I’ve been fascinated by the weather for as long as I can remember. I grew up in Massachusetts and have always been very close to my family. I caught “the weather bug” very early in life. In 1985, Hurricane Gloria passed through my hometown of Easton, Massachusetts, just south of Boston. As the storm tracked nearby, I watched as a tree in my backyard fell almost hitting our patio. And….I was just a few feet indoors from where it fell! I couldn’t help but wonder what force of Nature could cause such a thing! From that point on, even as a young elementary school student, I made a commitment to investigate and learn as much as I could about the forces that drive our atmosphere.
When I was 12, my Dad brought home what I thought was THE coolest gift anyone could have ever asked for on their birthday. It was….a weather radio. Each day after school, I would sit near that radio, listen to the forecasts, and then watch the local TV meteorologists on the evening newscast comparing the weather outside my house to what was being reported on the air. I decided one day that maybe those TV stations needed a weather watcher from my hometown, and so, I called up each TV station in Boston to see if I could relay my weather report to help them out with their forecasts. Well, before you know it, I was calling reports in every day, running a weather station at my high school and meeting in person and talking each day to the very TV meteorologists that encouraged my interests. I can’t thank my family and my mentors back in Boston enough for the inspiration!
My first broadcast experience was delivering the weather report each morning via the intercom for the high school announcements. Throughout high school and college, I wrote a weekly article for my hometown newspaper called “The Weather Watcher,” and spent many a summer day taking weather observations and studying the skies at Blue Hill Observatory, one of the most highly regarded weather observatories in the country.
Upon graduating Oliver Ames High School in North Easton, MA, (GO TIGERS!) , I set off to Lyndon State College in Vermont. (GO HORNETS!)
It was at Lyndon State College that I earned my B.S. in Meteorology and A.S. in Communications. My very first chance to do TV was through News Center 2, Lyndon’s very own local newscast that served the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Shortly thereafter, I was fortunate enough just two months after graduation to come to Rochester in 2000 for my very first TV job. That year, I joined WHEC-TV as a weekend and fill in meteorologist. In 2002, I expanded my horizons and seized upon the opportunity to teach. It was then I was asked to teach a Weather and Climate course at Monroe Community College. For eight years, I maintained a curriculum and taught multiple sections of the course most every semester. I estimate hundreds of students from all across Western New York and the Finger Lakes passed through my classroom. I so valued the opportunity to bring my passion for meteorology into the classroom to impart my knowledge on the mysteries of the atmosphere to so many eager students. Even after all these years, some of those very students today still stop me on the street to thank me for that class. The experience is one I am so grateful to have had!
In 2007, I was honored to become the first TV meteorologist in Rochester to earn the status of Certified Broadcast Meteorologist through the American Meteorological Society, the nation’s premier scientific and professional organization promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences. The certification is considered the highest seal of approval for meteorologists who are on television delivering weathercasts.
In May of 2016, I joined WROC-TV News 8 in Rochester, NY, and was the morning and noon meteorologist there for five years. I then had an opportunity to work in Boston briefly aat WBZ, New England's first TV station,before arriving here at WKBW.
I am thrilled to be a part of Buffalo’s BEST weather team!
There’s more to me than work of course. In my free time, I enjoy exploring all that Western New York has to offer up culturally and otherwise. I enjoy running outdoors, and great dining experiences. I also love traveling the USA whether it is to see my family in Boston or my brother and nephews in California.
Stop me on the street and say hi sometime or feel free to reach out! I love meeting new people!
