I've been a broadcast meteorologist on television since the early 1990's. Happy to answer any questions about the weather or local TV news. Yes, I often wear sneakers on set just out of view of the camera.
Hi, Ken. Big range of answers. At a base level salaries are reflective of the size of the city (we call them "markets"). A beginning TV meteorologist is likely to start by doing the weekend shift in a small market where they might also do some news reporting a couple days per week. Salary in this situation might be between $20,000 and $30,000. From there it does up well into six figures for many larger markets. Most are paid an annual salary.
I remember a job posting for a San Diego television station many many years ago that said, "Can you say 72 and sunny?" I think most of us prefer locations that have some action. Some like snow, others severe weather, others hurricanes. I guess the ideal job is in a place with the type of weather you are most interested in. Having been to San Diego a number of times I would agree with you, it is pretty nice!
Whew...tough one. I think many of the early popular apps are suffering from design and feature bloat. On iOS I actually think an app called Wx Alert USA is pretty good since it draws all data directly from the National Weather Service. A generic radar app that I use often is wxRadar, for current conditions around the region, AeroWeather (a bit more technical) and an excellent technical radar app is RadarScope. I've looked at several of the Android apps and am not thrilled with any of them. If you are in a severe weather area I highly recommend WeatherRadio. I'm working on some ways to improve weather information, stay tuned! Thanks, Joseph!
Great question. One of my mentors told me, "You go to school for four years to learn meteorology, and then it takes two more to learn to forecast." So, time spent in a particular area gives you valuable experience in the local climatology. In your example, the weatherman in Hawaii, if he had had a good education, could certainly take a job in Alaska, but it would probably take a few seasons to get comfortable. Thanks!
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Hmmm...trick question. I guess my hope is that the one that has the best meteorology chops gets the job. That said, different markets, and more and more these days, different stations, have different requirements. I recently saw an ad for a weather person in which the bulk of the job description asked for someone who was not afraid to give their opinions on the news stories of the day. Thanks, Drew.
I do see changes. Historically news anchors tried to project an air of impartiality so as not to suggest they were on a particular side of an issue. Two currents trends are serving to give news people a little more personality. One is that news programs are including more "entertainment", and, there is some evidence that some viewers prefer to know what side of an issue their news providers are on. That said, "most" of us are "regular" people off the air. :)
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