moving forward. And yeah, hopefully by the way, to answer your question, honestly, I would get a ski pass. You know, it can't be worse than last winter, right? So not getting paid by them to tell you
Coley: All right, all right. Good to know.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm gonna take I'm gonna take your
Chris Bianchi: that. I'm just saying I would do it. I got one. So
Ryan Mitchell: Well, how how about this? I'll get one and if it doesn't snow I'll just send you an invoice.
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: And you could just go caps lock in my comments like everybody else.
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: Yeah. Thanks guys.
Coley: Extra exclamation points.
Ryan Mitchell: huh. Yeah, have
Coley: Mm.
Ryan Mitchell: a good day and thanks again for hopping on.
Chris Bianchi: See you guys.
Chris Bianchi: Hey, thanks so much for having me. excited to talk about those kind of pre internet days. Those are feels far far far off in the distance now.
Coley: There's there's there's nothing yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: It does, it really does.
Coley: The internet has seems like it's been around for a while.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah. Yeah. well so tell us a little bit about, you know, before we kind of get into that, tell us a little bit about yourself, and how you've kind of risen to the esteemed position that you're in now in in the Denver weather scene.
Chris Bianchi: Well thanks. I appreciate that. Thanks for having me on, guys. I really appreciate it. Thanks for
Ryan Mitchell: Mm.
Chris Bianchi: thinking me and all this. I think it's gonna be pretty interesting to discuss kind of some of the pre internet versus internet and how that's shifted my job a lot quite a bit. But so I'm originally from the East Coast. I grew up in the New York suburbs and in southern Connecticut technically, but I grew up about forty five minutes outside of New York City. and I always had an interest in weather from literally age of four or five. And I went to school in Boston, went for journalism undergrad, and then I moved out to Denver. and when I came here, I actually moved here for a sports job, sports sport sports reporting gig. did that for a couple of years, but I was getting my meteorolog meteorology certification meantime. and during that time I just really felt hard for the weather here because it's anybody who's Bindu, Colorado, Denver knows it's it it is an extremely difficult place to forecast. weather forms here and and then it moves out across the East Coast. So you see these big storms come and they start here. where where the Pacific and the Gulf kind of meet together, where the continental divide, we've got a whole bunch of different we altitude, we got everything, you name it. so I kind of felt hard for the weather here and I've been here for sixteen years now and I love Colorado. So many things about it, but I would say it's the weather that that truly keeps me here.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, yeah. It's and you know, you say weather and obviously, you know, there's a lot of complexities with the weather, but you know, having the most sunshine, you know, like it's it's a great it's a great place, you know, to to live based off of just it seems like endless amounts of sunshine that we get here. But, you know, kind of having that high desert climate as well. It's super dry. So when people come and visit, they try to try to hike and you know, they almost pass out because we're we're so high up. But yeah, it's it's it's it's cool that you've you've made the the journey back, you know, or you know, from the east coast. Who are you who are your sports teams on the east coast growing up?
Chris Bianchi: So funny, I grew up a Colorado sports fan, diehard Colorado sports fan. my parents
Coley: Amazing.
Ryan Mitchell: Okay.
Chris Bianchi: immigrated to really my mom, they both immigrated to Colorado. So they came here first, they got married here in Denver. they actually got back together here in Colorado. They're both from South America originally. and when they got here, they just loved Colorado. And so I grew up kinda liking Colorado. because of that and I kind of was trying to be a little different as a kid. So I said, I'm gonna be a Colorado sports fan. So I grew up up and the Broncos were really good back then and the ads were really good too. So I was just like I'm I'm a Colorado sports fan.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, that's cool. That's cool. it's kind of a little off topic, but I thought it'd be funny to ask you if if tornadoes had theme music, what song would you choose?
Chris Bianchi: boy. I mean first song that pops in my head is Thunderstruck, but like that's you know,
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: that's you know, that's obviously got a different connotation that might be overly obvious. man
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: What about Sandstorm by Darud?
Ryan Mitchell: Ooh, ooh.
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: 'cause it's just like the slow build up and then the the the chorus that feels like the song.
Ryan Mitchell: I like it. I like it.
Chris Bianchi: What do you think? Yeah.
Coley: I I was thinking Hell's Bells. Hell's Bells.
Ryan Mitchell: what do you think, Coley? Mm.
Coley: Yeah. Because
Chris Bianchi: Yeah.
Coley: that also has that slow build. And they hit at different parts.
Ryan Mitchell: I'm thinking for me I would choose Eye of the Tiger because I feel like people like surviving, trying to survive it, are like needing to pull out the Eye of the Tiger to to come out
Chris Bianchi: Yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: on the other side. So yeah. And I know we're getting into are we into are we officially into kind of tornado season now? I mean, 'cause I know some recent stuff in Wisconsin and some other areas, so
Chris Bianchi: Yeah, so we're actually kinda done with tornado season, honestly. Well, we're
Ryan Mitchell: Mm.
Chris Bianchi: still in it. it's more the northern tier states this time of year. so what you think of distinct tornado season goes from roughly late March until mid to end of June. s you can get tornadoes year-round, right, across the US, but this time of year would be more the upper Midwest, the Dakotas, Montana, and even
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: what we forget about too is like Canada, like Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the the the prairie provinces of southern Canada can get slammed with EF three, EF four equivalent tornadoes too. So it's just really far north now.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, yeah. And I always hear this unfair thing people say about weathermen. They're like, and it kinda irritates me 'cause I wanted to be a weatherman. They're always like, Well, they can just they can just say anything and be wrong, be right, and and you know, nothing you know,
Coley: Mm-hmm.
Ryan Mitchell: anytime they're wrong nothing nothing is affected. So what what are your thoughts of that controversial opinion there?
Chris Bianchi: I mean, I hear it a lot, obviously, and I would say out of the videos I post, I'd say there's at least three comments, somebody saying to that degree, some some extremely unoriginal version of that. But you know, I think I think one thing that maybe we need to do a better job of in my profession to to to kind of lend to that criticism a bit, I think there's two things that I try and do that are a little better of. One is reminding people that we're predicting the future. So like if
Coley: Yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: Right.
Chris Bianchi: I kick it back to you, you know, what's the Broncos record gonna be? And, you know,
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: you hear that on sports radio, but nobody holds them to account, right? You know, nobody's like, like, you know, X, you
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: you said that they were gonna be eleven and six last year, but they were actually fourteen and three. Like, you know, you don't have their comments saying that. so for starters, it's just reminding people that we are predicting the future. I do think we need to do a better job of just like reminding people of that. and number two is
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, yeah.
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: Well it is I think it's more of a probability based science, right? Like what really I am is a I'm really a scientist. I'm really a nerd. And so it's reminding people that like if we say there's a good chance for rain, it's not a I hate the term forecast, for example. I'm not saying that this is gonna happen at your house, that you're gonna get X storm, you're gonna see Y amount of rain. I'm saying there's this probability that you're gonna have it. And to be honest, I think that as an enterprise, we need to do a better job of communicating. And that's I try and do that. I try and frankly show the humility behind the signs of like
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: I don't know what's gonna happen in your house, man. Like I I would love to. If I did, I'd be probably doing something different, making a lot more money. You know, I just like
Coley: Yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: I mean I I love my job. That's a critique of that. It's just like I hope that makes sense. It's just like I there's y you know, I think that's what it really is.
Ryan Mitchell: No, it does. I think a lot of people are just jealous
Coley: Yeah yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: and wanna be weathermen too. So, you know, I mean
Coley: Yeah. I
Chris Bianchi: Yeah. It's fun. It is fun. I love it. I do love it.
Coley: I feel like on the flip I
Ryan Mitchell: I mean I like to just watch s go ahead, Goli.
Coley: was just saying, I feel like on the flip side, it's amazing that you can predict that it's gonna be 98 degrees and you hit 98 degrees. Like that the the the science behind that is fantastic.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: I totally agree. I think people forget that too. Like, look, okay, if I don't know, like think about the early May snowstorm we had here in Denver, like four or five days out, we'd pretty good idea that there was gonna be pretty high impact May snowstorm, you know, which is obviously highly uncommon, where you're gonna go from eighty to snow in about two days. And I don't know, think about a hundred years ago or even seventy years ago that that fifty years ago, 40 years ago, that
Coley: Right.
Chris Bianchi: knowing that was a real challenge. And you know, weather accuracy for weather forecast accuracy is exponentially better than it was twenty, thirty and certainly fifty, sixty years ago.
Ryan Mitchell: For sure, for sure. One of my favorites is is a legendary Jim Cantori.
Chris Bianchi: yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: definitely I feel like he's he's he looks like the rock these days. A hurricane can barely move that guy. I mean he can
Chris Bianchi: I I'm lucky enough to call him a friend. He's a good friend of mine. we've become kind of pals over the years. Jim Jim,
Ryan Mitchell: Cool.
Chris Bianchi: Jim and I really one thing about Jim that I think comes out and I try and emulate, he's certainly one of the people I look up to. and that's certainly a common thing in the weather world. And he's beloved by fellow metrologists because he has a true passion for weather that's reflected on television. He loves the stuff,
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: and so do I, and I try and show my passion as much as possible. And I think Jim is like the embodiment of the best way to show your passion for the science in a you know, in a down to earth manner.
Ryan Mitchell: I agree. I agree. And you know, it's like I think people just really remember the weathermen with personalities over the years, you know. It's I don't know what it is about the weatherman that has just over time has just kind of captured the hearts of everyone, you know. you know, it's just
Coley: Did do you remember the was it the early 2000s with Nicolas Cage, the weatherman? Who was that?
Ryan Mitchell: yeah, yeah, yeah.
Coley: He got a milkshake thrown at him. Have you ever
Chris Bianchi: yeah, he's like in a midlife crisis, right? And he just like he's he's just miserable, at least to start. He's like a weekend meteorologist of some sort in Chicago, and it seems like he's like hated by the city. And yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember
Coley: That every time he gets something wrong
Chris Bianchi: that. Yeah. You just get pelted with a snowball.
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: you know one thing about Denver, I I appreciate too is people I think here get it more than other markets that we are predicting the future, and people are a lot more forgiving here. than a lot of other
Ryan Mitchell: Mm-hmm.
Chris Bianchi: markets. I don't know. There's always there's always, you know, jerks who are gonna comment
Coley: Well
Chris Bianchi: in the comments, but that's
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: the majority of people get it. They get it. Like
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: they're like, dude, you're trying to figure out what's gonna happen in three days. Like you said it was gonna snow three to six inches, or that was your best guess, and it snowed two inches. Like, I'm good, man. You know, thanks.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Coley: Like that that's impressive.
Ryan Mitchell: I think every e yeah, go ahead, Collie, sorry.
Coley: It's it's just impressive that like even the fact that you know that it's gonna snow in two days and it does, even if it does a trace, it's yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah. so kind of transitioning, you know, we wanted to get, you know, just more insight on your your history. So thanks for providing that. And I feel like now kind of going to the topic of offline days, life before the internet, you know, what's you know, what were you like in mid middle school, high school? What do you remember from those days?
Chris Bianchi: Yeah, so I'm thirty eight, so just you know, I would be at the kind of in that weird millennial where half my childhood was the internet, half of it wasn't. it was just kind of coming into play. It was the AOL dial up thing for the majority of my
Coley: Okay.
Chris Bianchi: late elementary, middle and certainly by high school is more DSL and stuff like that. But my parents never really like were big internet tech junkies. And so I
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: lived a mostly offline or certainly elementary, middle, and early high school. So I've always been a huge sports fan. I've also loved playing sports. So
Ryan Mitchell: Mm-hmm.
Chris Bianchi: that was essentially what I did. I was never a big I I I played some video games, for example, and I watched some TV, but I was always a big outside kid and running around again, mostly sports, one way or the other, watching it or playing it. That was Me growing up playing a lot of soccer, a lot of tennis, baseball.
Ryan Mitchell: Mm.
Chris Bianchi: I played pretty much anything I could, football, my friend. I was too small to play, you know, in high school or anything like that. But I was just I I really enjoyed sports and that was kind of what kept me, I think, primarily offline.
Ryan Mitchell: Right, right. And and that's you know, do you have like kind of typical to pre internet, do you have memories of just playing staying out till the sun goes down with the neighborhood kids? Was that was that your kind of neighborhood scenario?
Chris Bianchi: Yeah, I was pretty lucky. I had one of those kind of what seem I would imagine is probably a more more rare sort of setup like that. So yeah, I I I I played a lot with kids, rode bikes, played wiffle ball, played soccer, s whatever, frisbee in high school a lot. And honestly, like until you know, I don't know, it wasn't For for me I've mostly been not a super internet driven person until my ch my job requires me to be obviously online a lot and
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: I've kind of built a a pretty notable social media following and I say that that that requires me to be online a lot more. but aside from my job, I'm I'm like I don't know, I'm not a huge like TikTok scroller or Instagram scroller because that I I use it sometimes for like news and stuff, but I kind of credit my childhood. for the fact that my parents were just never huge online people, even when it was coming out. And I just I just like sports and I like being outside. And and my wife is kind of also a big wants to be outside and kind of person as well.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah. And I feel like that's a good it's a good balance 'cause it's easy, as you know these days, to kind of go in the deep end of of just social media and comments and all of a sudden you're scrolling hours and hours per day, you know. so yeah, so I feel like now it's just we've seen the world change so fast in twenty five years, you know, like since the early two thousands. How is like the weather Like your job changed with technology, over time.
Chris Bianchi: Yeah, I think that's really interesting, Ryan. I think that's a really interesting intersection is like I think for me personally, my life has not changed a ton. Again, I'm still a huge I still play soccer. I still I I just came back from a run. Like I'm always outside, I feel, and I try to be at least going camping this weekend. Like, you know, that that sort of thing. where I think things have changed a lot for me, at least in my experience, has been how we do our jobs as meteorologists. so for example, in the early two thousands, late nineties, early two thousands, as the internet was coming on board, your intersection with the internet was mostly just writing a web article. but
Ryan Mitchell: Mm.
Chris Bianchi: most of what we did, and still to this day what we do a lot of is radio hits and building weather maps and things like that. But you know, twenty five, thirty years ago, it was a lot of hand drawn weather maps, right? It was creating synoptic weather maps and drawing down areas of low pressure and high pressure and accessing that you know yourself through again before the internet it was sometimes back in the 70s and 80s it would be a meteorologist drawing on a whiteboard or a glassboard a low, a high, a cold front, a rain blob. And that has changed so dramatically in the last twenty five, thirty years. And you know, I think f for the better for the most part, but I do think you know, for example, Mike Nelson, who's a legendary meteorologist here in Denver, he still to this day draws synoptic weather maps, like a a a a US map showing highs and lows, because it gives you a good fundamental and under understanding of what's going on. Like, think of like doing, you know, when you were in third grade and you would do a math equ sorry Like sixth, seventh grade, and you were doing like a math equation, you had to show your work.
Ryan Mitchell: Right.
Chris Bianchi: Like, think of drawing that big map as like showing your work. And
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: Mike Nelson kind of drilled into me. And I I still try and do that. I I'm admittedly not as good as he is at doing it, but that's what meteorologists had to do back in the day. And that is the kind of offline part that I would like to integrate into the online world a little bit. But now, now our jobs like Honestly, the TV aspect is like one of the boxes I check. Back then, 25, 30 years ago, not only were everybody got their information from the news. So the way I tell my job now is so different from back in 1995 and 2000, right? You looked to the local meteorologist, you watched on TV, you would know at five seventeen you're gonna get your seven day forecast, your five day forecast. Now, because of weather apps. Pretty much everybody knows kind of what the weather is. And now it's a bit more context driven. It's like ACDC concerts at Empower on Tuesday. Am I gonna get rained out, Bianchi? Like that's kind of more where
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: it's moving. It's more specifics. It's more, my weather app shows a snow little thingy next Tuesday. Is that actually gonna happen or is that off base? whoa, it says 102 next week. Is that for real? You know, it's kind of more that.
Coley: What?
Chris Bianchi: rather than like saying it's gonna be eighty six in Littleton and ninety five in Thornton, right? It's it back then it was more and I'm not mocking that at all. It's more back then that was how you got your weather. Now it's you generally know what the weather is and it's how can I build off of that and can I time it out and be more specific.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, yeah.
Coley: It's a living it's a living organism, right? It's it's constantly
Chris Bianchi: Exactly.
Coley: changing.
Chris Bianchi: Exactly. And I think that's
Ryan Mitchell: It is.
Chris Bianchi: the coolest part of it. Like that's why I'm like so such a buff, such a geek about it. But yeah, exactly right.
Ryan Mitchell: I mean with AI and everything, do you feel the weatherman's job is safe in the next ten to twenty years?
Chris Bianchi: Yeah, I know it's like the Yes. Just t
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: it's gonna change.
Ryan Mitchell: Okay.
Chris Bianchi: to be honest about it, I don't know if I'll be wearing a suit and tie and doing weather in front of green screen in ten, twenty years. I hope so. We I mean we
Ryan Mitchell: That would that'd be a shame if not, 'cause you look sharp.
Chris Bianchi: Stop, stop. Thank you. No. it's like like okay, I mean I'll go from a bigger perspective, like I mean, this is getting a little away from the weather, but like I still I I scream as loud as I can to anybody who'll listen that local news is still the best way to get your information. and
Ryan Mitchell: Mm-hmm.
Chris Bianchi: I'm I'm I'm obviously biased here, but like should you be learning about the Middle East from like an eighteen year old on TikTok? Like, you know, like
Ryan Mitchell: No.
Chris Bianchi: i And that's how people get their information, right? And should we be learning about politics from like a little Instagram story from a friend of a friend, right? it's just like Local news is the best way to get your information. I also mean that in terms of weather, right? I I mentioned those analogies about the Middle East or politics because it's the same thing with weather too, because you have 18 year olds who will get 8,000 shares on saying this weather model shows it's gonna snow five feet at your house next week and everybody gets excited, right? And that's I'm constantly battling that disinformation.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: but the I I again I know that's like a bit more of an existential crisis that goes beyond weather. but to answer your question, AI is going to revolutionize how we do the weather. I think dramatically. I use AI weather models all the time. The way that AI works, two things about AI. Number one, AI models, what they do is they obviously will adjust what, forty or fifty years of weather data and they look at the historical anomalies and will base their predictions based off of that and they get better and better, they learn over time, right? so that lends really well to weather. because
Ryan Mitchell: Mm-hmm.
Chris Bianchi: right now the weather forecast models we use are just basically huge giant math equations that represent the atmosphere and all the dynamics that go around it. So
Ryan Mitchell: Hm.
Chris Bianchi: it's a totally different approach. and it's going to get better and better. And I'm already seeing that. I'm already seeing the AI AI models. In fact I look to the AI models probably first now than I do the numerical, the math equation models. And that's new. That's new.
Ryan Mitchell: interesting. Yeah. Okay. Like how new? Like in the past year, six months? Past year. Hmm.
Chris Bianchi: Past year, past year. Maybe and really six months now, honestly. It's more like six months. so that it's it's changing quick and that is really good. I think your weather apps and data are gonna get really good too. And I think within our lifetime it's realistic to expect pretty darn accurate two week forecasts. That's that's a I don't think that's a super popular or super widespread opinion. I'm probably going out on a bit of a limb by saying that, but I think it's safe to say within 10 to 20 years, you're be getting two week weather forecasts that are pretty accurate and stuff within five days can be really accurate. that I think that's gonna happen soon. So what does that mean for me? I don't know. I think it means I have to be nimble. it means I have to be, you know, what are people's consumption habits could be more important importantly, but still, I still think my job is gonna stick around, right? You know, let's say it's more to the two week window. I'm still gonna have people being like saying, I'm getting married in eleven days in Larksburg, like is it gonna rain at my wedding? You know? you know, there's a concert two weeks out, like is it is it gonna rain then? Like I think just the the window will move, if that makes sense.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah. Speaking of marriage, didn't you just get married? Or was that a while ago?
Chris Bianchi: Mm. three years. I celebrated my my wife and I celebrated our three year anniversary this week. So yes. Three years of what it
Ryan Mitchell: Nice. I saw it I s I saw it on your Instagram and I thought I thought it was recent. So yeah, it's that's that's three years though.
Coley: Okay.
Ryan Mitchell: That's that's nice. How's it how's how's how's the three years been s thus far?
Chris Bianchi: Great. yeah, my my wife is my my wife is my you know, my biggest supporter when it comes to this. she
Ryan Mitchell: No.
Chris Bianchi: she really enjoys a lot of the meteorology side of things and she sh she's
Ryan Mitchell: That's cool.
Chris Bianchi: a she's not afraid occasionally to mix it up in the comments. if she sees something Sony ripping me, she'll sh sh she'll hop in there.
Coley: She's your biggest troll too.
Ryan Mitchell: Ha ha ha.
Chris Bianchi: she'll hop in there and and do that. But no, it's it's I'm I'm pretty lucky. I've got a really supportive wife. Like, you know, doing what I do, I I work
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: weird hours. I work a lot. I work more than the normal person. You know, I go out in public, I get recognized, I do events. you know, for example, as we record this podcast, you know, we're going camping tonight. So my wife brought in, went grocery shopping and brought in camping gear and stuff, right? So my my wife is very understanding and about a I have a weird job, right? Like a weird job with weird hours. And my wife is pretty understanding of that, which is
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: not a guarantee.
Ryan Mitchell: No, that's not. That's not. I think also what everyone wants to know is how are you gonna deliver more snow for us this winter?
Chris Bianchi: Man. Yeah. Gosh.
Ryan Mitchell: Ha ha.
Chris Bianchi: Hey, you know what? To
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: be honest, my colleague, my my beloved colleague Corey Rapidhagen, I he he we always say it was
Coley: Love Corey.
Chris Bianchi: like Corey's the man, he's the man, he's he is he is the embodiment of like the cool Colorado bro. I aspire to be Corey. But he you know he says this to me all the time. He's like, Well, when people ask me that, it's like Couldn't possibly be worse than this winter, could it? I was like, True. So will it snow more in this past winter? I've got a pretty good feeling, yes. You know, I know there's a lot of talk about the Super El Nino. I've been part of it. I think the Super El Nino stuff is for real. Like in terms of we are going to be looking at a Super El Nino and some really weird weather. Now, what does that mean for Colorado specifically? It's still a little T V D. I'd rather be on this side of things than on the strong La Nina side of things like or sorry, weak La Nina side of things like we were last winter. but what does that mean specifically? Does that mean your house or your ski resort is gonna get nailed all winter long? That's a bit more of a question, but like
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: I say, like the probability you'd probably rather have this set up than what we had this past winter. But it'll probably be a wall run or two.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, I just need to know before Yeah, I just need to know before the end of this call if I should buy a ski pass. So that's that's just messing with you. Just messing with you.
Chris Bianchi: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Coley: Yeah. My my daughter
Chris Bianchi: I mean I've gotten that question a bunch, so
Coley: My daughter hate hated yeah my daughter hated the ski season last year. She's on the winter park ski
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Coley: team and sh and she would she would tell me that she's like dad the snows suck today and was like I don't really know what to tell you. w
Ryan Mitchell: Sorry. yeah.
Chris Bianchi: Sorry.
Coley: we want to be honorable of your time for sure. do a quick rapid fire.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I gotta I gotta I got some some some some rapid fire here if you're if you're r ready for that. okay,
Chris Bianchi: Yes.
Ryan Mitchell: so we'll do a couple here. Nintendo sixty four or PlayStation?
Chris Bianchi: And sixty four for sure.
Ryan Mitchell: Okay, okay.
Coley: Yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: let's see. Family matters or fresh prints?
Chris Bianchi: Fresh prints.
Ryan Mitchell: Fresh prints, yeah. I agree with that one.
Coley: Yeah.
Ryan Mitchell: let's see. Dunkaroos or Gushers?
Chris Bianchi: Gushers a hundred percent. I still I
Coley: no.
Chris Bianchi: still enjoy me a nice gusher.
Ryan Mitchell: yeah, that's I would always get one yeah, I think they're my mom would always put in the you know, not every day for lunch, but the days that she did, it was a special day. so this is a a a a good one. Blockbuster or Hollywood video?
Chris Bianchi: We had a blockbuster where I grew up in Connecticut, we had a blockbuster really close, so I was a blockbuster kid.
Ryan Mitchell: Nice, nice, okay. and last one here, we're gonna go with let's see, Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network.
Chris Bianchi: these are great memories, by the way. digging up some
Coley: Ooh.
Ryan Mitchell: Mm-hmm.
Chris Bianchi: some good old stuff here. A hundred percent Nickelodeon. I was a huge rugrats. Rugrats was Nickelodeon, I think, right?
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: so Rugrats. Yeah, I think I I lean more I didn't like Ed Ed and Eddie, which is Cartoon Network. My sister loved it. but yeah, yeah, Nickelodeon.
Ryan Mitchell: So many great cartoons from back in the day. Saturday cartoons, you know. It's just they just don't
Chris Bianchi: Well.
Ryan Mitchell: make like they used to, you know.
Chris Bianchi: They don't.
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: They don't. No, it's you know, again, it's it's a new world, but it's good to I like this because it's good to remember the the day the old days and kind of take away some some things for now as well.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, we're the last relics, you know. Like we're we're we're we we have the new and some of the old. So I feel like we can kind of bring bring both to the table. So it's important that
Coley: Exactly.
Ryan Mitchell: that we keep, you know, keep the the past alive a bit. But anyway, we want to be respectful of your time, Chris. So certainly appreciate you hopping on here. It's been fun listening to all you know, all the experience that you have, your story. you know, everybody everybody loves loves you here in Denver, so keep Keep rocking it and you know, just just thanks for your time.
Chris Bianchi: Thank you guys. I appreciate
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: it so much. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate you both. And can't wait to listen to this and and listen more moving forward. And yeah, hopefully by the way, to answer your question, honestly, I would get a ski pass. You know, it can't be worse than last winter, right? So not getting paid by them to tell you
Coley: All right, all right. Good to know.
Ryan Mitchell: Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm gonna take I'm gonna take your
Chris Bianchi: that. I'm just saying I would do it. I got one. So
Ryan Mitchell: Well, how how about this? I'll get one and if it doesn't snow I'll just send you an invoice.
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: And you could just go caps lock in my comments like everybody else.
Coley: Yeah.
Chris Bianchi: Yeah. Thanks guys.
Coley: Extra exclamation points.
Ryan Mitchell: huh. Yeah, have
Coley: Mm.
Ryan Mitchell: a good day and thanks again for hopping on.
Chris Bianchi: See you guys.
