1 Transcript of “Vanessa Alonso, Sunrise/Midday Meteorologist At
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Transcript of “Vanessa Alonso, Sunrise/Midday Meteorologist at WCBI in Columbus, Mississippi” Clear Skies Ahead: Conversations about Careers in Meteorology and Beyond January 12, 2021 Kelly Savoie: Welcome to the American Meteorological Society's podcast series on careers in the atmospheric and related sciences. I'm Kelly Savoie, and I'm here with Rex Horner, and we'll be your hosts. Our podcast series will give you the opportunity to step into the shoes of an expert working in weather, water, and climate sciences. Rex Horner: We are excited to introduce today's guest, Vanessa Alonso, the Sunrise/Midday Meteorologist at WCBI in Columbus, Mississippi. Welcome, Vanessa. Thanks so much for joining us. Vanessa Alonso: No, thank you guys for inviting me to be here with you today. I can't tell you how much this means to me. I have been an active member of the AMS — wow, seems like forever. This is just another way of me to contributing to you guys and everything you have done for me. Kelly: Well, that's great. Vanessa, could you tell us a little bit about your educational background and what sparked your interest in meteorology? Vanessa: Yes. I have a very interesting story with that. I have actually always wanted to be a meteorologist since I was a kid. I was only seven years old when a Category 5 — Hurricane Andrew — devastated my hometown of Miami, Florida on August 24th, 1992. There are little things that I still remember very well about that night. I just remembered hearing this constant roar outside my house that just wouldn't stop. I lived in Coral Gables at the time. That is where the northern eyewall of the storm was just passing through. I lived actually a couple of blocks from the National Hurricane Center, and as everyone knows, the famous story, the Miami radar was lost at the National Hurricane Center that same night when Andrew was passing through South Florida. I just remember hearing that constant roaring sound of that 165 mile per hour wind. Vanessa: My mom remembers vividly this noise on our roof of the house. It was making this like, errr, errr [impression of sound]. My dad literally thought at that point that we were about to lose our roof. We were watching Bryan Norcross — obviously Bryan Norcross, he was the hero of Miami that night. My dad remembers Bryan Norcross saying at that moment, "Get a mattress, get into a place with no windows, and just hunker down." We grabbed the mattress from my parents' bedroom. We hunkered in there. And at that moment we just heard this loud noise and we realized one of our windows blew out. 1 Vanessa: Thankfully, that was the only issue we had at our home. My home continued standing, but as you went miles South of Coral Gables into Kendall, into Florida City, Homestead, it was like a nuclear bomb went off. It was just damage for miles and miles, and you just didn't know where that ended. Me being a kid, it was like, "How did this happen?" Vanessa: I just remembered when school started up again, a few weeks later, I remembered going to the library and getting every single book I could think of related to weather and meteorology. That kind of inspired me to go into weather and weather just became a hobby for me growing up. Then I realized when I was going through high school, I was really good at math, I was really good in science, physics, chemistry. I found out that you can make weather into a career by being a meteorologist, and me being the math [and] science whiz I was, I decided to go for it. I was actually the first student from the University of Miami in 2008 to be the first student to receive a Bachelor of Science in Communication in both Meteorology and Broadcast Journalism. There was no broadcast meteorology program when I arrived at the University of Miami. Vanessa: When everyone, my advisors, my teachers, my professors saw the drive that I had into making this dream a career, they were behind me 100%. They were like, "We're interested in starting a broadcast meteorology program, would you like to be our little guinea pig for this program?" I did it. It took me five years, a lot of physics, math, dynamics, forecasting, a lot of long nights studying, lots of coffee — coffee being my best friend in college — but I did it. It was one of the best days of my life when I walked down that stage and got my degree in meteorology. It was one of the best feelings ever. Kelly: That's so exciting that you were the first student in that program. How awesome. Vanessa: Oh, it was great being that mark. Since I have graduated 12 years ago, at least, I know about 100 kids [that] have graduated through that program. I know a few who have made it to the bigger markets. To know that I was able to open up that door for these kids to make their dreams come true, it makes me feel good. Rex: What was the first market, Vanessa, that you made your way into after graduation, and what was your career path after that first job up into where you found yourself now? Vanessa: I was very fortunate that I was able to get a lot of experience in college. I did internships at CNN in Atlanta, Georgia. I was able to do internships at WTVJ NBC 6 in Miami, WSVN Channel 7 Fox in Miami, and WFROR-CBS 4 Miami. I was also very heavily involved as a weather forecaster for our college stations news show, News Vision. That helped me a lot to build my resume. Unfortunately, in 2008, I graduated at the worst possible time to be a graduate. As we all know, we were going through a recession at that at the time. I just remembered every week for about a year, I was working in retail as 2 an assistant manager in Victoria Secret, just trying to get by, trying to make money. I just remembered going to the post office every week, sending out — these youngsters wouldn't believe it — back then you would have to send DVDs. Vanessa: That's something that I've noticed that has evolved over these last 12 years I've been in the real world, that when I first started off in this business, you would send out DVDs to your news directors, along with a resume and a cover letter, all through mail. Now all you have to do is send an email and send your YouTube link and that's it. That's all you do today. For me, I just spent week after week sending out DVDs and envelopes. Even the people at the post office knew who I was right away when I walked through the door, they'd be like, "Vanessa, how many resumes are you sending out this week?" Vanessa: Oh, it was hard. It was hard. Being in a recession and not knowing where you were going to go, it was kind of scary for me. Me coming from a very tight knit family — I come from a variety of different cultures. My mom, she's Cuban American. My dad is Jewish, German American. I grew up in a culture where you're very close to your family, and I was the first born daughter. Just not knowing where I was going, it was like, "How was I going to go through the process of being on my own without my parents by my side?" It was a lot of changes going on that that year we were waiting. Vanessa: I will never forget that day in July 2009. I got a call from KOAM-TV in Joplin, Missouri. They saw my tape, They were very interested in me. I remember talking to the chief meteorologist, Doug Heady, who obviously is very well known in the AMS community. He has had a huge impact on my career to this very day. He's a very dear friend and mentor to me. He's guided me through this career in ways that I can never repay him back for. Vanessa: I just remember that first interview with him and he was asking me, "What does a girl like you from Miami, Florida wants to go to the Midwest for?" For me, I was ready to leave 12 months of sunshine, hurricanes behind and go somewhere where the weather was going to be ever changing, For me, the Midwest is like the Mecca for meteorologists. You get all four seasons, you get everything from the hot to dry summers, the severe weather in the spring, the blizzards and the cold in the winter time, and then you get the changing of the leaves and the cool weather in the fall. I never got a chance to experience that. Vanessa: I wanted that opportunity to get a chance to forecast that type of weather. Up until I moved to Joplin, I never forecasted snow, I never forecasted severe weather. So this was going to be something new and exciting for me. I ended up going to Joplin. I ended up being in Joplin for about two years. Joplin ended up becoming like a second home for me. Then in April of 2011, I got a call from the northern part of the Show-Me State to Kirksville, Missouri.