James Spann says too many people view every storm as a potential disaster.

“Don’t ever think of a storm as a bad thing,” he said Friday. “Storms are good. Storms are a blessing. We need storms.”

That was only part of the message from the popular Birmingham meteorologist, who visited the homeschool group at Liberty Baptist Church in Coal City on Friday morning. While he was there, he discussed everything from the basics of weather to tornado safety with the students, who ranged in age from kindergarten to college-aged.

“My job is to use science to figure out what the weather is going to do,” he told them. “Sometimes I’m right and sometimes I’m …”

“Wrong,” the students responded in kind.

But being right isn’t Spann’s main concern, he said. Forecasting the weather is part of his calling to help others.

“Why are you here?” he asked the students. “I mean, on Earth. Why are you here?

“I believe one of the reasons we’re here is to help other people. That’s the best thing we can do: we can help other people. In our business, if we can tell people that a tornado is coming, maybe we can help keep them safe.

“We can tell you when a tornado is coming. We couldn’t do that 80 years ago.”

Spann explained to the students the significance of each map he uses in his daily routine — “every day, most of my jobs involves looking at maps” — and how meteorologists use them to predict the weather, even telling them how to pinpoint a tornado within a storm system.

He also explained that tornado warnings are “part of God’s provision” for the world.

“God will take care of you,” he said. “Tornado warning are part of God’s provisions for you.

“Some people say they don’t have to listen to tornado warnings because they’re Christians. God didn’t call you to stand out in the middle of the highway; God gave you the sense to comprehend these warnings, and the ability to follow them.”