Paul Wetzl has been working as a meteorologist at a variety of TV stations, such as, WKBN 27 First News, WYFX Fox Youngstown, 33 WYTV, and myYTV Youngstown. He has been a meteorologist for about 27 years.
Paul graduated from United Local High School in 1993. He enjoyed going to United because it is full of good people. Also he had really good friends that he got to spend his time with and because it is a smaller school he didn’t get lost. Everyone knew each other so it was like a big family and he did enjoy that part. He didn’t really like school in general but it wasn’t anything in particular about this school he just rather have been doing something else.
He has enjoyed weather for a long time but when he was little he was afraid of severe weather. This made him look closer into the weather and as he continued in school he paid attention to the snow patterns so he could try to figure out if he could get a snow day the next day. He was also interested in the science behind the weather. He tried to find the reason behind the different concepts in weather too.
He went to Mississippi State College to major in animal science because he wanted to work with livestock. He then switched to vocational agriculture because he wanted to be an FFA teacher but, he ended up switching his major a third time to meteorology. While he was at Mississippi State College he worked for a television station. To be a meteorologist he needed a four year college degree because there is a lot of math and science in meteorology.
He loves his job and he thinks he is blessed to have a job he actually enjoys and likes to go to everyday. He says the best part of his job is the challenge of seeing if he can make his predictions correctly. The worst part about his job is the constant worry of possibly getting severe weather. He is always on call incase the station needs him and he has to come in right away.
The most important part of his job is relaying accurate information and when it comes to severe weather he has to be ahead of it. He can’t be late so he has to be on it. Passion to make the forecast right is really important to him. He has to enjoy and love it because to be able to predict the weather he has to be very detailed and there are still a lot of variables. The energy and passion to get it right makes him work harder every single day because if it is inaccurate he knows that someone may have been relying on him. He tries to relate to the viewers as much as he can and act like he’s having a conversation with the people watching.
He makes his forecast by looking at all the data the computers produce then he makes his weather graphics and does the radio hits on the radio. Next he puts the information on the website. Lastly, he goes on T.V. and talks about the weather and does a weather web story. He repeats this process for the late night show at the end of the day.