    |
| I
remember a storm that hit Toms River on Memorial Day Weekend in
1992. The only report I could find was here
from the Brick Township MUA, which is about 5 miles NE of where I
live. After that day I was hooked on
watching The Weather Channel from sunup until
sundown(obviously I went to school-my mom would never let me stay home
unless I was really sick!).
I got my first taste at forecasting when I was in middle
school. I was part of the "Weather Club" at Toms River Intermediate
East, giving forecasts on the PA
system every morning. In my junior year of high school I took a
televsion production class. I was working on a project with a classmate
on linear editing and we found the director's cut of the final product.
We obviously got in trouble for using it and my punishment was to stay
after school every day for a week to re-edit the project. This actually
benefitted me as the school's TV station needed
an extra set of hands to shoot various school athletic games and
in-studio shows after school. I found my niche in camera operating, and
then I was able to assist in the post-production as well. My
senior year was amazing when I was accepted into the
broadcast journalism
class(the prerequisite was taking the television production class and
then a recommendation from the teacher) and became a huge part of the
school's channel, TV-21. It
was then when I knew I wanted to become an on-air
meteorologist. I have an associate's degree in General Education(Science concentration) from Ocean County College and then transferred to Kean University to earn my Bachelors of Science in Earth Science(Meteorology concentration). While at Kean, I assisted in building the meteorology department's first ever broadcast weather show called "Keancast", which was launched in 2007. Most of the ideas for the show's content came from my interning experience at NBC40(WMGM-TV, Atlantic City, NJ). I was able to learn from Chief Meteorologist Dan Skeldon about what went into a forecast, as well as gaining knowledge on how a news station operates. Not only did I help out in the weather center, but I also offered to go on shoots, help out in the control room, and even answered the phones! I had a blast and wished that the summer never had to end.....but of course, it did and I graduated from Kean University in Spring 2008. Since then I have been trying to find an on-air job or something pertaining to meteorology. Since the economy is not so great I have to decided to go back to school; I am currently working on my Masters in Applied Meteorology online through Mississippi State University. I made this website so I can keep my forecasting skills fresh and hopefully gain some exposure from the local communities that I have lived and loved for the past 27 years. I mainly forecast across coastal NJ from Long Branch down to Ocean City. I use Miller Air Park(MJX)'s AWOS and Atlantic City Int'l Airport(ACY)'s ASOS station for verification of my daily forecasts(and ACY has a climate summary that is issued late afternoon). Here are some of my favorite links! NAM/GFS site: www.wxforecaster.com Euro model: http://www.ecmwf.int/products/forecasts/d/charts/medium/deterministic/msl_uv850_z500/ One Stop MOS: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/synop/products/bullform.all.htm |