Michael Phillip Seidel (born January 18, 1956) is an American

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...

who has worked at

The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather foreca ...

since March, 1992. He is noted for his field reporting from breaking weather including severe weather,

hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

, and snowstorms. He's been live on The Weather Channel in 48 states, DC and Puerto Rico, plus Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, and Cuba and had done over 24,000 live shots.

Early career

Seidel's interest in weather started at the age of six when he began measuring snowfall in his hometown of

Salisbury, Maryland Salisbury () is a city in and the county seat of Wicomico County, Maryland, United States, and the largest city in the state's Eastern Shore region. The population was 33,050 at the 2020 census. Salisbury is the principal city of the Salisbury ...

. While he was in the eighth grade in school, Seidel installed a weather station on the roof of his house. He worked for four local radio stations during his high school and college years, including WJDY-AM in

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

, WDMV-AM in Pocomoke City and WKHI-FM in Ocean City (all three in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

), as well as WSUX-FM in

Seaford, Delaware Seaford is a city located along the Nanticoke River in Sussex County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2010 Census Bureau figures, the population of the city is 6,928, an increase of 3.4% from the 2000 census. It is part of the Salisbu ...

. After graduating from Wicomico Senior High School, now

Wicomico High School Wicomico High School (commonly abbreviated "Wi Hi") is a high school located in Salisbury, Wicomico County, Maryland, United States. It is one of four public high schools in Wicomico County along with James M. Bennett High School, Mardela Middl ...

, Seidel attended Salisbury State College and earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree, double majoring in mathematics and geography, in 1979. Seidel is also a 1979 student initiate of the Omicron Delta Kappa Circle at Salisbury State College. Immediately after his graduation, Seidel began his television career with

WMDT WMDT (channel 47) is a television station in Salisbury, Maryland, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW Plus. It is the flagship television property of locally based Marquee Broadcasting, and has common ownership with low-power Aztec ...

-TV, from 1980 to 1982, in Salisbury. Seidel also entered

graduate school Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and stru ...

, and he earned his

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

Meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did no ...

at Pennsylvania State University. Seidel wrote his master's thesis under the direction of Dr. Greg Forbes, The Weather Channel's retired severe weather expert. During his graduate studies, Seidel appeared on ''Weather World'' on the Pennsylvania Public Television Network. Seidel's first full-time broadcasting position was at

WYFF WYFF (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States, serving Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina as an affiliate of NBC. Owned by Hearst Television, the station maintains studios on Ru ...

-TV in Greenville, South Carolina, where he worked from 1983 through 1989. He next returned to Salisbury in 1989 to work as the meteorologist for

WBOC-TV WBOC-TV (channel 16) is a television station in Salisbury, Maryland, United States, affiliated with CBS and Fox. It is the flagship television property of the Milton, Delaware–based Draper Holdings Business Trust, and is co-owned with l ...

. Seidel remained there until March 1992, when he left for

The Weather Channel

Seidel covered his first storm, Hurricane Edouard, on Labor Day Weekend in 1996 on

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

. Since then he has covered 88 tropical storms and hurricanes,

nor'easter A nor'easter (also northeaster; see below), or an East Coast low is a synoptic-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. The original use ...

s, numerous snow and ice storms, and tornado outbreaks. He has also reported live from the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...

, the Baseball All-Star Game, the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

, and the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

automobile race. From 2002 to 2012, Seidel hosted the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

"Kickoff Forecast" segments every Sunday morning from NFL venues. While at The Weather Channel, Seidel has appeared on numerous network news programs, including NBC-TV's ''

Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It w ...

'' and ''

NBC Nightly News ''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' for its weeknight broadcasts since June 22, 2015) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NB ...

'', CBS-TV's ''

The Early Show ''The Early Show'' is an American morning television show that aired on CBS from November 1, 1999 to January 7, 2012, and the ninth attempt at a morning news-talk program by the network since 1954. The program aired Monday through Friday from ...

'', ''

The CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature s ...

'' and ''

CBS Sunday Morning ''CBS News Sunday Morning'' (normally shortened to ''Sunday Morning'' on the program itself since 2009) is an American news magazine television program that has aired on CBS since January 28, 1979. Created by Robert Northshield and original hos ...

'', and ABC-TV's '' Good Morning America'', '' World News Tonight'', '' Nightline'' and ''

World News Now ''World News Now'' (or WNN) is an American overnight news broadcast seen on ABC. Airing during the early morning hours each Monday through Friday, the program features a mix of general news and off-beat stories, along with weather forecasts, ...

''. Seidel has also reported live from breaking weather on ''

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...

'', the ''

Cable News Network CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

'' and '' Fox News Channel''. Seidel filled in for Tony Perkins on ABC's '' Good Morning America'' in 2003 and for

Al Roker Albert Lincoln Roker Jr. (born August 20, 1954) is an American weather presenter, journalist, television personality, and author. He is the current weather anchor on NBC's '' Today'', and occasionally co-hosts '' 3rd Hour Today''. He has an in ...

on NBC's ''

The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It ...

'' in 2009. He became the first Weather Channel and U.S. meteorologist to report live from Cuba during coverage of Tropical Storm Isaac August 24–26, 2012. On January 12, 2018, Seidel did his 20,000th live shot during a snowstorm in Rochester, NY. While reporting from North Carolina during

Hurricane Florence Hurricane Florence was a powerful and long-lived Cape Verde hurricane that caused catastrophic damage in the Carolinas in September 2018, primarily as a result of freshwater flooding due to torrential rain. The sixth named storm, third h ...

in 2018, Seidel received some media attention after a video was published showing him bracing his feet against the wind while two men casually walked by in the background. Observers on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and some comedic news headlines suggested that Seidel was exaggerating the severity of the winds. In response, The Weather Channel stated, "It’s important to note that the two individuals in the background are walking on concrete, and Mike Seidel is trying to maintain his footing on wet grass, after reporting on-air until 1:00 a.m. ET this morning and is undoubtedly exhausted."

Personal life

Seidel was born in 1956 in

, the son of Marilyn "Lynn" (née Cahall), a nurse, and Samuel W. Seidel, an insurance executive. Seidel has been married to Christine Schroder since 1994.

References

External links

YouTube
Mike Seidel's YouTube Channel {{DEFAULTSORT:Seidel, Mike Living people The Weather Channel people People from Salisbury, Maryland American television meteorologists 1956 births