Michael Albert Solomon began working at Metro Weather in September 1995. He began forecasting for WILI in 1999.
Fear
of lightning and the love for snow began my interest into weather. I
remember tracking hurricane belle in 1976 and hurricane David in 1978,
all while I was in elementary school. I used to get angry at the TV
weatherman, when snow was forecasted to change to rain, I began to
wonder why after three days of icy weather, why the day the snow
arrived the temperature would shoot up to 40 degrees with rain.
My
mother grew up in Ithaca, NY…Hometown of Cornell University. I dreamed
of studying meteorology at Cornell. My studies in earth science and
physics did not help my antics of earlier years, so instead of Cornell,
I began my meteorology studies at Nassau Community College and made the
best of it. I did well with my studies and became President of the
Meteorology Club. After earning an associates degree in Physical
Science I went on to study meteorology at the State University of
Brockport NY. Unsure of what I wanted to do with my future led me to
leave school after my third year and join the naval reserves and get
hands on training in the field of meteorology. I later earned my
bachelors of arts degree with the hope of one-day teaching earth
science to high school students.
My
career took an unexpected turn last year, when after re-enlisting in
the Naval Reserves, I was called to active duty in support of operation
enduring freedom/noble eagle, which was a result of the attacks on our
country on Sept. 11th. While serving six months on active duty at the
Naval European Meteorology/Oceanography Center in Rota Spain, I was
able to get very deep into aviation forecasting and brief flight crews
going to Europe, Africa and the Middle East. In addition to doing
aviation weather, I was also able to practice meteorology for the
Department of Defense in plume forecasting for chemical agents in and
around the Mediterranean. |
