I had an "Ask me about being a weatherman" thread that I started a few years ago when I was still fairly new to the business. Now I have a much better understanding of the way things work and a lot more experience.. so I figured we could give it another go.

Credentials:

I got my degree in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science from UW-Madison (07). I worked at WLIO in Lima, OH as a morning meteorologist for two years right after college.

-Recently started my second job at WOWK/WVNS in Huntington/Charleston/Beckley, WV in February, once again on the morning show.

I get asked tons of questions about TV weather and the weather in general so let's have it.

Is it possible to forecast humidity levels (dew points) with any level of precision? If so, do you think there is a reason why it isn't done?

Is Ohio one of the least sunny states?
I heard Ohio only gets like 50 sunny days a year

Is it true you guys get hate mail when the weather sucks?

Yes, it is possible to forecast dew-points with a reasonable degree (oh snap) of accuracy. And it is done every day, but we generally shy away from showing maps containing dew points or humidity for the simple reason that it confuses most of the public. I prefer to just talk more broadly about whatever change in the air mass will be occurring.. i.e. "Once the front comes through and our round of rain is over, we'll have some drier air working into the region, so we'll get a break from the humidity for the next couple of days."

Here's a random example as far as the forecasting goes:



This is an image of a surface analysis map that contains a bunch of weather stations, denoted by the blue circles. The top number to the left of the station is the temp, the bottom number is the dew point.

In this example, there is a warm front across southern TX and the fact that it's a warm front would imply that it's moving north. Notice the dew points are much higher to the south of the front. So if I was forecasting for eastern TX, I would note that the dew points will be rising (as well as the temperatures) and a much more muggy air mass would be moving into the region.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/...pctposrank.txt

Looks like Cleveland, Dayton, and Columbus are around the lowest quarter or so of that list... so yeah I'd say fairly cloudy compared to the rest of the country.

Not really...

But it always does amaze me how many people get such a kick out of saying something like "Hey, thanks a lot for this weather! Can you change it for the weekend?!"

If I had a dime every time I've been asked that question...

Good/best site to see isobar forcasts (NOAA can be sporadic at best sometimes)? These seem to be the best true indicators of winds and potential winds.

Any other things that may be better potential forcasters of wind?

I'm less interested in actual weather phenomena compared to what it's like at your stations.

Do you get along with the anchors at your station? How do they treat the meteorologists on- and off-air? I've always had this impression that the newscasters didn't think highly of the weathermen. I'm not sure where I got this impression.

What kind of hours are you working on a daily basis? Have to be up crazy early or working late to prep for the morning?

Get to do any special segments ever, like in the eye of the tornado kind of thing?

How did you get your job in broadcasting? I have a friend who graduated from No. Illinois for meteorology and he said either you luckbox a TV gig, work for the NWS, or don't use your degree at all. Did you minor in journalism or do you have any other experience that would've contributed to you getting a TV job?

Do you hate meteorologists from San Diego?

Do you have to be on call during times when the atmosphere is unstable in case warnings get issued?

Does it make you mad when people call you a weatherman instead of a meteorologist when you do have a degree?

Why do you get storms when a cold front comes into a warm area, but not when a warm front comes through a colder area?

*It's possible that I'm so misinformed that I can't even present a cogent question on the subject.

http://www.wunderground.com/modelmap...=NAM&domain=US

- 12Z = 8am EDT and 00Z = 8pm EDT
- NAM model goes out 3.5 days, GFS goes out 16 days... but is a complete crap-shoot after about 5 (as is basically any forecast model)
- You can use "ijkl" keys to progress through the time frames on the models.

The blue lines are the isobars, and yes on the synoptic (large) scale, they are the best indicator of wind direction/speed. The wind generally blows just a hair right of perpendicular to the isobars from high towards low pressure. The tighter the pressure gradient (the closer the lines are together), the stronger the wind, and vise versa.

Other than that, you'd be talking meso (smaller) scale stuff like winds in a line of t-storms, downbursts in supercells, lake breezes, or mountainous features that might cause weird wind patterns, and that stuff is very situational and can't really be forecast in advance.

I've always gotten along fine with the anchors at my stations. I think at least at this level, they think fairly highly of us. We kind of take on the role of "station scientist" and I don't really mind that at all. If anyone should think less of anyone it's us of them, anyways... they just read a teleprompter. We ad-lib everything plus it's actually information people care about, not just some stupid bake sale or school assembly, which local news has pretty much become. /rant

On air, it really depends on how the personalities meld.. right now I work with an awesome gal who is very blunt and sarcastic. So am I, so that works out great. We get a lot of email from viewers saying they like to get up and laugh with us in the morning... and that's really what the AM show is all about. It's a great shift because you get to goof around quite a bit.

My hours are 3:30am-12:30pm. Morning show is from 5-7 with a live weather hit every 10 minutes (on the 5's) and the noon show is just a half hour with 2 taped quick hits and one live full weather mid-show. I basically just walk out of the studio immediately after doing noon weather.

I used to get up (like most AM shifters do) at around 2:30, get ready for work, and just do it. Recently, I've started a sleep schedule where I go to bed around 3pm and wake up at 10-11pm so I'm up for a few hours before work. I've been loving it so far.. time to play some COD with my friends who work normal hours, and I can get some forecasting done at home so I can go in at a more flexible time.

Never done any special weather related segments, but I did co-host a sweet little cooking segment at my last job.

Nah, absolutely not.. it's part of the job...

Nowadays, there are A LOT of on-air weatherpeople who do this 2-year online program at Mississippi St. which is basically a broadcast journalism degree with a minor in meteorology or geography. I don't consider them meteorologists and most with a 4-year degree don't, but they sure as hell call themselves that, and it does bother me a bit.

Just today for example, my competition (who has one of these "degrees") had her 7-day forecast 100% the exact same as National Weather Service's. Same temps, precip percentages, and weather icons. Just a complete joke considering NWS's forecasts are horrible.

do you use the information you have on weather systems to make plays in the stock market?

My last year of college, I did an internship at WTMJ in Milwaukee. I worked with a great mentor who coached me through learning the mechanics of working the green screen and being an effective presenter of information while keeping true to my personality.

I made a resume tape there, and sent a ****load out until I got called back. Probably sent out at least 40-50 tapes and got 2 callbacks. One in Eugene, OR, and one in Lima, OH.

I've seen some other tapes that get sent in to News Directors and WOW let me tell you... some people have absolutely no business getting anywhere near a broadcasting career, but their friends probably just don't have the heart to tell them. Your friend is wrong that getting a TV gig is luckboxing... might take a little while initially, but either you have it or you don't. Most don't.

Other than TV and NWS, some people also go into research.

I'd be surprised if there are any real meteorologists in San Diego. Whatever they want to call themselves, yes, I hate them.

I basically keep my phone attached to my body at all times, especially during the spring/summer. Severe weather season isn't as bad here as it is at other places, but especially with my sleep schedule having me in bed at the time the atmosphere is most ripe to fire up storms, I've gotta be near the phone.

Solid questions so far... look forward to answering more, but gotta head to bed for now.

Yes.

What's your opinion on global warming?

oh god

How are you so wrong, so often?

Do you go by some terrible stage name like many weathermen (e.g. Storm Field)?

Also, speaking of severe storms:

1) Do local channels love them? Seems to me that people tune into local broadcasts in DROVES when there is a report of severe weather in this area. I could see it being a big money maker.

2) Why can the guy on the Weather Channel point to a doppler radar of a tornado on the ground and seem to be accurate within a mile or so, and yet when I tune into my local news channel, the weatherman's all,

"Yeah, big supercell right here. 3 counties wide. Doppler indicated tornado in there, somewhere. Hell, I dunno where it is."

Seems like they could get the tracking a little more accurate than 'somewhere in the big red spot.'

This surprises me. Another impression I always had was that weathermen were just relaying the same information from some central source on every channels newscast, but the way you say this implies that each meteorologist prepares their own material and makes their own forecast on their network. I must not be familiar with how the whole system works.

If that's the case, how often do you have severe conflicts with others forecasts? Anything interest arise out of that, when say somebody predicts sunny and hot and you say it's going to be the next ice age?

Would you ever catch any flack from your superiors if your forecasts were consistently awful? I'm guessing most of you holding your position has to do with your performance on-air and not so much the accuracy of your forecasts. Can you be audited or something is what I'm asking I guess.

How long did it take you to become camera-ready (with the green screen, etc)?

Do you think this weatherman managed to cover up his mistake well enough?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaAaC...layer_embedded