The meteorologists on your local television station are really a marvel.
They tend not to get paid much, which is travesty, but day after day, night after night, they go above and beyond, letting you know what weather danger lurks in plain, easy to understand language.
Meteorologists are also human, with different interests, different life circumstances and creativity which brings us some cool stories about just four the many of them out there. If you like babies, two of these stories involve those little ones.
SIGNING THE WARNING
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| Meteorologist Mikayla Smith delivers on air forecasts using sign language to make sure the deaf community can also understand upcoming weather hazards. |
Smith uses American Sign Language on air to make sure the deaf community also knows what's coming.
"The freelance weekend meteorologist at KXII, a CBS an FOX affiliate in Sherman, Texas, said she has always had a soft spot in her heart for the hard-of-hearing and deaf community. And with social media often lacking closed captions or accurate captions, she felt the need to start talking about the weather in ASL and incorporate it into her meteorology."
This is a terrific idea that would work wonders in any part of the nation. But north Texas and Oklahoma, prone to rapidly changing, dangerous weather like tornadoes, large hail, flash floods and abrupt winter storms, this is a tremendous public service.
Click on this hyperlink to watch an Inside Edition report on Smith that really highlights her on-air sign language skills.
NEW ENGLAND WEATHER HISTORIAN
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| Meteorologist Eric Fisher of WBZ in Boston had a lot of material to work with when he wrote "Mighty Storms of New England" |
The native New Englander is the chief meteorologist at television station WBZ in Boston and is easily among the region's most skilled meteorologists.
Turns out he's also a great historian. He recently released a book called "Mighty Storms of New England," which I'm chomping at the bit to read. (I've got it on order).
As far as I know, there hasn't been a huge amount written about New England's incredibly varied weather and history lately. The late David Ludlum handled that masterfully with his "New England Weather Book" and "Vermont Weather Book" back in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Washington Post describes the book as such:
"Fisher's regional knowledge mingles with his meteorological experience to tell each story in a vivid and informed way, whether it's a tale of a storm in the 1600s or in the present day. In addition to compelling stories, Fisher also highlights the role that many tragic weather disasters of New England's past played in bringing about improvements in infrastructure and forecasting."
It's exceptionally rare that I would recommend a book before reading it, but as a native New Englander myself, this sounds like a must-read for all of us who live around here. I'll review it in this blog thingy once I do finish reading it.
BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE BUT BABY'S FORECAST HELPS
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| Meteorologist Rebecca Schuld gets an assist from her 13-week old daughter Fiona during a recent cold snap around Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Oops! Her TV station spelled her name wrong here. |
Like many television meteorologists, Schuld was working from home because of the pandemic, making do with a makeshift green screen and technology from the television station.
As if that wasn't complicated enough, Schuld had another complication. She was just back from maternity leave, and her 13-week old daughter, Fiona, wanted to help with the on-air forecast.
What was a mom/meteorologist to do? Let Fiona do the forecasting job, of course! The result was what is probably the warmest, cutest frigid weather forecast in television history. As Huffington Post described it:
"'She's prepared. She's got one of her good thick blankies here for the cold weather that's coming up tonight," Schuld said, holding Fiona. 'I thought she could help me with tonight's first weather that's going to be plenty unpleasant, right?'"
Schuld said she had to offer Fiona the cameo because the kid woke up right before the meteorologist had to go on air with the latest cold snap update. It was a hit, and demonstrated the balancing act that parents need to go through with the pandemic, family and everything else going on. Click on this hyperlink, as Inside Edition was, again, all over this.
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| WPTZ meteorologist Caitlin Napoleoni enjoying the Vermont winter outdoors a few days before giving birth to daughter Astrid. |
I saved the local story for last. Many of us Vermont television viewers are familiar with WPTZ-TV meteorologist Caitlin Napoleoni, who forecasts Vermont and northern New York weather with her trademark calm, knowledgable demeanor.
It's actually a little surprising she stayed so calm in recent weeks. She was pregnant with her first child, and on Sunday night gave birth to a lovely little girl named Astrid.
She went through the delivery without her husband, Leif Nordgren by her side. He's no slacker though, and had a great excuse not to be at her wife's side for the big event Sunday night.
Nordgren was dealing with a big event of his own. He's busy in Beijing, representing Team USA in the biathlon.
"With a dad who's competing at his third Olympics and a mom who's been skiing right up until her due date, there's no doubt this baby will be a force of nature. 'Probably by the age of 3 or 4 will b a better skier than me I imagine, if Leif has anything to do with it,' Napoleoni said.
We don't yet know how Nordgren will do in the Olympics, but has this to say about what's going on now. "I've spent 12 years of my life going after this athletic dream but the whole family and baby thing really puts everything into perspective about the important things in life."
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