Hear from the team of AccuWeather Network's meteorologists to learn how and why they got their start in the field.
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00:00There's no doubt that I got my love for the weather and my passion for
00:04meteorology from my dad, who remains a big weather fan. I grew up in the
00:09northwestern suburbs of Philadelphia and there would be many storms when we would
00:12be kind of dreading the approach of the rain-snow line. We'd like to hold on to
00:17snow, maybe a little bit of ice to keep things interesting. It could be
00:20disruptive, but it is fascinating and it still is a fascination to this day. This
00:25picture is when I was 14 and a half during the blizzard of 96, which even
00:31after living in places like Erie, PA, this storm for me brought more snow than any
00:36storm I have ever experienced there in the Philadelphia suburbs. Over 30 inches
00:40of snow and my hope is that for me and for many of us who love the weather here
00:44at AccuWeather, we can help to inspire some passion for the weather in the
00:48younger generation and some other viewers as well. I grew up loving the
00:53outdoors. I spent a lot of time outside and at the beach, so it's no surprise
00:58that weather fascinated me. I quickly learned that knowing the weather was
01:02very important. When I was a kid, I remember several hurricanes like
01:05Hurricane Dennis. The storm made landfall in North Carolina in September of 1999,
01:10but hundreds of miles away in New Jersey, I was able to play in some big ways. To
01:15this day, hurricanes still fascinate me and are a large reason why I chose to be
01:20a meteorologist. Well, I'm thrilled to share the story of how I became a
01:24broadcast meteorologist. It all started back in fifth grade when one of my
01:28classmates' fathers visited our class to talk about his job as a meteorologist. I
01:32was fascinated by his passion for weather forecasting and all the science
01:36behind it. From that day on, I would eagerly check, yes, the AccuWeather
01:40forecast map and temperatures in what was our local newspaper at the time, and
01:43every morning I would look at the weather and decide my outfit based on
01:47the forecast. As I grew older, I would excitedly tell every adult I met that I
01:51wanted to be a broadcast meteorologist, and trust me, they never let me or anyone
01:55else forget it. Now here I am living my dream and sharing the weather with all
01:59of you every day and hopefully helping you dress so you are comfortable in any
02:02type of weather. In this video, I was a freshman at Penn State and I was still a
02:09theater major, but still clearly excited to see snow, and I made that decision to
02:15switch from theater to meteorology. Of course, I still use my theatrical skills
02:20and all the knowledge that I obtained while a student here, but I'm able to
02:25apply it a little bit more to the weather. So I caught my weather weenie
02:29bug in the seventh grade. We were watching a video about tornadoes and I
02:33knew right then and there that I loved weather, especially severe weather, but
02:39it's really all kinds that I get excited about. Well, I know a lot of people might
02:43point to pictures like these and say, this is what I found my love for weather.
02:47My story's a little bit different. When these pictures were taken, weather was
02:51just something that happened. I wasn't really paying much attention to it, and
02:55as a kid, I wasn't really into math or science that much. I was more of an
02:58English and history type student, which led me to a journalism major in college,
03:03and then a job as a TV news reporter. That's when I met some really amazing
03:07meteorologists and started to learn about the science behind weather and just how
03:11interesting it is. And as a journalist, I wanted a job where I could help people,
03:15and I learned that maybe weather was the best way to do that. So I went back to
03:19school to learn more about the science behind weather, and now here I am doing
03:23my dream job sharing that important and sometimes life-saving information with
03:28all of you. Well, I was born and raised in Oklahoma, so I had a front row seat to
03:33the wildest severe weather you can imagine, and growing up there, I always
03:37wanted to do two things. I wanted to be a TV meteorologist, and I also wanted to
03:42serve my country, and I had the opportunity to do that in the Marine
03:45Corps for five years. Whenever I got out of the Marine Corps, I was able to use the
03:48GI Bill to pay for school, going to the University of Oklahoma, getting my
03:52bachelor's degree in meteorology. After that, I had a couple stops in Texas,
03:56Kansas, Oklahoma, and then I had the opportunity to come here to AccuWeather,
04:00where I used my severe weather expertise to forecast some, once again, of the
04:04wildest weather we have here across the United States.