A Loss to Soaring

Today we lost a generous and great friend, a wonderful father, and an incredible meteorologist. Doug Armstrong passed away unexpectedly this morning. He was known by all out west as the "go to" weather guy. Doug was best known for his fabulous forecasting techniques and has devoted countless hours in assisting those looking to increase their knowledge of soaring meteorology, regardless whether it was for a silver badge or someone looking to break records. Doug made a huge difference in soaring. He will be greatly missed.
Doug no longer needs to decipher long range forecasts, HRRR models, skew T's, or satellite pictures for us. He's got a great view now from above and will guide us down those long cloud streets and lenticular stacks.
Thank you Doug for all you have done for us. We will miss you.
Gordon Boettger

On Wednesday, March 6, 2013 12:43:00 AM UTC-5, nimbus wrote:
Today we lost a generous and great friend, a wonderful father, and an incredible meteorologist. Doug Armstrong passed away unexpectedly this morning. He was known by all out west as the "go to" weather guy. Doug was best known for his fabulous forecasting techniques and has devoted countless hours in assisting those looking to increase their knowledge of soaring meteorology, regardless whether it was for a silver badge or someone looking to break records. Doug made a huge difference in soaring. He will be greatly missed.

Doug no longer needs to decipher long range forecasts, HRRR models, skew T's, or satellite pictures for us. He's got a great view now from above and will guide us down those long cloud streets and lenticular stacks.

Thank you Doug for all you have done for us. We will miss you.

Gordon Boettger

I had the incredibly good fortune to meet and be mentored by Doug last summer as the neophyte CD for the Minden Open Class Nationals. His presence and genial personality went so far beyond his almost unbelievable knowledge of weather. It was a gift to know him, if only for a short time. I can only imagine the loss other feel. Godspeed Doug.

John Godfrey

Doug not only did the weather for a whole bunch of contests and individuals, he was also a great teacher for those of us who wanted to learn how to use the weather tools that were out there for us to tap into. He will be sorely missed. RIP, Doug.

Doug was not just a great weatherman, he taught many of us, with infinite patience to explain subtleties of weather. We will really miss him.
-- Dave

Doug was one of my mentors and a great teacher for championship soaring weather support. We both were NWS forecasters ... he in Reno and myself at the Sacramento office. It was at the 1979 Reno National Soaring Championships that I became acquainted with his first class weather briefings. My boss at the time gave me a two week assignment to support the event and learn from Doug (boy... those days of NWS aviation support are LONG GONE). In fact, that opportunity opened my eyes to contest flying. Shortly thereafter I bought my own ASW-15B glider.

Doug, your enthusiasm for soaring spread far wider than you ever imagined. You will be sorely missed.

Walt Rogers, WX