Xena and I on the north side of Mt Hood

I’m a weather guy. Yes, that means I do the weather on TV, but it also means I write about the weather and photograph the weather along with forecasting the weather. So here are the nuts and bolts “about” me.

I’m the Chief Meteorologist for KGW TV in Portland, Oregon. I can be seen weeknights at 5, 6, 6:30, 10, and 11, when I’m not off playing golf or traveling and doing the things I love. In the weather. My love of weather stems in part, from wanting to get out of school. What school kid doesn’t love a snow day? My high school German teacher used to draw weather maps on the chalkboard explaining what needed to happen for my native New England to get hit hit with a school-closing, road-icing, sled-hill-slathering snowstorm. I’ve been making weather maps ever since.

Wanting to become a meteorologist led me to the University of Utah. Learning about weather AND world class skiing out my backdoor? Those were good years! I started telemark skiing there to access the backcountry, hiked and climbed all over the the state and fell in love with southern Utah’s deserts and canyons. But, I graduated in 1983 and after working on a master’s degree in meteorology for a year, left for my first job in broadcasting for the television glamour of…. Traverse City, in northern Michigan. Sounds sexy doesn’t it? It wasn’t. The tv station was in the upstairs of a bank. The entire anchor team was 23 years old. Ahh, those were good months.

Luckily, I landed at a tv station in southern Oregon after a year and half in Michigan, and two years later got hired in Portland. That was in 1988 and I’ve been happily anchored in the Rose City ever since. These have been good decades.

Career highlights:

Only person ever to do a live televison broadcast from the top of Mt Hood.

Reporting from three Olympics: Sydney in 2000, Salt Lake in 2002 and Vancouver in 2010.

Reporting from the Greenland Ice Sheet on climate change research.

Awards: Oregon Associate Press Best Weathercaster in 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2007 and 2009.

NATAS Emmy Award for outstanding individual achievement in weathercasting in 2000, nominated 2001-2008.

I view the sky as one of the last great wildernesses and love being out in the weather as much as I do forecasting it. My passion for the outdoors is why I’m an avid back-country skier and mountaineer. I’ve run 16 marathons and love golf. Hello. Cycling and sea-kayaking are among my other passions as are listening to live music and singing with the Portland Flash Choir.

I’ve served as a Vice-President on the Board of Trustees for the Oregon Chapter of the Leukemia-Lymphoma Society and help out with charitable events for several organizations, including Guide Dogs For The Blind, The Columbia Land Trust and Medical Teams International.