By Nanette Wiser
Photos courtesy of Spectrum Bay News 9 and WFLA Channel 8
Award-winning weather warriors Jeff Berardelli and Mike Clay help keep Tampa Bay safe during storms. Paradise NEWS shares their insights into Hurricane Season 2023 and climate change.
Meet JEFF BERARDELLI
WFLA’s chief meteorologist and climate specialist, has been named the top local TV meteorologist in the country by international media group Broadcasting + Cable. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Atmospheric Sciences from Cornell University in the 1990s. Recently, after witnessing the spike in extreme weather, he went back to school earning a master’s degree in Climate and Society from Columbia University.
anchor Lester Holt about lessons learned from Hurricane Ian.
Berardelli has led the Max Defender 8 weather team since January 2022. However, he’s no stranger to Florida – or to the Tampa Bay area. He previously worked as a meteorologist in Tampa (1997-2003) and in West Palm Beach and Miami. Before joining WFLA, Berardelli was a meteorologist at CBS News in New York. Despite being away from Florida, he still covered the state’s severe weather by reporting on and leading coverage of 2018’s Hurricane Michael, 2019’s Hurricane Dorian and the record-breaking 2020 hurricane season.
How can we get ready for this hurricane season? Berardelli says preparation is key, both for his team and Tampa Bay residents. News Channel 8 uses an immense set of data, technology, and tools to forecast hurricane tracks and having an experienced team with knowledge of Florida’s storm history is important. And if power at home goes out, you can hear updates online and with iHeart radio stations including Newsradio WFLA and Country 103.5.
His message for us? “It’s simple. We saw what happened in Ft. Myers last year with Ian. That could have easily been us, and if it hit here, the impacts and damage would have been worse. So, each year you should prepare for a storm like Ian. It may not happen this year or next, but eventually our luck will run out. If you are prepared, you will weather the storm just fine. This summer we will likely have El Nino. So, the hope is we will have a slower than normal season in the Atlantic Basin, but this does not mean Florida will not see landfalls.”
Pinellas County is on the front lines of climate change due to it being right on the coast. “Climate change will bring stronger, more quickly intensifying hurricanes to coastal communities along with rising sea levels. The combination means more destructive storms, with higher economic tolls. Climate change has made it hotter here. It has made the waters warmer and thus the humidity higher. Sea level has risen here about twice as fast as the global average and thus coastal flooding has increased even on fair weather days,” says Berardelli.
But, he adds, battling climate change is everyone’s responsibility. “The two best things anyone can do personally to help tackle climate change is to speak with their wallet and plant a seed. The ways you choose to spend your money – the products you buy or don’t buy – guide companies’ decisions towards being greener or continuing business as usual. And by planting a seed I mean set an example. When you make choices to help the environment that rubs off on family members and friends, whether that be to drive an EV, get solar panels, eat less meat, or just talk about climate change, all of these actions influence others in your life. While your individual actions may be small, if you influence others in your sphere, the results multiply. “His expertise is much in demand. In late May, Berardelli appeared with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt in a special report from Ft. Myers on rebuilding and lessons learned from Ian.
Meet MIKE CLAY
Chief Meteorologist for BN9 who leads the experienced team of weather experts from the Weather on the Nines Forecast Center. Mike’s broadcasting career began at a small radio station in his native Texas back in 1978 when he was a junior in high school. In 1985, Mike moved from radio to television, taking his first job as a TV weather anchor at KCEN-TV in Waco, Texas. In 1990, Mike became chief meteorologist at KXAN-TV, the NBC affiliate in Austin and also did weather in Tyler and San Antonio before moving to the Northwest Cable News in Seattle as chief meteorologist, covering snowstorms, earthquakes and even volcanoes.
In 1997, Mike helped launch Bay News 9 as the original meteorologist on Your Morning News. Mike says his most memorable moment at Bay News 9 was the morning of Aug. 13, 2004, when Bay News 9 successfully forecast Hurricane Charley to stay south of the Tampa Bay area. In 2010, Mike, along with his colleague Brian McClure, won a Florida Suncoast Emmy and a Florida Associated Press award for Best Weathercast for severe weather coverage. In 2011, Mike was elected to the AMS Broadcasters Board for a three-year term starting in 2012. The Board grants the AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval and sets standards for TV and radio meteorologists who are members of the American Meteorological Society.
Clay advises the battle to stay safe during a hurricane is won before a storm threatens. “Even though hurricane season officially starts June 1, most of our threats are in August, September, and October. It only takes one storm to hit, so be prepared now,” says Clay.
Recalling the 2022 season shows that forecasting a storm’s track is a moving target, and sometimes, déjà vu. Says Clay: “Last year, Hurricane Ian was threatening the Tampa Bay region and theday before it hit the Florida coast, it became apparent from the computer models that Ian was going to hit further south. Spectrum Bay News 9 meteorologist Alan Winfield and I were on shift at that time, and we made the call at 11am with breaking news as the cone was adjusted south as well. Alan and I had also been together when the track of Hurricane Charley shifted south in 2004, and we kept looking at each other saying “I can’t believe this is happening again.’”
Spectrum Bay News 9 utilizes many high-tech weather tools, and their most important local tool is their Klystron 9 radar, the most powerful television weather radar in the world.” Klystron 9 is a 1-million-watt radar which has a 300-mile range. Klystron 9 is live on TV giving us two updates a minute. Seconds count when severe weather like a tornado is detected. Klystron 9 was one of the first Dual-Pol[arization] radars ever built; these radars can detect debris from tornadoes and lead to better radar rainfall estimates as well,” says Clay.
Part of being prepared is adding the Spectrum News App to your phone and turning on the alert settings. In the event of a power outage, local radio stations carry BN9 weather coverage. “The bottom line is to have multiple ways to get weather information during a hurricane, things can change fast, like the path of Ian towards Fort Myers last year,” says Clay.