Ali Chiavetta
Features Writer

When college students need information about the weather, they are often quick to turn on The Weather Channel or pull up the weather app on their phones. Fortunately for Millersville students, the meteorology department has a relevant resource that is both informational and entertaining. Weather Watch is a program for meteorology majors interested in broadcast meteorology. The program was created by Millersville meteorology alumni Matt Moore and Shane Brown, who both now work in the meteorology department at WGAL.

TO RIGHT: Curtis Silverwood, Morgan Fletcher, TJ Springer, Ben Bonner, Tara Minni, Austin Vacek, Jon Beuerle, Megan Nielsen, Andrew Yarosh, Emily Rosenthal, Matthew Green, Amber Liggett, Natalie Midzak, Korissa Lincoln, Amanda Dobrowski, Matt Crawford, Jes Stokes, Katie Prichard and Rachel Coulter.
TO RIGHT: Curtis Silverwood, Morgan Fletcher, TJ Springer, Ben Bonner, Tara Minni, Austin Vacek, Jon Beuerle, Megan Nielsen, Andrew Yarosh, Emily Rosenthal, Matthew Green, Amber Liggett, Natalie Midzak, Korissa Lincoln, Amanda Dobrowski, Matt Crawford, Jes Stokes, Katie Prichard and Rachel Coulter.

Through a combination of on-air experiences, filming, and “behind the scenes” experiences like editing, Weather Watch enables students to get a better understanding of possible careers in their field. The show will also give students a deeper understanding of the forecasting process being currently implemented by Executive Producer Curtis Silverwood. Though the cast and crew are only made up of meteorology major students interested in the broadcast option, the show is for everyone. The goal of Weather Watch is to entertain the general public with humorous clips and pieces that include real scientific information about the weather. Weather Watch episodes and shorts are released every other week at its newly renovated web site, www.MUWeatherWatch.com.

Each episode runs six to seven minutes in length, and the shorts run about three to four minutes. Throughout the semester, Weather Watch produces recurring pieces like “The Weather in 60,” which showcases weather events from around the world, and “Weather Mythbreakers,” which dispels common weather myths in a humorous way.

This year’s season premiere was released on Sep. 7, and included a look at the research project DISCOVER-AQ, which was funded by NASA and Data Analysis at Millersville. Its next short, to be released on Sep. 21, will focus on a day in the life of a broadcast meteorologist. The piece will feature Weather Watch co-creator and WGAL meteorologist, Matt Moore and will be hosted by meteorology major T.J. Springer.

The Weather Watch team often visits different locations, such as Hershey Park, AccuWeather, and the National Weather Service in Sterling, VA, in order to change up its programming. In this upcoming season of Weather Watch, the team is looking to visit the Chameleon Club in order to do a piece on musical tours, and the effect that weather can have on the shows. Weather Watch will also be premiering an episode in October about the cooler summer weather and dispelling the rumor of a potential polar vortex.

Be sure to keep an eye out for an upcoming parody music video of “Timber” by Pitbull featuring Ke$ha called “Thunder,” which was inspired by Producer Rachel Coulter and written by Curtis Silverwood, Jaime Tyre and Josh Catalano. According to Weather Watch Executive Producer Curtis Silverwood, awareness is the show’s main goal for the year. He said, “We’d like everyone on campus to start to support us by liking our Facebook page, following us on Twitter and Instagram, and sharing our episodes and shorts when they are released!”

Because many of the producers of the show are seniors, the Weather Watch executives are working on training and teaching the underclassmen meteorology majors. Weather Watch is both entertaining and informative, and is a way for Millersville students to stay up to date on their weather knowledge!

For more information and to see what the crew has in store for the rest of the semester, please visit www.MUWeatherWatch.com.