She worked in 3 states during her career and now works in emergency management. Jessica Stumpf was once in that pipeline. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that there is a toll being taken on younger meteorologists like Russell Bird too but the data may not detect it because there is such an eager pipeline of students itching to get into the field. This is probably because they have families and want a more stable job with better hours. I have noticed (from calls I get and what I hear at conferences) that some of the more established broadcast meteorologists in their late 30’s and 40’s are leaving the TV business to pursue either other meteorology positions or different careers all together. She works closely with broadcast meteorologists seeking the AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal. Kelly Savoie of the American Meteorological Society affirms this perspective. As we age, family and other priorities become more important. At a young age, the thrill of the job may out weigh the low starting pay, long or weekend hours, and isolation. Being able to forecast the weather and convey that on television. He noted,Īs a young meteorologists, there is an excitement about being a weather weenie. I spoke with a former mid-career broadcast meteorologist who wished to remain anonymous. My wife (formerly in the business) and I thought about never having evenings together during the week, missing future family events (kid's sports, dinner, etc) and didn't want that. I decided it wasn't the lifestyle we wanted. The staff isn't growing as quickly as shows are being added so people are working longer hours. More shows are getting added, but hiring doesn't necessarily reflect that. In local TV markets, the meteorologist is expected to do the on-air forecast, prepare the forecasts, monitor station social media sites, respond to viewers, do public appearances, pet cute puppies, and so on (while earning increasingly less salary). One of my former students, Andrew Phillips, now working in state government told me, Actually, that weather guy I mentioned was eventually replaced by a real meteorologist with a college degree and all of the trimmings.A recurring theme that emerges is rapid changes in the broadcast meteorology industry. There are so many more weather gadgets, and the technology involved in predicting weather has become so fine tuned. However, I guess this doesn't work as well nowadays. ![]() Either way, all of the stations gave the same weather reports, so the weatherman's personality was the big selling point and determining factor as to which station's telecast people watched. Sure the station had professional weather people behind the scenes, or they were just getting reports from the national weather center. The main reason people liked him was because he told a lot of jokes and funny stories, and he gave the other people on the news set a hard time. The most popular TV weatherman in the area where I grew up had no formal weather training. There was a time, maybe 30 or 40 years ago or so, when most of the men on TV giving the weather reports on the local TV stations had no training in meteorology. This is how he got his start and he eventually moved on to become one of the most well known weathermen of his time. After college he worked as a disc jockey for a radio station. As I recall, he majored in philosophy and religion. He was well known for reading off birthdays of really old people.Īnyway, my point is that he did not go to college to become a weatherman. He was the weatherman for one of the network morning news shows. One of the really popular weathermen in the 1980s was a guy named Willard Scott. January 28, - You make a good point about the importance of a good personality for TV weather persons. ![]() I want to get my weather reports from someone who knows more about the weather than I do and someone who has more training than I have. I think all weather people should have degrees and be trained in meteorology. What Are the Different Types of Meteorologist Tools?.How Do I Become an Aviation Meteorologist?.What Does an Aviation Meteorologist Do?.
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