Weathering the Gulf and the Jersey Shore with Alexa Trischler

In this episode of the Everything Weather podcast, host Kyle David speaks with meteorologist Alexa Trischler about her journey in the field of meteorology, her experiences working in different regions, and the challenges of balancing multiple roles in the weather industry. They discuss the importance of social media in weather communication, the influences that shaped Alexa's career, and provide valuable advice for aspiring meteorologists. The conversation also includes fun weather trivia and insights into the impact of weather on people's lives, particularly in New Orleans.

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About the Everything Weather Podcast

A weekly podcast where we talk with people about the weather world, explore and discuss everything weather and the many things that connect to it, and have a little fun along the way. The podcast is hosted and produced by Kyle David, a meteorologist and digital science content producer based in New Jersey.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Hello and welcome to the Everything Weather Podcast, where we talk with people about the weather world, explore and discuss everything weather, and have some fun along the way. I'm your host, Kyle David, and today I'm joined by Alexa Trisler. Alexa is a meteorologist at WWL in Louisiana. And if you're a New Jerseyan, she's also a meteorologist on the radio for Longport Media here in South Jersey. Welcome, Alexa. Thank you for joining me on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Thanks for having me. I'm very honored to be here today. I think it's so awesome that you're doing this.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Absolutely. Thank you. It means a lot that you say that. Before we get into the interview, though, I've got some fun questions for you. Are you ready? I hope so. All right. Would you rather have endless summer or endless winter?

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Endless summer. Definitely.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

I like Endless Summer?

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Okay. Would you rather walk to work through a blizzard or drive to work in a hurricane?

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Maybe. I don't know. I both of these sound interesting, but practically what I would do if I could drive probably in a cat one or cat two, that's all right. Beyond that, I don't know. It depends on the structure of the car. But I I think walking to work in a blizzard would be would look cool. So I pick walking to to work in a blizzard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

Okay. Would you rather spend a week in a scorching desert or in a freezing Arctic tundra?

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Do I have what I need in the tundra or am I just there in a bathing suit? Like, oh I'm scared.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Hmm. I guess that is a good question. Let's say you're dressed appropriately. You're dressed appropriately.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

I guess the desert. I'm gonna have to go desert.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Okay. Any desert in particular that you would select?

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Jeez. I don't know. I guess the desert, the desert southwest of this country.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

Alright, fair enough. You get some good food down there.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Uh would you rather have the same weather every day or different weather every day?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

I know it sounds boring, but I think the same every day, especially if it's nice. Weather every day. I I can't complain about that.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

So you take 76 and sunny every single day?

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Yes, I would. I would. For outdoor plans, it's like you don't have anything to worry about. For weather, but boring, but it's fun. It's practical.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

It actually leads I'm fine you say that because it leads into my last question. Would you rather never see clear skies again or never see clouds again?

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Could you imagine? Jeez. I think I would rather so you're saying it could be mostly sunny because there's a few clouds. Or are you saying it's completely covered clouds? I'm sorry for all these qualifying questions. These are really good questions.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Let's say it's like completely sunny, not a single cloud in the sky, or either like mostly cloudy or fully cloudy.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Alright, I'd rather never see a cloud again then.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Poor cloud.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

I think I'm one of those people that might be affected by the weather a little bit. A little bit. I like sobriety, though.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

I feel like that's a little bit of all of us. We gotta have some sunshine in there.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

All right, Alexa, that is the last fun question before we get into our interview and talk a little bit about your experiences with the weather, what got you interested. And every person I ask on the podcast this single question, I always ask about your weather story. So tell me about your weather story. What got you interested in all things weather?

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Great question. I feel like people have such good answers to this question. A lot of people I know say they were either afraid of storms, so they got interested in weather. I feel like my mine is more. I grew up in New Jersey by the beach, 10 minutes from the beach, and I really enjoyed experiencing all four seasons. I like the summertime, all the great weather that came in the summer, but also the thunderstorms that came out in the summertime were exciting and it was fascinating that one minute it'd be so nice outside, and all of a sudden it's this huge downpour at the beach, and you're trying to enjoy your day. I enjoyed snow days in the winter and when we would have these massive snowstorms once in a while. Because I grew up in our coastal spot, so we it wasn't as frequent as other parts of Jersey of seeing these big snow events. Getting school canceled was so fun. Also, the beautiful days in the fall and the spring and the excitement that came when spring would come and you knew summer was around the corner. So just growing up in all four seasons was really the main driver. And also I really was into television and movies growing up, which I'm sure everyone says over the last several decades. Everyone just grew up on TV and movies. And being able to combine weather and media together like that has always been interesting and really something that I'm I'm glad that I've pursued.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Yeah, I'm actually glad that you mentioned television and media because there are a few people in the meteorology and weather world that say this particular meteorologist got me interested in the weather, or this person doing this event got me interested in the weather. Were there any particular role models for you that helped shape your interest in the weather and then eventually your career in the weather?

SPEAKER_01 5:04

That's a good question. Growing up in the part of Jersey I was in, even though it was close to the beach, the closest stations that were big were the Philadelphia stations. There were some southern New Jersey stations, but they weren't as as big as, of course, the major city stations of Philadelphia. Growing up, I watched Glen Hurricane Schwartz, he was so great. Cecily Tynan, of course, Adam Joseph, Kathy Orr was another one. There were just the endless people that did weather. Kate Bilo. I remember there was a woman years ago, I think her name was Sheena Parvine or something like that. Down where I grew up, there was a station for a while, NBC 40, that's a throwback, people probably know from down in near the Jersey Shore, but there was this man named Dan Skeldon who was a legend there as well. There's just so many. And then, of course, growing up, and you move away, we're exposed to everything online, YouTube, and you see all the meteorologists from across the country from different stations across the country. I really like James Spinn, and uh, there's so many. It's like it's endless. Even before I started working at WWL TV in New Orleans, I watched the meteorologists here. So I have to shout out my own team. Meteorologist Alexander Cranford is great, meteorologist Peyton Malone, chief meteorologist Chris Franklin. Really, all in the team are so knowledgeable and so friendly and personable and just really care about people and are good at delivering what they know and they know a lot. So it's not hard to find a good meteorologist across the country.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Absolutely. And nowadays you can tap into just about any region, any market to hear the meteorologists talk about the weather. So we have a very privilege, I would say, being able to connect with different meteorologists around the country. And you mentioned a few good names there. And I'm curious, how did those particular people shape your passion for the weather and help you realize this is something you wanted to do?

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Growing up as a young kid, really, you watched you watch the news when you're a kid and you continue to do it through your teen years. And just seeing how important what they were saying was to people's lives, their their information that they're giving is so valuable. I mean, meteorologists do really important work. And even though over the years things have changed with TV, switching more to digital and online and streaming and whatnot, I still think a lot people still rely on their local meteorologists to disseminate the information and provide no hype forecasts, which I really enjoy. Sometimes with the people online, it becomes a little out of hand with what they're showing. Uh we'll probably get more into that in a little while. But just growing up and seeing what they can do for people's lives. Are they helping them plan a happy occasion on the weekend or are they getting them prepared for a blizzard coming? Are they able growing up in New Jersey in the Northeast? It's hard. It's just a short distance, the weather can be so drastically different. It's a few miles and you're talking a huge snowstorm, or you travel a little bit where I grew up closer to the coast and there's nothing. So it's just being able to give that proper, give that their expertise and give that proper call as to what's going to happen to people was always something that really stuck out for me, or tornado warnings, things like that, getting people in their safe places when something is threatening where they live.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Absolutely. And it's also a very rewarding experience too, based on people I've talked to in the broadcast world, not just in the broadcast world, but also people behind the scenes at the National Weather Service. They say helping people out is the most rewarding thing.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Yeah, I will say, like, of course, being on a National Weather Service, a meteorologist of the National Weather Service, National Hurricane Center, or on TV is extremely important. But I always think it's the first responders that go out there and actually rebuild communities and help with the cleanup after storms. Those are the real heroes. Those are the people that do the back breaking work that deserve all the praise. And of course, the people that that live through these terrible weather events that happened.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Absolutely. Not enough praise, honestly, goes to the first responders, emergency management. Those are the real people doing the good work out in the community after and during weather events. Going back to you, you talk about some weather people that have inspired you, talked about some weather in New Jersey, which for those in who don't know, New Jersey has very diverse weather. And you've got this picture, okay, maybe this is something I want to do. So how did you eventually end up going to school for the weather?

SPEAKER_01 9:13

So I always joke. People always come up to you or they just say stuff online, like they think meteorologists are stupid. Honestly, they do. That's what people think. Some people think that they shouldn't, not a lot of people, but there is a subset of people that say, oh, you went to college to think that red means hot and blue means cold. But it's not true. Like meteorology degrees require a lot of math and science. So even in high school, I knew I have to get into gear here. If I want to go to school for this difficult major, I'm gonna have to take, you know, difficult classes, which do begin at a young age, especially if you want to make it easier on yourself when you get into college. Not saying you have to. If you're young, you're in high school or in college now watching this. You don't have to over-exert yourself when you're young, but you can, it alleviates a burden when you're in college because the meteorology degree is intensive. Taking those calculus classes, as many as you can in high school before you get to college. But if not, they're there, they're there in college. Just being able to push yourself through the coursework, way to take all four semesters of calculus, one through four, different physics classes, dynamics, thermodynamics, things of that nature. So it definitely, I think one of our professors, you probably had him, Dr. Decker, I think he wrote even in one of the syllabuses, this major takes a lot of grit, and he was right. And it's a lot of work. But it's definitely rewarding. And I know a lot of people I went to school with not only did meteorology, but some of them like doubled up. They did a double major in finance or business, or they did computer programming along with it. And um, there's just a lot that can be done with meteorology. But even if you just strictly do meteorology, you can continue your education or continue master's degree, PhD, and whatnot, or you can just start working out in the field. And and as when we were in school, we graduated different times. I'm old, I'm I graduated in 2017. No, I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Um I don't think you're that old.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Yeah. It goes by fast. But even though in college we did a lot of theory and things like that, a lot of focus on a lot of equations. You really learn stuff when you start working. When you get out into the workforce, you really learn how to forecast and you really know what's going on then. So if you feel like you're in college and you've learned a lot, how does this apply? It'll become clear as you get out into the workforce.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

We're already dropping some nuggets of wisdom. I love it. So you went to Rutgers, you got this tough degree, your work, or should I say you're working on this tough degree. What are some experiences that you got involved with both inside of Rutgers and outside of Ruckers during your time getting your degree?

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Yeah, that's so important because I feel like I don't really know what kids are thinking nowadays. I just hopefully this is what their mind is on. But it's really important to get um experience in any way you can. It could be clubs. A lot of us in the meteorology program at Ruckers, you included, myself included, did Weather Watcher, where we would do weather forecasts, like if we were doing the news live on a green screen. Well, it was prerecorded, but it we were pretending like it was live. Sometimes it was live, and we would get firsthand experience with that. So if you can join a club in college related to your major, or maybe not related to your major, if it's related to something else you're interested in, that will help you understand is this something I actually like or do I hate this, or get an internship. A lot of internships that I did in college, they offer credits. You're not just wasting your time. Internships are still important, even if you don't get credits, and even if you don't get paid for them, it's still important to do them. But a lot of them will offer credits. Some do pay you in the summertime on where you get that at, but most of the time it's either credits or unpaid. But I did all different kinds of internships. I interned at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for a semester and just I was interested in air quality for a while and that side of meteorology and policy and government-related things. So I did that for a few months. And then I switched over and did News 12 in the Bronx. And I would drive from New Brunswick to the Bronx a couple days a week. So just to get a the firsthand experience of working in a live TV news studio. So as long as you can find those internships out there or study abroad or do whatever you know are interested in, it'll help you realize what you like and what you don't like.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

Yeah, and you had a few diverse experiences there. You had government work with the Department of Environmental Protection, you had news experience with News 12, and you're also working on a very tough degree. So that's a lot going on at the same time. And you eventually got it done, you finished it, you graduated. What was your next step?

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Yeah, it's a good question. And I will say the classes are really hard, especially like the prerequisites, the math and the science. I shouldn't you everyone wants to just paint everything with a perfect light, but if you happen to do poorly and maybe like a calc one or a calc two, like don't give up. I think some people don't always succeed their first time with certain math and science classes. That's normal. I think that you should take them again. Don't give up. If you keep going over and over again, you're like, okay, maybe then switch, but don't get discouraged right away. But anyway, back to your question. Good question about what was next. So yeah, when I first started college, I was like, oh, I think I want to do TV. This sounds very interesting. And then as I got through the major, I was like, maybe I don't want to do TV yet. Maybe I'll do a government job. So actually, my first job out of college, I worked for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection down in Tallahassee. So you have to be willing to move for jobs. Everyone knows that. So I moved from Jersey down to Tallahassee, Florida. I worked there for about a year doing air quality stuff like permits for power plants, things of that nature. I used this software called AirMod, where it modeled air pollutants and it incorporated meteorology. It was really interesting. It was a really important job. We got to travel to different parts of Florida for different conferences on different things. And it was really awesome. And I worked there for a year. People were so nice. But then I feel like as I was working there, I got the itch that I had when I was younger to do TV. And I figured now is the time to do it. I now remember. So I applied to a television station in West Virginia, in Wheeling, West Virginia, uh, which is about an hour from Pittsburgh. And my dad's actually from Pittsburgh originally. So it wasn't so foreign to move to West Virginia. And then I worked in TV there. And it's funny because I didn't have a demo reel. So when you want to pursue TV, you usually put a demo reel together from college, at least the ones where we had our Weather Watcher Club. I didn't really, I just had a few videos, and luckily the news director there took a chance on me. So a message to people if they don't really have everything lined up, they don't have a demo reel, they don't have everything prepared, still try. Reach out to news stations across the country, cold call them, say, listen, I'm passionate, give me a chance, because they might, especially nowadays, it's sometimes it's hard to find people. But anyway, I worked in West Virginia for a year and a half as a meteorologist on the weekends, but I also was a reporter for an MMGA. So sometimes when you're a meteorologist and you want to get into the news field, you know, they make you be reported too, and you report on general assignment stuff like fires and anything that you could possibly murders, unfortunately, thing, anything that you could think of nowadays because the TV landscape has changed, you're on your own. Like you shoot, write, edit, go live all by yourself. You don't really have a cameraman, things like that. So you're an MMJ, which is really rewarding. Like I feel like I didn't learn how to be a person and be a proper individual and know how to work until I was a multimedia journalist at MMJ, because you learn time management and you really learn a lot. So while weather is my main thing, I actually did enjoy being a reporter. And then I started doing radio back in 2020. So, like you mentioned, I do the radio hits for Longport Media and New Jersey, where I grew up in that southeastern New Jersey shore area. So I do just every single day, I do 14 weather hits for them, just all day weather for that area. And then two other stops. I also worked, I moved back to Tallahassee to work in TV there for a couple years. And then I was also a MMJ weekend meteorologist there because I did like the diversity of being able to do weather and report out in the field. And then now I'm in New Orleans. I've been here since uh June of 2023, and I'm full-time meteorologist here five days a week.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

So you've had uh quite the roller coaster, not just with jobs and industries, but also locations as well. Right. Of all the places that you've worked, which one is your favorite?

SPEAKER_01 17:13

New Orleans, hands down, the best place in the world. If people are like, I don't know where to live, I don't know where to build my life, and you're young, come to New Orleans. And I'm not just saying that just to be like weird or whatever. It's so nice here. People are really nice, it's fun, there's always something going on. It's just it's a great people will welcome you with open arms. It's really a wonderful place. And that's and then back to what I was the fact that I moved around a lot. If you want to work in TV, as people know, you pay your dues, you have to go from smaller markets to bigger markets, and that's just how it is. But the good thing is that nowadays I feel like they're taking a chance more on people that just graduate college and they say, What? We'll give you a chance working in this pretty decent market size. That's another positive thing that's happened over the years. They're loosening that requirement a little bit, which is nice.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Yeah, and the the TV communication landscape is it's constantly changing. So there's always, I mean, I've seen it, there's always new opportunities for working in that profession as well. But speaking about your profession, you do weather for New Orleans, you do weather for New Jersey, but in different capacities. So tell me a little bit about your day-to-day with your jobs.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Yes, with my TV job in New Orleans, I come into work, I forecast the weather, run it down, look at all the models, figure out what the forecast is going to be for the day, which takes me and depends on the weather, of course, but like an hour. I like to block out enough time to know what's going on. You look at the upper air maps, everything, and then you write it out old fashioned. I we all do the same thing, my whole team. Pencil and paper, write down the forecast. Then after we do that, I start building my graphics, you put all the information in, organize the show, and then we have other tasks that we have to do. A lot of our stuff goes online, of course. We have our digital duties, we have our website articles that we do, we have social media posting that we have to do, we have radio. Actually, in New Orleans, we have an agreement with a radio station here where we send them radio hits for the day. We do marine and tide forecasting. We sometimes will record stories if we something's going on, or we'll have other segments that we're working on that do air on our digital and streaming platforms. So it's just a dynamic sort of day. During the week, usually I just do the the noon hour show because there's multiple shows throughout the day. Noon hour show. So I only have one show on my nine to five schedule. And then on the weekends, I have a few shows in the morning when I do the weekend morning shift. And the thing is with TV, you're always changing. You're filling in. Sometimes I fill in for the cheap and do his evening shift, or I do the morning shift. And the morning show is if you're a morning meteorologist, like you're a different breed because they wake up 1, 2 a.m., they're on air at 4:30 in the morning and they don't stop till 9 or 10 in the morning. So it's a long thing. We just to keep it moving. Sometimes we're out in the field doing live reports. If there's a storm coming, they might send us out in our weather vehicle, the storm tracking car that we have, and we'll go out and report live from the scene. If it's a big weather day, we're working non-stop, like when hurricane comes in or there's severe weather, we're working 12, 13 hour shifts until the next meteorologist comes in. And of course, if there's a tornado warning, we're jumping on air. That's a requirement. You get right on air and you cover the duration of the tornado warning. If there's a hurricane coming, we're just we're pretty much wall-to-wall coverage. If it's coming into our area, we're just constantly on air. And it's good because people know exactly what's going on. You you quell people's fears, you make sure people are aware of their situation if they have to evacuate, if they're okay, if they can stay. And the more you're on air, the more you feel like the people in your community are your family, which is really great.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

Absolutely. And I'm glad that you mentioned talking about helping people with the weather, communicating that, hey, there's a tornado on the ground, situations like that, because the meteorologist has to come communicate complex scientific things on the fly. Tell me a little bit how you communicate complex weather to, as you said, your community, in a way, your family down in New Orleans.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Yeah, so it's funny that it's not only are you telling people what's going on, and it's sometimes difficult to do all the comprehend and then spit it out. We have these things in our ears called IFBs, and it's like the FBI in the FBI movies, they'll have an earpiece in the air, they're like looking around and stuff. That's what we have because in the back in our studio, it's obviously you see us on camera, we're in front of the green screen, but there's a whole control room where there's like directors and producers and they talk to us in our ear. So sometimes when it's a really tense situation, there's a tornado warning, we're dissecting the information, we're looking at the radar data, we're looking at the wind velocities, we're telling people what the wind speeds are. Are where the rotation is, but also like someone in my ear is telling me, all right, we're going to take this camera shot in whatever town, toss to this now. Okay. And then so you have to relax, keep yourself in check, and be able to go from one thing to the next, be able to multitask, which we were talking about earlier. I mean, everyone multitests in all their in their jobs. And there are a lot more difficult jobs out there than being a TV personality, a TV meteorologist. But it is difficult. Being live on camera, keeping yourself cool, getting the information out as it's coming in while you're standing there. Like you don't have time to think about it. You're just like, all right, boom, instinct takes over. Let me just tell you exactly what I'm seeing. And sometimes it's not the most smooth thing ever, but really the most important thing is that people get the critical information they need to hunker down if there's a tornado coming in, God forbid, where to go, where the safest places are, if they need to evacuate. Hopefully they got that information to them sooner than the storm uh bearing down. But it's definitely a lot sometimes. But you get used to it. Over the years, that's why you pay your dues. Like when you're graduated college, you don't just start working in a huge city. That's why you have to go to maybe the middle of nowhere on and go and serve that community for a couple years, and then you maybe if you don't, if you want to move to a different city, you can. If you like it there, great, you should stay, because that's that happens a lot, and that's nice. It's not always great to flock to a huge city like New York or LA. It's nice to build a up a smaller town like New Orleans. It's it's a mid-sized city, but it's a wonderful place.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

I wouldn't say it's a small city. New Orleans is pretty big.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Yeah, I'll call it a mid-sized city. I we joke here, we call it a small city, but it's mid-sized. It's pretty big. It was a lot bigger before for Hurricane Katrina. And we were talking about weather and how it shapes people's lives. And people I work with grew up here when they were kids, and then Hurricane Katrina came in and just ruined everything, and then they had to move away, and they grew up in Texas or other states like that. But fortunately they got to come back as adults and work here and and come back after you know going through such horrible things with with Katrina. So weather really does shape people's lives completely.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

Definitely does. It's sad to hear that people had to leave because of Hurricane Gratry, but it's also good to hear that they're coming back as well to their hometown, their home state, because it's home for them.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Yeah. Oh my God. It's really a have you been to New Orleans before?

SPEAKER_02 24:18

I have not yet, no.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

You'll have to visit. It's completely like I visited as a tourist a couple times growing up and younger in my early 20s, but after moving here, it's you feel like you live in a different country, but in the best way possible. It's good.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

More of the reason to go there. And if whoever does the whoever does the tourism ads for the city of New Orleans, feel free to take that snippet for your promotion. We're gonna take a take a quick break right here, but don't go anywhere. We still have plenty of more podcasts left, so stay tuned. On this day in weather history, we return to the 1925 Florida Tropical Storm. On November 27th, a tropical depression formed just to the southeast of the Yucatan Peninsula. As it drifted southeastward, the unusually warm November waters of the Caribbean Sea allowed the system to intensify slowly into a tropical storm. On November 29th, the tropical storm began to track north, clipping the western tip of Cuba and entering the Gulf of Mexico. As it did, the storm started to turn east towards West Florida and become more organized. On December 1st, the storm eventually made landfall near Fort Myers, Florida, with winds up to 65 miles an hour. After tracking across the Florida Peninsula and weakening, the storm re-emerged over the Atlantic the next day. It began to transition into an extra tropical storm and gain hurricane force winds. The storm turned on a more northerly course towards North Carolina, eventually moving ashore between Wilmington and Cape Patters on December 2nd. The storm then quickly turned east away from the United States. The impacts from this brief tropical storm were severe. The storm along Florida's Gulf Coast caused significant property and crop damage. High winds uprooted power lines. High winds uprooted trees, power lines, and telegraph wires along the Stuanee River. Storm surge damaged structures over 100 feet inland in areas previously considered safe. In North Carolina, heavy rains and strong winds battered the coast. Cape Hatterst was temporarily isolated due to down power lines, and numerous buildings and boats sustained considerable damage. The storm's toll was heavy. Four people died near Tampa when a house collapsed and a tree limb shrunk a woman during the storm. At sea, a schooner with seven people aboard sank with no survivors, and the American SS Cottapaxi went down, drowning all 30 crew members. Two other boats off the coast of Daytona Beach, Florida, and Savannah, Georgia sank as a result of the storm, bringing the at-sea death toll up to at least 55. Property losses were estimated in the millions, with Jacksonville alone suffering almost$1 million in damages. The citrus industry in Florida took a hit estimated to exceed$600,000. Overall, the storm claimed 73 lives directly and caused$3 million in damages, equivalent to more than$54 million in 2024. This impactful late season storm was one of the deadliest storms to hit the United States to not become a hurricane, and also serves as a reminder to the destructive potential of tropical systems even in November and December. We've been talking a little bit about her weather story and how she got into New Orleans to cover the weather, but before we get back to that conversation, I've got another fun game for you, Alexa. Just that weather quote. So I have four quotes. Some of them are gonna be from movies, some is one's gonna be from a song, and one is actually going to be from a piece of literature. So I'll start you off easy. You ready to you ready for this?

SPEAKER_01 28:28

I hope I hope I get them right. Okay, yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

Alright, so the first one I hope is easy. This one's from a movie. The sucks zone. The point basically the twister sucks you up. That's not the technical term for it, obviously. Where is that from? Twister? You are correct. It is from Twister, from the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. Rest in peace in the movie. Next one is another movie. Well, mankind survived the last ice age. We are certainly capable of surviving this one. The only question is, will we learn from our mistakes?

SPEAKER_01 29:07

The day after tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

You are correct. It is the day after tomorrow. Dennis Quaid's character said that. Alright, now it's gonna get a little bit harder. So this one is from a song, and I'll have you also guess the artist if you can. Someone told me long ago there's a calm before the storm. I know it's been coming for some time when it's over. So they say it'll rain on a sunny day. I know shining down like water. I want to know.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Come on. Have you ever seen the rain from CCR, Green is clear water revival?

SPEAKER_02 29:40

You are correct. All right, so I guess that was an easier one for you. But this one I can't guarantee is going to be that easy. This one, this last one, is from a piece of literature. And if I butcher the quote, I apologize because it is in old English. Maybe that's a hint for you. Another storm brewing. I hear it sing in the wind. Yon same black cloud, yon huge one. Looks like a foul bombard that would shed his liquor. If it should thunder as it did before, it I know not where to hide my head. Yon same cloud cannot choose but fail by pale force. Where's that quote from?

SPEAKER_00 30:25

It's a book.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

It is a play. I'll call it a piece of literature because it's been in books and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

I feel like I should know this. It's like I don't know. I should know. You're gonna tell me, I'm gonna be mad. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 30:42

I'll give you a hint of what it's from. It is from a playwright done by William Shakespeare.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

So I have to guess his play. The play that it's from. Yes. I don't know. Hamlet? I don't know. Is that even I don't know. What is it?

SPEAKER_02 30:59

It is from The Tempest.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

Hmm. I'm terrible.

SPEAKER_02 31:03

It's a little bit of a tougher one, I'll be honest. But you did very good overall. I figured that Clearwater, Crean's Clearwater Revival would be easy.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

Man, I need to brush up on my old literature. I used to be good at this stuff, but I I'm I don't know. I'm failing.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

You have a chance to redeem yourself at the end with weather or not. So you did a good job so far. But let's go back to our conversation that we were having. You talked about your weather story, you grew up watching meteorologists in your area and outside of your area as well. And you eventually went to Rutgers, you had an air quality job, and then you went to West Virginia, Tallahassee, well, Tallahassee before. And now you're in New Orleans, you're doing the weather, but you also do the weather for New Jersey as well. So you do the weather for two different areas. How do you balance that?

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Yeah, so completely separate. So I do my actual job, which is my WWL Louisiana TV job, boom, eight hours a day, sometimes more depending on the weather. And then at night, when I come home, or depends on what time I'm not working, my regular job, I'll just open up my laptop and forecast the weather. Similar thing that I do for my other job. Look at all the models, run it down, see what's going to happen. And with the weather hits, it's every single day. And I send them 14 weather hits a day because it plays in three-hour increments. So it's just covered 24 hours a day every day. You hear my frickin' voice on TV. Or not TV.

SPEAKER_02 32:26

On the airwaves.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

Yeah. I hear my my voice on the radio every three so many minutes on the stations in southeastern New Jersey at the Jersey Shore. So yeah, it's pretty similar. Once you get the forecasting piece down, you can pretty much do any forecasting for any job across the entire country. Like if you live in New Jersey and you have a job and you want to maybe pick up another job because you want to pay your bills or whatever, maybe you just want more experience. As long as you can forecast where you're at, and you can forecast anywhere. I know it's a little difficult if you were doing maybe a mountainous region out west, things of that nature, but a lot of people forecast remotely. It's pretty easy. If you have a computer, you have internet access and you have computer weather models to look at, you can forecast anywhere, not only in the country, but across the world. A little more difficult, but if you wanted to, you could.

SPEAKER_02 33:13

Yeah, there's some people who do it for the fun of it, too. I'll name drop of Matthew Cappucci at one point was doing weather for a TV station. He was doing it for he's still doing it for my radar. He's doing he used to do radio hits for the NPR station in Washington. That man is a myth. And if you're listening to Matthew Capucci, like kudos to you for being able to do all that. And there's a lot of other people that do that too, and we just don't see that. But it's a big thing having to do whether not just for one place, but for two places. And but as you said, it's it's a balancing out. Once you get down for one, then it's similar for the other one.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

Yeah, it's so funny. You're naming all these legendary meteorologists. There's just so many. There's so many. It's crazy. Like I I wish I could just have a list and just name them all. But yeah, there are so many people out there that are doing such important and difficult work, it's pretty remarkable.

SPEAKER_02 34:08

It is, yeah. But I've heard a lot of conversation about it being a very demanding field. And I know that firsthand as well. But I wanted to ask you, how do you manage your work-life balance in such a demanding field?

SPEAKER_01 34:22

Luckily, it gets easier over time. At first, I feel like when you get out into the industry, you do work a lot and you don't get paid that much. It's just the nature of being in TV news. They realize that they can pay people a lot less because people still want to do it. But now, after working in this is my third TV station, it becomes a lot better. They're more understanding about your work-life balance. So there are some days where you have to work 12, 13 hours. That's just it. Sometimes the news is delayed because there's sports or other TV shows going on. So you get to work later, which is it's fine. But all comes out in the wash, they work with you most of the time. If you have a good team, they'll work with you and help you take time off when you need it. But I will say with TV and news, there's no days off. So you're working Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving, weekends, holidays, this, that, overnight, if you need to. Sometimes it's just you have to realize this is what you signed up for. And if you have to work long and it's inconvenient, it there will be a time where it's nice out and the weather will be quiet and you won't have to have to kill yourself as much.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

Simply put, the weather does not stop, and neither do meteorologists.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

Yeah, and it's it's yeah. No, go ahead. Sorry. So it's just it's funny because like it'd be maybe a news thing will happen, maybe there will be a fire or something, and you don't think that you're related to this, but because the news team is out, like the reporters are out trying to get on the scene, they'll throw weather up. So you'll just be like minding your business on like a Wednesday and it's perfectly sunny, but a fire will like erupt when somewhere a few miles away, but they'll throw weather on to to fit to get on the scene and give the information because there's a fire that's related to weather, the wind, where's the fire? Where's the smoke going? So some unexpected things will happen when you work on TV weather.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

Absolutely too. And I actually want to bring back something we talked about earlier, because you had experience as an air quality meteorologist too, and I'm curious, how has that experience helped you for broadcast meteorology? Has it made it better? Has it been worse?

SPEAKER_01 36:14

You know, it actually has helped because I do feel like sometimes I really enjoy healthcare. And I sometimes I'm like, maybe I should have tried to become a doctor. I know it's a lot easier said than done, but I I really like healthcare and people's quality of life. So I liked air quality modeling because it has to do with pollution. So I take elements of pollutants going to be a problem today, looking at the different weather patterns that are happening. I do feel like I incorporate some more air quality related things in my forecasts to let people know if they're a sensitive group, they have asthma, things of that nature. Today would be a day that you should take it easy outside. So I always have been interested in people's well-being, I would say. I'm sure a lot of people are, but I do incorporate more air quality and air pollution related in my forecasts sometimes, which is good.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

Yeah, and you know, it's a that's a unique perspective because not a lot of people in the weather world think about the health impacts, the well-being impacts. How do you take that priority and use that to shape your content down in New Orleans and even with New Jersey as well?

SPEAKER_01 37:22

Yeah, that's definitely one element of it. If really the biggest reason people say they get into weather, and I agree, is to protect people and to help save people's lives. I know that sounds very extreme, but sometimes that is the case. So framing it in that vein where you're just really all that matters is getting information to people so they can plan their lives, whether it's a good day or a bad day. So that's really why most meteorologists get into broadcasting. That's the frame of mind, the best frame of mind to be. And that's what I always have to remind myself. It's not about you. It's not about anything that has to do with you. The only thing that you are doing is you're the messenger as to what's going on so people can know is this going to be a bad event? Is this going to be a bad storm? Are they going to have to worry about this? Or is this no big deal? And that's the thing these days, which I'm sure everyone knows, the noise weather people, the noise meteorologist, is social media, because nowadays there'll be people that they love weather, which is cool, but they'll show these crazy model runs of a hurricane impacting Florida one week from now. And it's not true because it's too far out to know for sure. So showing that model run one week, maybe even 10 days away from currently where you're at, is not useful because it changes from one run to the next. When a storm isn't formed, the computer models change from one run to the next. That's why meteorologists use a whole suite of different, they look at trends. They use a whole, they use ensemble models where they take different solutions to better understand what's going to happen. They don't just look at one computer output because those are not very useful in when there's a lot of time still separating you and the storm. It's not that they're ignoring those model runs, it's just they know it's not set in stone and it's better to look at trends and to look at a whole composition of models rather than just to rely on something they see so far out in time that will change. So sometimes the weather reports that you get on YouTube and TikTok are more clickbaity. I I was at a restaurant the other day across from where I live, and this woman was like, I saw on TikTok there's gonna be a huge hurricane like impacting somewhere in the country. And I'm like, I have no idea what you're talking about. I can't believe that someone is saying that online and it ended up not being true. It was it was a few weeks ago. It wasn't one of the big, it wasn't Helene or Milton. It was after that. And people were there was some suspicious activity, I would say, going on after a cold front came through the deep south. But showing these model runs where there's a hurricane impacting someone 10 or 12 days from a current time is not useful. So it's just important to to watch trusted sources, watch the NW, National Weather Service Meteorologists, National Hurricane Center Meteorologists, your local TV weather folks, because they deliver the no-hype forecasts.

SPEAKER_02 40:08

For sure. And I'm glad that you brought up Hurricane Helene and Milton because those were some notable cases where social media information and disinformation was rampant, and you know, especially on TikTok, as you had mentioned. And but at the same time, social media is a very important tool for a broadcast meteorologist like yourself. So, how do you see the role of a broadcast meteorologist evolving on social media these days or even in the future?

SPEAKER_01 40:36

That's great. I think it's really important for even TV meteorologists, and even if you're not on TV and you are degreed meteorologists and you're very knowledgeable on the subject, to make sure when you are on social media, you're on TikTok, you're on whatever YouTube, you just describe to people what's going to happen. I like that the meteorologists now have to get in from TV, have to get in front of social media and say, I know that you're seeing these scary model runs 10, 12 days from now that look like the end of the world is coming to where you live. But to explain why that might not be true, okay, if the model keeps showing this run after run and all the ensemble models, the trends show that this is going to happen, okay, we're not going to ignore it. But to put stock in something so far out in time is it's important for meteorologists to explain to their audience what they're seeing, not to ignore what they see, to make sure they feel comforted and prepared. I know they're not ignoring these things. They just don't want to cause over, you know, dramatization of things that don't need to be. So as long as people like myself, you get online and are able to properly dissect the information that they're seeing and let people know with advanced notice, because I don't want people to be mad at me or mad at whether that meteorologist by saying, Oh, don't worry, don't worry. We we want people to prepare. We just want to make sure the right people are prepared and you're not going through this frenzy for no reason. So as long as they're updating it on a consistent basis, they're being thorough about what they're seeing and they're letting people know, don't overreact, don't pay attention to the more of the clickbait material, pay attention to what I know because let me show you my track record. And admit if they're if they don't know something, admit the uncertainties that they have. It's admit that it's difficult to know. And sometimes things, especially this hurricane season, things have been crazy and things change. It's been a little unexpected the way things have played out in with Milton and Helene, especially.

SPEAKER_02 42:31

Absolutely. And let's even look further down the road. How do you see the broadcast meteorology world, or I even include the digital meteorology world changing in the next year, five years, or if you want to be bold, 10 years in the future?

SPEAKER_01 42:46

Yeah, it's hard. I know, right? I wish I could know I could make a bet on it and like maybe make some money or something. Like all these apps online. Let let me like prognosticate like the cr how whatever things are gonna go anyway.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

Or business going in the right area.

SPEAKER_01 42:58

Yeah, exactly. Well, even in the last 10 years, 15 years, news has changed so much. It's definitely been scaled back. There are a lot less people in the newsrooms, a lot less people on the studio floor. They know, like one person will do a three-person job now, three people's job. But I think even they say TV's going away, I think it'll always be there. And I think even in 10 years from now, while it might look different, there might be what one they're probably gonna make it so there's one station maybe for a region. I'm just making I I'm just pr maybe this might be hypothetically, yeah. Cause they they do this now with the control rooms, the digital rooms. They'll have they used to have people in-house. Now someone in some random city in the Midwest will do all of our programming, our controlling from that one place. So maybe there will be less newsrooms across the country, but I think there will always be a live weather element no matter where you're at. And even if, say, all TVs disappear, they're done with TV news, okay, we're done, it'll be on. Of course. So as long as you're passionate about meteorology, you want to do TV weather, there will be a way. Whether it's still live on air or if it's online or if it's on the radio, there is going to be something. As long as you keep your social media skills in check, which I know young people, that's like no-brainer for them. I think that there will always be a need for someone to dissect and provide these forecasts. The pay might not be so good. Like you might have to do multiple jobs. I don't want to discourage people, but I'll be real. Right away, you might not be getting paid what you think you should be getting paid, but that's just how it is. Maybe if you did something else, you would make more. I don't know. But as time goes on, you will make what you a livable wage, but you might have to do multiple jobs. You might have to do multiple weather things, which is fun. A lot of people are weather fanatics, so they don't mind doing multiple positions.

SPEAKER_02 44:47

It's going to be a very interesting world, and I'm sure you're eager to see what it looks like. I'm eager to see what it looks like. It's going to be very interesting in the world of weather communications. But I want to turn back for a second and look back at your career because you've had a few different experiences. You still have some experiences under your belt that you are working on. What is the most memorable experience from you in your career?

SPEAKER_01 45:15

Well, I really working in New Orleans. I like meeting people when I'm out and about and just being able to give people information here because people are so affected by weather in New Orleans specifically. Weather is it's a sensitive topic for people here. So being uh able to be a part of this city as they recover from Katrina, which is almost 20 years ago, they recur they recover from Ida, which was a few years ago, just being able to be part of this community is really remarkable. But then going back in my former jobs, being able to not only do weather, but also be a reporter or an MMJ, as they call it, just meeting deadlines that you feel are physically impossible, once you do those things, you realize, okay, you can do a lot, you can do a lot of things, you can do almost anything in the workforce. So being able to push yourself in your job, even though everyone says a quiet quitting trend, don't push yourself, blah, blah, blah, like clock in, clock out, do the bare minimum, honestly, you were gonna have to push yourself to become a better person. I know it's you don't have to do it forever, but in order to become well-rounded and pretty well adjusted, I feel like being a reporter and meeting deadlines and running from place to place and doing everything yourself, like having no help from anyone, just completely on your own in every capacity to get something on air, you feel like you've accomplished something. So if a weather person, if a weather, I don't even know what to call it, if someone is in college and they are about to graduate or they will be graduating soon and they want to do TV, and there's a job that says weather slash MMJ, meteorologist slash mmj, don't be discouraged. It might be really hard, you might hate it, but give it a try. It'll get your foot in the door for sure.

SPEAKER_02 46:55

I'm glad you brought up that last point there because I want to turn back the clocks. Let's say we can go back in time to your younger self, or you're even talking to somebody who was who is in the position you were in. What advice would you offer them? What would you tell them?

SPEAKER_01 47:12

That's a good question. Don't get old. No, I'm kidding. Let's see. What would I give their advice? I would say don't be discouraged. If you're not hearing back from a place, just keep applying. I know they probably hear this all the time from their parents or their peers or whatever, but I just feel like when I graduated college, I applied to so many jobs and I didn't hear back from most of them. But I think of it will take a while too. Like I graduated in May and I didn't start working until that next year. So it took several months for me to find a job. If that happens to you, you might have to do some freelance work. You might have to freelance weather, write some write a column for the weather. That's what I did in the meantime. I was a freelance for a while. Shout out to Joe Martucci. He we've worked alongside each other. I know Joe. Another the legend list continues. But so I was like his freelance for him at the Press of Atlantic City in the meantime while I was looking for a full-time job several years ago. Maybe you'll work at a restaurant or something. I know it doesn't seem glamorous, but if you have bills to pay, you have to find a job somewhere. But I think eventually you will find a career job. And then once you get that first one, it'll become easier and easier to get the next. And a networking, of course, is important as as everyone always says, who knows most of the time that it's true, unfortunately, but it's just the nature of the game. Make sure you network. Don't cut yourself off. Don't be, oh, I'm all alone. This is can be done all on my own, because you'd be surprised how much people are willing to help you.

SPEAKER_02 48:39

Yeah, and honestly, that's a piece, those are pieces of wisdom that can carry over into the non-weather world as well for those who are working outside of the weather world. So very great pieces of advice from there. We got one last fun thing for you. This is weather or not. So we're gonna test your weather and non-weather related trivia. Got four questions for you here, all multiple choice, of course, and we'll see how you do. You ready?

SPEAKER_01 49:07

Yes, I think so.

SPEAKER_02 49:08

All right. This is whether or not your question is related to hurricanes. At what wind speed does a tropical storm become hurricane? Is it A70, B 72, C 74, or D76?

SPEAKER_01 49:25

C 74.

SPEAKER_02 49:27

You are correct. It is C74. This is whether or not your question is related to classic horror. Friday the 13th took place at Camp Crystal Lake. Which New Jersey town was the first movie filmed in? Is it A Hackettstown? B Blairstown, C, Lodi, or D, New Brunswick.

SPEAKER_01 49:53

Oh no, I like no, I think it was it Hackettstown?

SPEAKER_02 49:59

Is that your final guess?

SPEAKER_01 50:00

Oh, it's a different one altogether. Okay, I guess I'm going A, Hackettstown.

SPEAKER_02 50:04

I'll say that they filmed in a few different towns that were not mentioned, but the filming was primarily done in one of those four towns.

SPEAKER_01 50:12

I'm going Hackettstown, A.

SPEAKER_02 50:14

You are incorrect. It was Blairstown.

SPEAKER_01 50:22

I feel like I did know this back in the day. Well, then they call it Camp Crystal Lake, but what's it actually called in Jersey?

SPEAKER_02 50:28

Yeah, so there it was actually a a real Boy Scout camp. Do you do you remember the name?

SPEAKER_01 50:33

No, I don't. I'm terrible.

SPEAKER_02 50:35

Obi Bosco is the name that she filmed at.

SPEAKER_01 50:39

I never got that. It is it's scary.

SPEAKER_02 50:42

We can it no, it was just it's it's an interesting place, and nobody's gonna remember that name, to be honest. It's a weird name.

SPEAKER_01 50:50

I like that part of New Jersey. Actually, my roommate in college, Lexi Skinner, another legendary meteorologist, she's uh works for NJDEP, but she's from Sparta, so I got to go up there, and that's a great part of Jersey. The northwestern part is it's cool. All of Jersey is very cool, another good place to live. Eventually, I when I'm older, I think I'll want to go back. Anyway, side side note. Moving on.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

And for all those that hate New Jersey, you are missing out on all the fun here.

SPEAKER_01 51:14

So they don't know. They don't know. They just don't know.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

They don't. So this is whether or not your question is related to Louisiana weather. Great storm. The Great Storm of 1856 was a major hurricane that hit Louisiana on August 10th, 1856. It also goes by another name. The name of the island it made landfall over and also split up. What's the name of that island? Is it A, Marsh Island, B, Last Island, C, Pelican Island, or D, Whiskey Island?

SPEAKER_01 51:48

Marsh. Is it Marsh Island? I think it was Marsh Island.

SPEAKER_02 51:51

I'm going with you are incorrect. It is Last Island.

SPEAKER_01 51:58

Dang, I remember hearing about this. I forgot about that. I'm gonna get it.

SPEAKER_02 52:02

We got one more for you that it's all good. We got one more for you. This is gonna test your local knowledge in a way. This is whether or not your question is related to the Sopranos. During the first few episodes of the Sopranos, who was boss of the Essex County Crime Family? Is it A, Johnny Boy Soprano, B, Junior Soprano, C, John Sacramony, or D. Jackie April Sr.?

SPEAKER_01 52:32

The last one, Jackie April Sr.

SPEAKER_02 52:35

So you file a guess? Yes. You are correct. It is Jackie April Sr. And here's an on-the-fly trivia for you related to the Sopranos. In the Soprano episode, nobody knows anything. Detective Vin MacAzen, if I butchered that, I'm sorry, leaps from his death on this New Jersey bridge over the Raritan Valley, uh the Raritan River to the name of that bridge.

SPEAKER_00 53:00

No, I don't, but I can see it and I don't know the name of it. What is it?

SPEAKER_02 53:04

The Donald Goodkine Bridge. I actually had to look that up. Fun little fact. If you are a Soprano fan and you're also from New Jersey, there you go. I just dropped some soprano knowledge for you. So that's uh that is the end of our weather trivia and the end of our interview. But before you go, how can people stay tuned with your work, Alexa?

SPEAKER_01 53:27

You can I know what's so funny. I I shouldn't say this. As much as social media is important, I don't like social media. I never liked it when I was a kid. I always thought it was going to be a phase, but it's our current life completely. Anyway, look me up online, Alexa Trichler, T-R-I-S-C-H-L-A-R, Facebook, Twitter. Yeah, I'm on there, and I'm WWLTB.com is my station's website.

SPEAKER_02 53:50

And we'll make sure for those listening on the podcast, we'll make sure to link all of those in our show notes as well for you to follow, Alexa. So thank you, Alexa, for joining me on the Everything Weather podcast. And thank you to the listener for listening to this episode. And we will see you on the next one.