Shannon Kay O'Donnell (born September 27, 1973) is an American meteorologist and news anchor. O'Donnell was born in

Redmond, Washington Redmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located east of Seattle. The population was 73,256 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Redmond is best known as the home of Microsoft and Nintendo of America. The city h ...

and attended Redmond High School where she was

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the class rank, highest-performing student of a graduation, graduating class of an academic institution in the United States. The valedictorian is generally determined by an academic institution's grade poin ...

. After graduation, she attended

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

, studying meteorology and graduating with a degree in atmospheric sciences. O'Donnell also spent seven years at the

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...

as a marine biologist. O'Donnell began work for KOMO in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

in 1994 where she was mentored by Chief Meteorologist Steve Pool. Two years later, she joined

KING King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

as the weekend morning meteorologist as well as her concurrent duties for

Northwest Cable News Northwest Cable News (NWCN) was an American cable news television channel owned by Tegna Media. The channel, which launched on December 18, 1995, provided 24-hour rolling news coverage focused primarily on the Pacific Northwest region of the ...

. In 1997, she was awarded the

AMS AMS or Ams may refer to: Organizations Companies * Alenia Marconi Systems * American Management Systems * AMS (Advanced Music Systems) * ams AG, semiconductor manufacturer * AMS Pictures * Auxiliary Medical Services Educational institutions ...

Seal of Approval. She held that position until 2000. O'Donnell joined

KNTV KNTV (channel 11), branded NBC Bay Area, is a television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by the NBC television network through its NBC Owned Television Sta ...

, the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

affiliate for the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

in 2001. She won an

Emmy award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

as a meteorologist in 2004, and was named Best TV Weather Anchor in 2005 and 2006.Shannon O'Donnell – Talent Biographies News Story – KNTV , San Francisco
/ref> She also reported weather for

Early Today ''Early Today'' is an American early morning news broadcasting#Television, television news program that is broadcast on NBC on weekday mornings. The program is hosted by Frances Rivera, and features general national and international news stories ...

, and was a weather substitute for

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

from 2003–2006. In 2007, O'Donnell announced that she was leaving KNTV in order to join her husband, who had already returned to their hometown of Seattle to attend graduate school. O'Donnell returned to

/ NWCN as the weeknight 10pm anchor as well as meteorologist in December 2007. In February 2009, O'Donnell was laid off from KING 5 after massive cuts at that station, including her position on sister station KONG 6/16, and returned to KOMO 4 as a freelance weekend weather anchor. In August 2009, she officially took the role as the weekend weather anchor at KOMO 4.http://www.komonews.com/about/people/fournews/57733327.html Shannon's official bio at KOMO 4 retrieved 10-09-2009 She is now the chief meteorologist at KOMO 4.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Odonnell, Shannon Living people People from Redmond, Washington Television anchors from San Francisco Television anchors from Seattle 1973 births