A VISIT TO THE WEATHER CHANNEL
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
The following pictures provide an inside look at the operations of the Weather Channel studio.

All Images © Ken Dewey, School of Natural Resources, UNL

The Weather Channel is a "closed" facility not open to the general public.  
Security guards control access to the building and the surrounding grounds.  
I received permission to visit one of my former students who is an off-camera 
meteorologist at The Weather Channel as well as several friends who work 
at the Weather Channel.  I hope you enjoy this inside look at The Weather Channel.

Kim Perez and Sharon Resultan are at the anchor desk in the studio with 
their "weather notes" in front of them as they go on-air.  The forecast 
support unit is immediately behind them.

CLICK HERE OR ON THE ABOVE PHOTO TO SEE A FULL SCREEN VERSION
From behind the anchor desk, Sharon Resultan and Kim Perez begin their on-air
segment by reading from a teleprompter (located between them in the picture). 
Then, Sharon goes to the blue chroma-key screen on the left to begin her 
unscripted discussion of the weather graphics.

Sharon Resultan is now on-air discussing the weather graphics which have been 
prepared by the off-camera meteorologists.   Note the blank blue screen (chroma-key) 
behind her and the combined person/computer generated map on the monitor to the 
right in the picture (which is what you see at home).

The broadcast meteorologist (Jim Cantore) sees only a blank blue wall.  The computer has a stored image which is then superimposed with the broadcaster so that the viewer at home sees the broadcaster standing in front of the image.  To keep track of where he is pointing, Jim looks at the monitors on each side of the blue screen.  Although Jim makes it appear easy to do, this takes lots of practice to master!

CLICK HERE OR ON THE ABOVE PHOTO TO SEE A FULL SCREEN VERSION
The monitors that you see here are for use by the weathercasters sitting at the 
anchor desk (note the 2nd and 3rd pictures).  If you look carefully, you can see 
the broadcast meteorologist (Jim Cantore) now superimposed over the computer 
graphics in the top right monitor and the monitor to the left and below that one. 

This is the main engineering studio main master control at The Weather Channel.  
Note the middle monitor.  It is the South American telecast broadcast from 
another portion of the Weather Channel facility.

Here we see Keith Westerlage, former on-air meteorologist and now a 
Weather Channel supervisor, manager of On-Camera Meteorology, 
demonstrating the use of the smaller engineering studio "severe weather 
control room".  This additional studio control room is used during the
"Weather Center PM" broadcasts at the top and bottom of the hour during 
the evenings when many weather news video feeds supplement the normal broadcast.

Jeff Morrow is providing a storm update from the "Weather Center" Forecast 
Center at the top of the hour during "Weather Center PM".  This small 
"studio" is located immediately next to the main on-air set at the Weather Channel.

CLICK HERE OR ON THE ABOVE PHOTO TO SEE A FULL SCREEN VERSION
This is an overview of the entire weather channel studio.  In the distance, in red, is 
Sharon Resultan, on-camera with the two blue croma-key screens.  To the distant right 
is the Weather Center Forecast Center shown close-up in the previous photograph.  
And, in the foreground, are the various work areas for the off-camera meteorologists.

Greg Koch is a 1995 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Meteorology graduate and 
was an off-camera meteorologist/forecaster at The Weather Channel at the time of 
this photo.  He is sitting in one of the computer work areas behind the main on-air set.   
All of the weather graphics and forecast "products" shown on-air are created in these
work areas.  AND, most importantly, the on-air meteorologists can discuss the latest 
weather events with these co-workers so that they can bring the latest weather 
information to the viewers.  Greg has recently started working as a forecaster 
with the National Weather Service.

The Weather Channel is a 24-hour operation which has multiple shifts of off and 
on-camera meteorologists.  As each shift comes on duty, there is a briefing 
about the major weather events that occurred during the previous shift and 
advice of what weather events need close monitoring in the upcoming shift.
Kim Perez, shown here is another "Nebraska Connection" having acquired her Atmospheric Sciences degree at Creighton University in Omaha.  I can sum up what it is like to work at the Weather Channel in Kim's words "Its the best place to work as a broadcast meteorologist and I would not want to work any where else!"

The Weather Channel "STORM TRACKER" truck is used for remote "live" storm
coverage.  Earlier this spring, the Weather Channel used this truck to ride along with
the Doppler on Wheels research project of the National Severe Storms Laboratory 
and numerous live reports were made from "tornado alley".

 
 
The Weather Channel helped sponsor the Central Plains Severe Weather Public Symposium on October 7, 2000 in Lincoln, NE.  They provided free educational materials for local teachers and sent Jeff Morrow to give two presentations in the conference auditorium and to meet the public at our exhibit area.

CLICK HERE or on the above photograph to go to the CPSWS 2000 Photo Gallery


 
All Images © Ken Dewey, School of Natural Resources, UNL

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