Dr. Walter Frick is the sole proprietor of Visual Plumes Consultants. He retired in 2008 from work as a research oceanographer with EPA’s Ecosystems Research Division in Athens, Georgia, where he helped conceive and develop the Virtual Beach MLR model software system. Prior to that, he developed and supported mixing zone modeling applications (DOS and Visual Plumes [VP]) used in outfall design and permitting. He helped pioneer Lagrangian plume modeling approach (Frick 1984, Nonempirical closure of the plume equations, Atmospheric Environment, 18, 653–662), the basis for the VP three-dimensional Lagrangian model, UM3. DOS Plumes and VP have international reputations, being jointly distributed to over 50 countries around the world. Recent interests include designing outfalls and predicting extreme events, notably “killer” frost conditions in a California central coast vineyard.