Expert: Donald Rosenfeld - 9/4/2008

Question
I currently work in broadcasting for one of the top news stations in LA. I am very interested in weather, but I never went to school for it. I actually never finished school in general, and I am 23 years old. At the moment I am shadowing one of our weather forecasters, but I wanted to know if you have any advice for me on moving forward. Do you think that it is necessary for me to go back to school full-time and stop working or is there another option?

Answer
Hi Alex

A tough question!  My best advice, since you are more than young enough, is to go back to school. However, if you are able to forecast weather based on your current knowledge, you may be able to become a junior forecaster at a TV station as long as some current weather forecaster at a station mentors you.

If you want to look at an on-line degree program, this school is less rigorous, but it may fit your needs:

http://www.distance.msstate.edu/geosciences/BMP/online.html

also, an important site to review carefully is at:

http://www.weatherknowledge.com/become.html