In a 1980 publication titled A Guide to an Education and Career in Meteorology, faculty from the UW Department of Meteorology (now the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences) wrote that “Two important traits usually are evident in the career meteorologist: a strong interest in the physical environment, especially the atmosphere, and an inquiring mind.”
Add to that list: a picture window.
That’s where Mike Nelson ’81’s mother found him during a 1964 thunderstorm that rolled through Madison. While the rest of the family sought shelter in the basement, Nelson, then six years old, marveled at the force of nature raging outside.
“That started a lifelong fascination with the weather,” he says.
By age 10, Nelson had built his first weather station in the family’s backyard and kept daily temperature records. He spent grade school reading weather books and tuning in to local television weather forecasts.
By the time he began his freshman year at the UW, Nelson had already toured the university’s meteorology department with Professor Frank Sechrist, and he was working nights at Channel 27, creating weather maps for chief meteorologist Terry Kelly ’71.
“I had a burning desire to be a meteorologist on TV,” Nelson says. “I practiced in Dr. Sechrist’s office. We had a black-and-white camera, and we’d make our own hand-drawn weather maps. By the time I graduated, I was the weekend weather talent on Channel 27.”
Nelson was also one of the first employees of Weather Central, the company Kelly created to generate industry-specific (“applied”) weather forecasts. In 1979, those forecasts became even more sophisticated with ColorGraphics, another Kelly company that brought broadcast meteorology into the modern age with computer weather charts. When he wasn’t on the air, Nelson was helping bring the future of weather technology to a news station near you.
“My job was to travel around the country and install these weather computers and train the television weathercasters on how to use them,” he says. “I trained Al Roker on the first weather computer that he ever had.”
The winds of change carried Nelson around the country long after he installed his last ColorGraphics system. His 48 years as a television meteorologist took him from Madison to Saint Louis to Denver, where he served for two decades as chief meteorologist at Denver7. He earned 20 Emmy awards for weather excellence and was elected a fellow of the American Meteorological Society before retiring in 2024.
“I still check the charts every single day,” Nelson says. “I just do it because I’ve always been a weather nut.”
What was it like to study meteorology at the UW in the 1970s?
The great thing about the UW [is you have] so many brushes with brilliant people. At that time, we still had some of these great meteorologists that began the department. I sat in lectures with Reid Bryson and Heinz Lettau and Werner Schwerdtfeger. I learned about climate change in the mid-1970s from Reid Bryson.
What does it mean to be a meteorologist, beyond forecasting and reporting the weather?
We need to use our skills to do the analysis and the forecasting and then tell good stories of a complex science, meteorology, to everyday Americans, and we have to do it in about three minutes. ... The challenge that I would make to most of the broadcast meteorologists out there now is don’t just hide behind the fact that the computer is so good that you can just put up that five-hour forecast that’s auto-generated. … Tell me a story. Explain to me why this is happening.
We have amazing technologies that are available to us now, but we still have a one-to-one connection with our viewer. They are inviting us into their home to tell them what’s going on, and that gives us a great deal of responsibility, but also opportunity to speak to people because there’s still a great deal of trust. … I used to say to the kids, when I was on the air, “Hey, kids. If you’re home and Mom and Dad are still at work, you might hear the sirens going off and the skies look scary. I’m going to stay on TV until this threat is over. Just keep watching me, and everything’s going to be okay.”
You also spoke to millions of students in schools over the course of your career. How does it feel to reach a live audience in that way?
I was out at Lockheed Martin — which is where they build the space satellites, out west of Denver — a few years ago. I’m doing a story about the new [Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite] they were building, and behind me there are all these technicians in their white lab coats and clean suits working on the satellite. I finished my little stand-up on the air, and about six of them are standing right behind me, and they say, “Mr. Nelson, could we take a selfie with you?” I said, “Sure. Why?” And they said, “You totally came to our grade schools when we were little kids.” Maybe my visit to them in their third-grade year inspired them to become a scientist or a space technician.
Can you share an especially memorable weather event from your career?
There was one night in 2012 that it was about 10:30 and we’d just finished the newscast. We used to say that the studio was empty before the lights went out because people just say, “Good night,” and then they’re gone. My Spidey-Sense just said to me, “I think we’re going to get some late-night thunderstorms that develop.” So I stayed in, and at about 11:30, these thunderstorms started to fire on the west side of Denver, and by midnight, we had baseball-sized hail and tornado warnings, and I was the only weathercaster that was on the air. All the other TV stations’ weather people had gone home, and they all got called into their news director’s office the next day and [were asked], “How come Nelson was on and you were at home?”
