We all use weather forecasts to help get us through our days and plan ahead. The same is true for corporations. Whether it's for planning outdoor maintenance or business continuity, weather forecasts play an important role in day-to-day operations.
Mark Elliot, the principal meteorologist for AT&T, has his hands full helping a major telecommunications company maintain operations in any conditions. Before joining AT&T, Elliot spent the first two decades of his career as an on-camera meteorologist at The Weather Channel. Though different, it turns out the two jobs have a lot in common.
In this episode, Elliot shares stories about his time at The Weather Channel, discusses what he does in his current role for AT&T, and explains why meteorologists are becoming an essential part of more and more companies.
Across the Sky episode preview
Call 609-272-7099 and leave us a message or email us at podcasts@lee.net. You might hear your comment on a future episode! About the Across the Sky podcast The weekly weather podcast is hosted on a rotation by the Lee Weather team: Matt Holiner of Lee Enterprises' Midwest group in Chicago, Kirsten Lang of the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., and Sean Sublette of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.
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About the Across the Sky podcast
The weekly weather podcast is hosted on a rotation by the Lee Weather team:
Matt Holiner of Lee Enterprises' Midwest group in Chicago, Kirsten Lang of the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., and Sean Sublette of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Joe Martucci: Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of, the Across the Sky Podcast, a Lee Enterprises podcast. We appreciate you listening, whether it's on your favorite podcast platform or on your favorite local news website. We are talking about the phone companies in weather. Believe it or not, phone companies hire meteorologists. And we thought there would be no better person to talk to than then Mark Elliot, who is the principal meteorologist for AT&T, of course, one of the country's biggest phone companies here. He's also been on the Weather Channel for nearly 20 years. You can still see him there on occasion. And join with me to interview him. We have Matt Holiner in the Midwest and Sean Sublette down in Richmond, Virginia. Kirsten Lang is out for today. Guys, how's it going?
Matt Holiner: Going pretty good. Yeah.
Matt Holiner: I really enjoyed this interview because I got to reconnect with Mark a little bit. I actually got a chance to work with him in my, brief summer internship at the Weather Channel in the summer of 2013. And, he was typically in the afternoons. I was most often in the mornings, but I got to work all the shifts, so I did get a chance to work with him there. It was good talking about the experience of being at the Weather Channel because it is just an amazing place if you're a meteorologist to work at. But also hearing why he made the shift from being at some would call it a dream job at the Weather Channel to working for At T, and the change that came with that. It was a really interesting conversation.
Sean Sublette: Yeah, I like that as well. The things that he learned at the Weather Channel, how he was able to apply those and his new job and the rationale for making the jump and just trying to understand, well, why does AT&T need a meteorologist? And once you stop to think about all the hardware that's scattered all about the country and it's outside, then it all begins to add up. But, yeah, so he has a lot of interesting things to say about that. So it's a good episode.
Joe Martucci: Yeah, good episode. We're excited to show you here. So let's dive into it.
Mark Elliot is principal meteorologist at AT&T
Joe Martucci: You're listening to Mark Elliot on the across the sky podcast. We are here with our special guest for today on the across the sky podcast. Mark Elliot, principal meteorologist at at and T, which we're going to talk plenty about. You may know him from the Weather Channel, where he has spent nearly 20 years in front of the camera talking to audiences all across the country. He's still doing some freelance work. Now, he is a graduate of Rutgers University, which I might just say is the best university on the planet. But we'll let other people decide that one. And got his master's of science at, Georgia Institute of Technology, also known as Georgia Tech. Mark, thanks for coming on the podcast. We appreciate it.
Mark Elliot: My pleasure. Thanks for the invite, guys.
Joe Martucci: Yeah, no, absolutely. We're looking forward to diving into everything.
Corporate meteorology is a growing, exploding part of the field
Joe Martucci: But I do want to ask this, because and I'm even thinking about this know, if I put my non weather hat on. Why would AT&T need a meteorologist? What are you doing there? I, know it's important work, but can you explain what's going on? Where did the motive to have a meteorologist at AT&T come?
Mark Elliot: And, you know, even stepping back from, like, not necessarily anything specific to my current job at AT&T corporate meteorology is a growing, exploding part of the field. That these companies are realizing that it is a strategic advantage, it's a monetary advantage to have forecasters, to have meteorologists with experience that can talk about these complicated patterns, complicated science, and put it onto the company level, talking about how weather will directly affect them. It's slightly different from what you'd get from, the National Weather Service or from a National Weather Channel. It's more those places, while they have access to where the weather will be, don't necessarily have the same access to the company's internal data of where their stuff is, what's there, what's important, how are each one of those assets affected by the weather? And once you start thinking about it that way, it makes a lot of sense for companies big and small to have some sort of weather connector, weather service of some kind that is giving them information, and AT&T recognized that as well.
Joe Martucci: How many people work? Are you the only meteorologist there? Do you have a team? How does that work?
Mark Elliot: We're a small but mighty team. I'm not the only one, but, it's one hand or less that is, making up, the lot. We do a lot of work with just a small number of people. We're talking about United States, Mexico, areas around the world where there might be data connections under the ocean. Yeah. It's a global reach, as you can imagine, for a company with that name.
Sean Sublette: Yeah, for sure. Mark, one of the things, and again, I don't want you to give away any kind of secrets or anything like that, because I think in our own minds, we can understand. Okay, well, anything from space weather, of course, affects communications, as well as heavy precipitation, or any other kind of thing that affects telecommunications. That's kind of where my mind is. And as you alluded to, this is becoming a growing field. We already know that this has happened a lot in the financial industry, in the energy industry over the last ten to 20 years. In particular, use that information to leverage your position against your competition.
How does the weather affect a telecommunications company like AT&T?
Sean Sublette: what other kinds of things, without you giving away too much, how does the weather affect a company like AT&T or any telecommunications company? over what I kind of mentioned.
Mark Elliot: Yeah. And you're right. you're right and more right. Almost every type of extreme weather could have an extreme impact. And so it's our job to basically forecast the risk. It's not necessarily a weather forecast, it's a risk forecast. And then we have other teams that go out there, and they are trying to take that information and mitigate or minimize that risk as much as possible. So, first things first. It's about for these companies, companies big and small, that have corporate meteorology. It's about protecting the people, right? You want to make sure your people know what they're getting into day by day. So first on the list is people. Second is probably places the assets that are fixed and are out there, whether those are buildings, whether those are communication towers. In my case, any type of weather that could affect something sticking up into the air, whether that's a building or a tower or anything else. And obviously, you don't need me to tell you what that might be. Lightning, tornadoes, extreme wind, flooding, all really important to those fixed assets. And then there's mobile assets, things that are moving around. Whether it's company fleets, they need to know what they might be driving into. it's really far and wide, I would say. I think a lot of corporate meteorologists and AT&T included, we focus a lot on Tropics because they are such big players when they come into an area. But also wind in general, strong wind can have an outsized influence. Tornadoes, while really important, as we know, are really small scale. And so they often can be really troublesome and problematic and destructive in those local areas. But for a national scale, they might not be as important, right? It's all about perspective and what that individual company needs at the time.
How do you handle the lightning situation with all these cell phone towers?
Matt Holiner: And Mark, I'm curious about the lightning, because I would imagine the most common thing that you might have to deal with are just general thunderstorms. Not necessarily severe thunderstorms, but just regular thunderstorms that have lightning and all those cell phone towers. So what goes into the forecast? And, are there any special preparations to try and protect those towers ahead of time? And then what happens when those towers inevitably do get struck by lightning? How do you handle the lightning situation with all these cell phone towers sticking way up in the sky, certainly attracting some lightning, right?
Mark Elliot: They're big, tall, pointy objects. And it's what we've always said, like, don't be the tallest object out in the field, and yet that's what towers are. That's what our buildings are. and so we use the same technology that any tall building would have. There is lightning, mitigation on top of these tall, pointy objects, just like the Empire State Building is struck multiple times a year, and yet the building is still there. A lot of these towers have lightning rods of some kind in order to ground them. So that the charge can flow through and not destroy everything. But there's also always all kinds of alerts that go off if things go wrong. And so then the tech teams can go back out there and figure out what went wrong and fix it up.
Meteorologists are constantly monitoring the weather across the country
Joe Martucci: So this sounds to me is this like a 24/7 kind of job where you guys are always looking out for what's happening across I'm assuming the whole country, right?
Mark Elliot: The weather doesn't really stop right for that's true weekends and holidays and you know what you're getting into when you sign into this field. We are not really staffed 24/7, but we're also not staffed either. I mean, when it's a big event, we're going to be up watching it anyway. So we might as well be helping the company through it, kind of thing. US meteorologists, we get not excited, but we study this. We want to see what's happening when big weather happens. And so if we were going to be up watching it, we're going to be forecasting for it, kind of thing. If people in the business are interested enough in it, you better believe the meteorologists in the business are interested in it too. But what I will say is that a lot of our work happens very early. I'm not a morning person by nature. I don't know if you can see it in my eyes or hear it in my voice. But we start roughly 05:00 A.m. Every day in order to get the bulk of our forecasting work and risk analysis done before other decision makers get up and start making their plans because the weather affects those plans. And so my busiest time of the day is often that five to eight a M Eastern time frame. And yet the company doesn't work on those hours. And so there will still be meetings and special projects and all kinds of stuff for someone on the West Coast after their lunchtime and next thing you know it you've hours. You know, it's it's not a job that has fixed nine to fives. It's not an easy role to slide into if that's the goal.
Sean Sublette: So let me jump in next we talk about those short term threats, whether it's a, ah, winter storm, ice, snow, wind, lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, all that stuff. But are you kind of evolving also into a longer term climate risk? Like, hey, we've got these assets on the coastline or near the coastline. Are we worried about those for 10, 15, 20 years? Are you doing kind of this longer term climate risk also?
Mark Elliot: As a company, yes. As me, not as much. I'm involved in some of those discussions. But there's an entire other team that is looking at long term climate risk. In fact, there's some great partnerships with AT&T and argum National Labs putting out publicly available climate risk down to the location. So it's called Climar Climber Climmrr. And it's publicly available. It's from AT&T Labs, basically At T's Innovators and the Argon National Laboratory. And you can put in, an address if you have a building, if you have your home, and you want to know what the climate risk may be there, for that location in the years to come. We've made it available because we think that should be a public good, as AT&T made that choice to put that out there for everybody. And then, of course, we use that data both in short and long term ways. We can use it in the short term to be kind of an extra data point. If we're looking at flooding, like, will this cause flooding to our assets? Well, we can take one more piece of data. Know, you have the Ero from the Weather Prediction Center. You might have the flood risk from FEMA as part of your decision making, but maybe you also bring in the Argon National Laboratory. And it's saying in 50 years there's pretty much no risk here because of local elevation or because of small scale changes that might be even more fine tuned than your FEMA data. That can help us lower or raise even a current day's forecast of risk at a location. So we're using it. And then, of course, for long term site picking, if you had a choice of putting a new building here or here, and one of them is saying, this is going to be underwater in 20 years, and one is saying it's not. That's an added piece of data that you can start to use the data. Part of this is really important in the long run.
Mark Elliot: Trying to communicate risk in Mexico was a challenge for me
Matt Holiner: So, Mark, besides the early mornings and the occasional long hours, what would you say is the most challenging part of your job?
Mark Elliot: Oh, challenging part. I mean, I didn't do a lot of international, forecasting at the Weather Channel. Right. It was very much us. Based. Trying to figure out the right way to communicate risk in Mexico was a challenge for me because I'm not a Spanish speaker. if you're doing forecasts internationally, you don't have the same kind of available data that you would be used to using if you were looking at a front approaching the US. Or coming through the US. Watching typhoons in the West Pacific was not really in my day to day, and now it, was, I'd argue, interesting and a new challenge because of it.
Matt Holiner: And is there any part of the world that AT&T is not concerned about? Or do you literally have to look.
Mark Elliot: Across the whole globe?
Matt Holiner: Or is there some area that you can say, you know what, we can skip that part of the forecast.
Mark Elliot: It's different. we care about it differently. I'm not spending a lot of time in, say, Central Europe, but we know those patterns influence what happens downstream, and eventually it comes to us anyway. So if you're not at least paying attention to where there's big pattern changes know, really life threatening weather. Communication is life saving. And so if we have the ability to help a community because of destructive weather, AT&T is probably going to be there in some way. And once our people are there, we're forecasting spot forecasts for wherever they are. So if the weather gets bad enough and our people are going to help, whether it's reestablished communication or whatever the case may be, we're also involved so that while they're there, they're getting spot forecasts from, us.
Joe Martucci: Awesome. Well, we're going to take a brief break here and we'll come back on the other side with more from Mark Elliot on the across the sky podcast.
Mark Elliot started at The Weather Channel right after graduating from Rutgers
Joe Martucci: And we are back with the across the sky podcast hosted by the Lee Enterprises weather team. I'm here with Matt Holliner and Sean Sublick. Kirsten Lang could not be with us today. Mark Elliot is with us here. He is our guest for today principal, meteorologist at AT&T and longtime meteorologist at the Weather Channel. We'll dive into this a little bit, so, and correct me if I'm wrong, Mark, I think you started at The Weather Channel right after Rutgers. Is that true?
Mark Elliot: It is, pretty rare.
Joe Martucci: That's what I was going to get into, because from my perspective as a meteorologist, the Weather Channel is like the I just, it always feels like something you work towards for a while and you get that moment. I mean, it's great you started there right off the bat, but I have to ask, how did you do it?
Mark Elliot: Yeah. So, it's a combination of really hard work and a little bit of luck. I mean, let's face it, it requires a little bit of both.
Joe Martucci: Yeah.
Mark Elliot: I will credit Rutgers as you should. Go ahead, Joe, jump in there.
Joe Martucci: All right, we got an R. We got an.
Mark Elliot: Yeah.
Joe Martucci: Yeah.
Mark Elliot: I will credit Rutgers and Rutgers meteorology for really giving me the opportunity to be able to be seen by the Weather Channel. So here's how this went in kind of a short form version. So at Rutgers, and I guess before and after I was a bit of an overachiever, I did the double major program at Rutgers, which meant that my electives were things like organic chemistry for fun.
Joe Martucci: I'll tell you why, you know, as well as imark organic chemistry at Rutgers is not an easy class. I know a lot of people who took it and did not do so well on the first go around on that. So that's a toughie at Rutgers.
Mark Elliot: Non a grades at Rutgers. I, mean, it wasn't too far down, but I had a, huge GPA, I had two different majors, and I did all of these internships while at Rutgers. At Rutgers sanctioned and helped organize. So I had a TV internship at News Twelve New Jersey. I had a National Weather Service internship at Mount Holly at the New Jersey office. I was doing research within, or at least data collection and analysis. I don't know if I'd really call it research, looking back on it, but for the Rutgers Pam site, so the photochemical assessment, monitoring. So I was getting into field work and figuring out what the big profilers did and what they meant and all this and that was all through Rutgers at the same time. The Rutgers Meteorology Club and kind of my year and right around my year, of being there were the first ones to really organize and start sending student groups to the American Meteorological Society conferences and the student conference in particular. So I saw a table at a conference for the Weather Channel for student internships, and I gave them my resume, which also had know, Weather Watcher, right? The Re weather watcher program, which is TV. It had radio experience from WRSU because I worked, on there and was doing their news team weather reports occasionally. So I had all this stuff on the resume, and I handed it into a summer internship, thinking like, oh, my gosh, ah, this is going to be so amazing. And I didn't even hear a no, right? And I didn't get a yes no, much less a yes. I heard nothing. And I'm like, well, I got nothing. And I'm about to graduate senior year. And I am internally, and rather externally, I think, also panicking. my friends were signing up for grad schools. They knew what they wanted to research. They were getting job offers. They were moving. And I was just applying to job after job after job and not even hearing no's, still nothing. And I applied to National Weather Service Puerto Rico. I was like, I'll learn Spanish. That's not what they wanted, right? But I was applying to anywhere because I liked all things weather. I didn't have a focus. I think that actually hurt me a little bit. I wasn't like, I'm only looking at tropical things. I'm going to go to grad school for tropical meteorology, and I'm going to work at CSU and do long range forecasting. There wasn't a goal like that because I just wanted to be in the field. I just wanted to do something weather. So I was about to graduate, and my in room dorm phone rang. and my roommate answered, thinking it was a joke or a prank or whatever, because somebody called saying they were from the Weather Channel. And once he realized it was real, he changed his tone a bit and got me the phone. And it was for a because I had Rutger's Radio, the WRSU experience, on my resume. it floated around the building for, I think, about a year and a half. And somebody was going on maternity leave. And they said, do you want this job? It starts in August. There is no moving expenses. There is no help finding a place to live. It goes from August to November. It is four days a week max. It is 35 hours a week max. There is no benefits. You cannot work at the month of December or else it triggers you to be full time and you're not allowed to be. So it's literally this, do you want it? And I said yes, I do. And so I went to the Weather Channel for a part time job in radio and stayed 18 years, is the long and short of it.
Joe Martucci: Wow, that's incredible on a lot of fronts there. Because even still, even with the WRSU, which is great, I feel like, to get it, as I'm sure a wide pool of applicants, is a big testament to your skills and everything you've done. And obviously, you made a very long career out of it, being there for 20 years, and even still freelancing there now, what's it like working there? I've never been there. I know where it is, but I've never been there. When you're there, does it just feel like, special? Because for the people who are listening, for a lot of us meteorologists, you grew up watching The Weather Channel because you didn't really know anybody who was interested in weather growing up. That was the same for me. I knew nobody that was going to be a meteorologist in their career until I went to Rutgers. So when you get there, is it just like, wow, I made it? Is that how it feels?
Mark Elliot: In many ways, at least I always did. I always got that thrill putting on the blue jacket, right? There was something about I didn't care what time it was when I went into the field, you put on that blue coat and you're walking down the hallway of a hotel with no power, and you're like, you got a strut, right? You got a different feel about it because everyone knows that brand. It's one of the most well and well respected brand. It wins the most respected news brand year after year after year after year. But away from that, in the building, it is very mission driven. But people you see on air, on air, because they have mission and purpose, and they're trying to communicate this science and keep people safe.
From The Weather Channel to AT&T: One meteorologist's unique career path
Mark Elliot: They look at it, and I looked at it as someone listening right now, we could save their life if we give them the right info, if we give them the right information that they can use and react to the right way or not do the wrong thing, which I think is often more often the case. So that mission, and purpose was very apparent. Like, people knew why we were there. And then you're surrounded in a room of other meteorologists like you. How where else can you go where you have a severe weather question? You can go up to Dr. Forbes or you have a hurricane. that's coming up. And you can go to a director of the National Hurricane Center. You could just be like Rick first name, right? forget Dr. NAB.
Joe Martucci: Dr. NAB, tell me what's up.
Mark Elliot: What's with this question? That's awesome, having that kind of knowledge base. And then you have the people that we all know that have been there since we've all been watching, right, since it started in the early eighty s, more or less. And you can have a question for Jim about broadcast, or Mike Seidel about field work, or Kelly Cass name, the broadcaster, the longevity of the people there. And, the skill that comes from that is really impressive. And so you're just a sponge. You're soaking up so much weather knowledge communication knowledge. Weather communication knowledge, which is its own little, microcosm of interesting. And it's not just meteorologists, right? You have producers and directors and news gatherers and they're all the best of the best in that room putting a show together. And you're part of that team. And so you're learning how that works and you're learning how it goes, and you're the expert, because it's not just the News channel, it's the Weather Channel. And so your knowledge is important and they value it. So it was really a special place and, it was not something I didn't enjoy anymore. Right. So that wasn't the motivation for leaving there. I still go back. Right. That says something. How many people leave their jobs and still go to hang out because it's still fun for them?
Joe Martucci: Yeah, I understand.
Did you feel like you missed out by leaving local weather to go national?
Joe Martucci: Let me ask you this too, because I do feel like a number of people who are working on the Weather Channel, they might start in local news and then work their way up to the Weather Channel. Did you feel like you missed out maybe by not taking working in that local news setting and going right to national? Or is it something that, hey, I'm at the Weather Channel, I love it here, I'm here.
Mark Elliot: A little of both, maybe. I feel like it would be difficult for me to have left the Weather Channel and gone to local because there have been many who have done that. And so I might not know enough to be able to speak to it, right. Because I wasn't in that world long. An internship, is not the same as being a chief meteorologist at a local spot. But I was used to following the weather and my ship changing no matter where the weather was that day. So I would go where the weather could kill you. I would jump around to the middle of the night, I would be in the evenings because there was lots of severe weather. I'd occasionally move to the afternoons and then back to the overnight. I would follow the weather. You don't really do that in local. You've got your set time frame. The weather might be boring for a long stretch in one location, whereas if you're looking nationally, there is always a weather story somewhere. And so for me, it was always like, man, if I had to just look at one market, what would that feel like after looking at a national scale for, as long as I did? You guys can tell me I'm wrong and be like, local, best. And it's super interesting. And we get to do the school talks, and we get to be part of the community, and I would find all the things that I would love about that. But it's very different from looking at a national scale and talking about where the big story is only well, I'll.
Joe Martucci: Say as somebody who literally just came from a school visit to talk to you right now, Mark, it's always good to be a part of the community. I do like it that way. But, I mean, hey, listen, again, when you're at the weather mean, you made it. I mean, you're so I know, Matt, you had a question, so, god, I don't want to take up too much.
Mark Elliot: Not I'm not putting down local by any stretch. I think I love being in a community that way and being really focused and that kind of thing. but your original question was, do I feel like I missed out on not starting in that route? And I think I did some of those local feel type things at the national network. Right? I came in through radio, and so I was on local radio stations, some of them live and part, you know, people that were listening didn't know I wasn't in their sound booth with their board radio board in front of me. Right. We tapped into it virtually and digitally, but I was kind of part of those local communities. And then again, I'm dating myself a little bit, but video on the Internet was a new thing, and so I was doing local forecasts on your local on the eigth page, I think they actually called it that. How weird is that thinking, back on the days of weather.com, in the early 2000s or so, where kind of mid 2000s, probably when video was coming out on weather, but your local page had a video of just the New York City forecast that was new. And so that was me. They didn't have the full on air people doing that shift all the time because they had their full on air shift to do. So I would be jumping in. So I got some of that trial by fire local TV and local Feel experience at the national network, which was different, but pretty cool to be able to say I did it that way.
Matt Holiner: Yeah, Mark, I know exactly what you're talking about, because when I was interning at the Weather Channel, I mean, at the time, it was really cool to me. But I got to do some of those.
Joe Martucci: Local web forecasts.
Matt Holiner: They let me do it near the end of my internship. I had to do a few sample videos for it to make sure I was good enough. And boy, when my first thing showed up on weather, it was just amazing. As, somebody who is in college to be on weather, it was fantastic. It was certainly not the same as being on the actual Weather Channel. Being on the website was pretty cool. And I felt the exact same way about being at the Weather Channel. Being in that building, and just the knowledge, the immense knowledge of the TV business, but also the forecasting business, meteorology be around, all those other meteorologists. It was a fantastic place to work.
When was the moment that you realized you need to make a change?
Matt Holiner: So my question for you is, when was the moment that you realized you need to make a change? What caused you to make the shift from being at the Weather Channel, for some people, their dream job, to then switching to a very different role at AT&T?
Mark Elliot: I don't know if I did realize it just kind of happened. A lot of it was on a whim. So the real answer is, I was doing my CCM certification, the certified consulting meteorologist, through the, AMS. And I had a mentor who was encouraging me to do that project. I was doing it on my off time, it was COVID time. And so shifts were really strange at the Weather Channel. Times were moving around, some people were working from home, I was working in the studio. But more often than not only at the times of extreme, severe weather, right? Dr. Forbes had stepped away, mostly retired. And I was certainly not taking that role as the severe weather expert, but I was on the expert staff at that point, and often being told to, follow where the severe weather would go, but there isn't severe weather every day. So I was using some of that time to really think about what else was out there and what else was happening. And I was like, I think basically I'm a consultant. I come in now and I talk about just the most extreme weather, and I have to be able to make that digestible, but you have to be able to communicate differently. And you're doing some post analysis reporting, and a lot of things that a consultant would be asked to do. So I'm like, okay, this is different. This is not just a broadcast seal anymore for me. I'm going to try for the consulting meteorologist seal, which the process was epic, some will argue harder than getting the master's degree that I have to get the I won't necessarily swear by that, but it was a long process. It's doable, and it's fulfilling, and it's important. So if you're thinking about doing it, you should for people that are listening. But it's not quick. really by answering one of the questions that comes in the written exam, if you will. I wound up on a wormhole on the AMS site. And I stumbled into this job post for a tropical expert meteorologist that could do communication, and kind of briefing style communications that, could help lead a team to some degree and focus on the big weather stories of the day. And I was like, can do that, can do that, can do that, can do that, can do that. Do you ever see a job post and you're like, is this written about me? And then the kicker was, and it's in Atlanta where I was already living. And I was like, and I don't have to move for it. And so basically it was a thought experiment. And I was like, okay, well, what would it be like if I took a two decades broadcast resume and tried to make it sound like I was doing all these other things? Because I really was. But that's not what you're thinking about when you're doing broadcast meteorology. And there are so many skills that translate from broadcast meteorology to corporate meteorology and many other big data science or communication or PR type jobs. And so I basically said, okay, let's see, I'm going to use this next day. And instead of working on this or that, on my off time, I'm going to redo my resume. It's time to refresh it anyway. I basically was like, this will be fun. What else could I do today? And I applied to this job and I got an interview. And then I wound up getting the job. And then I had a really tough decision because again, I didn't dislike what I was doing. And I didn't necessarily sit there and say, I need to find something else. I don't like this anymore. I'm not interested in this anymore, or I'm not learning more. I'm not making a difference here. It was none of those things. It was a shiny new toy. And after a lot of reflection with myself and my family and asking, could this be a better work life balance for us? Could this be better for my young kids? Because again, I was bouncing around. I didn't know where I was going to be, right? That, could be sent out quickly. I didn't know what shift I was going to be on. I would miss events with the family. It was hard to plan stuff. And we said, okay, maybe this will have a little bit more regularity to it. It's a corporate world after all, and it is different in that way. And so I took the risk. Ah, so again, it wasn't like, I'm going to switch. It was like, I guess I'll switch. So hold on.
Joe Martucci: Let me go puke in the corner.
Mark Elliot: Because, yeah, it was frightening. It was a big change. I'm still not used to being the new guy. I'm surrounded by people that have 20 to 60 years of experience within at and t, and now I'm here, like.
Joe Martucci: I have a year and a half.
Mark Elliot: It's very different, but not necessarily in a bad way.
Sean Sublette: No, I think you're right. A lot of those skills you do in broadcast do come back, or they're applicable in so many other areas. Communications of risk of scientific principles. You take a very complex situation, and you need to distill it into actionable information.
Sean Sublette: One of the things that I've really admired about the weather channel is doing that this is submersive mixed reality stuff, that they continue to do, and I know you had some involvement in some of those as well. take me through as much as you were involved in production and actually recording the things, because I know any of us who have done broadcast meteorology, you're used to standing in front of a green screen and looking at something off camera and getting your bearings, kind of. How is that, in terms of doing IMR and producing and all that? How big is the team for that? For one thing?
Mark Elliot: Yeah, there's a lot of questions there. And I guess I'll start with, I was doing some pieces there that were basically IMR before it was called that. Right. So there's a whole series of what was weather wizards that started as, could we open up a kitchen cabinet and do some sort of experiment at home with kids, or for yourself, and learn about the weather through cooking it up in front of you? And so we did a whole series of those, and basically started running out of good ideas. And that was a small team. I came up with a lot of, them. We had one producer, she would come up with several of them as well. We'd script it out. We'd think about what kind of graphics might pop up next to us, but it was mostly filmed handheld down in an experiment that you were doing. And we said, okay, what if the wizardry was not because of dry ice anymore and food coloring? It was because graphics would show up in front of you in the real world. And so we started doing these outside weather wizards that the graphic would be part of the environment that you were in. Thunderstorms would happen next to you, or you'd pan up, and suddenly you'd be up in the cloud, and you'd watch a raindrop change. Snow, sleet, rain kind of thing, as it went back down, and then landed back where I was, next to my shoe, stuff like that. And that technology kept evolving and kept growing all the way up to what's now classic, I guess not classically, but now known as IMR. That immersive mixed reality, where the entire room around you, more or less, is a green screen, and everything can be changed, whether it's the floor, the background, the walls, all of it. When it was a smaller thing, I was writing a lot of them, right? We won tele for the safest room piece, which is basically walking through a house and almost like, what if I was mayhem today? And I just stood back and all this stuff would happen around me, to the house, to the outside, and show people where you really need to be and why. So that won all kinds of awards and really kind of, I would argue, cemented the weather channel on going down this graphically heavy path. Because it is, I remember it, it.
Sean Sublette: Was really well done.
Mark Elliot: Yeah, I wrote most of that with a team, right. And really the graphics guys on that who are still buddies of mine, they did incredible stuff, like two x fours that would crash through a wall and when I bent under a two x four that wasn't actually there, a shadow would go across. Right? Like those little things that really make an IMR feel like IMR. So now it's done mostly back inside. But you've seen some of these things where walls of water come into an actual town and show you what that actual town could look like if storm surge happened or if a flash flood happened. You can't feel what that's like without that, you're not going to go there when that's happening. And so it's those graphical entries into that world that are really effective communication tools. Like 9ft of storm surge. Okay, who cares? That's not the right answer. But 9ft is suddenly above an actual building and you've seen that building and you know how high that is. That's a totally different communication thing. So as those have got more and more elaborate and more and more people were doing them, the teams got bigger and bigger. Lots of graphic artists, lots of writers. I only did a couple of those official IMRs. The whole staff was then brought in to do more of them because they were epic, right? And everyone wanted a chance to be able to be in that room and they should have been. And I'm glad that we all were. They're really great communication, tools. I think Stephanie Abrams did one with wildfire. Like, you're not going to be in a forest to see what it's like when a wildfire goes a football field a second, but we were able to show that with graphics and her standing there on the little silver disc. And then a lot of those ended with a climate story. Like how is this type of extreme weather changing as the world is changing? Are we getting more of these, less of these? Is things happening faster or slower? You can't show that without a graphic. And so to have that graphic happen around you was really epic. they're really cool pieces.
When we have hurricanes or snowstorms, how do you guys determine who goes where?
Joe Martucci: Mark, I want to ask you one more and then we'll get you out of here. Because this is maybe I'm just curious about this myself, but when we have hurricanes or snowstorms, how do you guys determine who goes where? How does that happen? Are you in the meeting for that? Who's deciding that? Is it a lot of discussion? Is it pretty easy?
Mark Elliot: It is a war room. There's a whole bunch of people yeah, from the very higher stuff, people, that are in charge of TV, in charge of storytelling, to the people that are in charge of scheduling and VPs of talent. And then meteorologists are in the room, producers are in the room. I mean, it is a whole fleet of people. And the meteorologists have a say, as well. even all the way down to, like, you're sent here and you're there and you're like, I think the storm is changing. I think we need to be mobile to be here. All of that is still like, you're in constant communication. And the best part of being at a place like the Weather Channel for field work is that you have a building worth of people watching your back, that you have people back there that are focused on safety. And if you ever said, like, I can't do this broadcast, I'm not safe here, or for security reasons, for weather reasons, for anything, it was never a question. It was always like, yes, we'll do something from the studio, we're not doing it live. it was never asked, why you were never pushed to do something where you said, it's not safe here.
Joe Martucci: interesting. I always love seeing the map where it shows everyone, like, your face and everybody's faces and where they are on the coast for a hurricane or snowstorm.
Mark Elliot: I thought that was always real on a weather.
Joe Martucci: Anything else you'd like to add before we wrap it on up? I mean, this was great. We love hearing from you.
Mark Elliot: I mean, I always think it's interesting when meteorologists talk about how they got started or what made them interested in weather. And, so many people I've talked to about this cite, a tree falling. I know that is tied to my experience. I don't know if you guys have any of that in your kind of origin story, but I think if you're the right age kid and something that seems permanent, like a giant tree can fall in front of you, or near you or hit something, you know, that also should have felt permanent as a young kid. I think it does something to our brains. Like, I never looked back, after watching a tree ball for why I wanted to do weather. It was always my answer, what do you want to be when you grow up? And it was weatherman. And the second part of that is my dad was involved in national preparedness, emergency preparedness for the VA hospital system, which in recent times, has turned into more like cybersecurity and terrorist act and stuff. But back in the early eight, late eighty s and early 90s, that almost exclusively meant where could weather disasters happen? And so he would be sent into areas that had weather problems. And I would watch the Weather Channel because there was a channel on that was talking about where my dad was. And so I just never stopped. I still haven't stopped. I still watch it as a viewer, even when I'm not there every day. So, yeah, I think that the origin story of trees falling or family connections are really important to young minds and how they get into the science of weather.
Joe Martucci: Yeah, and we should have asked that earlier, and I apologize. How'd you get into weather? I say this all the time. I said it when I was at school earlier. It's something that for a lot of people, you know, at a young age, and you definitely are in that category, and it's hard to just fall into weather. I feel like I don't really see too many people who just fall into weather as a career.
Mark Elliot: Well, I wasn't sure what I wanted to major in, and I took an Elements of Meteorology class and I just kept going. It's usually not that Elements of Meteorology because I had to fulfill my one science requirement and I never looked back. Right. Or I always wanted to be a meteorologist. I guess I should have followed that. People actually make careers of this. or, I am a meteorologist and I've known since I was yes.
Joe Martucci: Yeah, that was me. I mean, really, one of the first things I ever remember in my life was about wanting to be a meteorologist. Anyway, Mark, we really appreciate the time, really insightful. We got to hear about your AT&T career, your Weather Channel career, more about you. So thanks a lot, we really appreciate it and we'll chat with you soon.
Mark Elliot: Yeah, thanks for having me. Anytime. If you, come up with more questions again, I used to talk for a living, so I'll talk some more.
Joe Martucci: Well, keep that in mind. For sure.
Companies are realizing the value of having a meteorologist
Joe Martucci: Awesome interview with Mark Elliot. He has many stories, as you would if you, worked for the Weather Channel for 20 years and working at the one of, if not the largest phone companies I know, I always see the commercials about is it AT&T or Verizon? Or is it T Mobile sprint. Now, I'm not too sure, but point is, his job is very important at T, like Sean said at the know equipment and tech all across the globe. It's a big, you know, I'm glad that he's enjoying it. So, Matt, what'd you think?
Matt Holiner: Yeah, when you're working for a big international company like AT&T, what stood out to me was when he mentioned that one of the most challenging parts of his job is not just forecasting for the US. Anymore, which he had plenty of experience with at the Weather Channel. But that's all the Weather Channel has to worry about is the US. But AT&T, this is a global company, and they have assets across the globe. And so they're going to be concerned about the weather happening all over the planet. So a huge mean in some ways. His job almost got even bigger. Now he has to look the entire planet worth of weather. That is just a huge responsibility on him. But you know that I think this is also I always bring this up. I think we need more meteorologists, and I think we're seeing that. I think companies are realizing the value that having a team of meteorologists working for especially these really big companies, because they know specifically what they want and what weather information they need, and then they can go to their meteorologist. Rather than having to contact the media or the National Weather Service, they have a team working on what they know is most important for them and where their assets are located and getting these really specific forecasts. So I think this is something that we're probably going to see more and more, especially starting, of course, with these really big companies, but maybe even more medium sized companies actually thinking about getting some meteorologists because the weather has an impact on so many businesses. So I think this, isn't going to be an exception, these companies having their own meteorologists. I think we're going to see more. And more of it.
Sean Sublette: Yeah, I agree. This kind of comes under the umbrella of weather risk management. The forecasting has gotten so much better in the last 20 years. But there is an overload of data, right? So you need a professional to go through the data that's important. Distill the most critical information to your business, and help those decision makers within a business manage risk. be sure your resources and your hardware are safe, and that's not something you can get. I love my brothers and sisters in broadcast meteorology, but you're not going to get what you need in a two and a half or three minute weather forecast if you've got a lot of assets that need protecting. So I think that, there's a lot of growth in there and the whole weather risk and ultimately climate risk management as well. So it was really nice to hear Mark talk about that as well, share some of those Weather Channel stories.
Joe Martucci: Thanks again, Mark. We appreciate it. Always good to have another Rutgers guy on the podcast, too, if I may end.
Across the Sky has a full slate of podcasts coming up on Mondays
Joe Martucci: All right, so we have a full slate of podcasts coming up for you on the following Mondays. Sean, do you mind if I turn it over to you to talk about next Monday's episode with Mike Mann?
Sean Sublette: Yeah. So a, very special episode we've got we're going to record next week, drop it, a week or so after that. Mike Mann. world famous climate scientist. He has written several books. The most recent one is called Our Fragile Moment. I had a chance to preview it a couple of weeks ago. It's an exceptional book. If you've always wondered, how do scientists know what the climate was like, 1000, 100,000, 10 million years ago? He walks through all of that in a very nice, easy to digest book. So we're going to talk to him about that book, and what else he's working on in the podcast next week. So very excited to have Mike Man on.
Joe Martucci: Yeah, we're happy to have him on. And then on the 23rd, we're going to have Paul James from HGTV Fame here to talk about the science of changing leaves. And I think we're going to have a winter forecast for you on the 30 October as well. November 6, we're going to have, someone talk about tips to prepare older loved ones for extreme weather. That's with Dr. Lauren Sutherland from Ohio State. And then we got another big one. Sean keeps landing all these big podcast guests for us. Sean, this is the first time I've.
Sean Sublette: Said this publicly, so I think most people who are into science have heard of Neil deGrasse Tyson. He likes to say your personal astrophysicist. He's got his podcast, he's got the Star Talk thing. He's got cosmos. He's all over the place. He's going on a book tour. He's going to be down here in Richmond. And I have scored a 15 minutes interview with him. It's going to be a little ways away. I'm going to do it in November. But we will turn that into a podcast as well. So I am uber excited about that one.
Joe Martucci: We're over the mood.
Sean Sublette: I am over the mood and the stars excited to talk to him. I only have 15 minutes, so I got to make it count.
Joe Martucci: If he's going to talk for 15.
Matt Holiner: Minutes, I'm sure we'll have plenty of commentary and plenty to digest from that 15 minutes because he is fantastic to listen to.
Sean Sublette: Yeah, I, went through his new book when I think you all knew I Went to Italy. I read his new book on the flight over and back to Italy. And I will tell you all this because your meteorologist first chapter of his new book talks all about, the lowest, layers of the atmosphere. So he talks all about the atmosphere first. The book is called To Infinity and beyond. So he basically starts with the ground and works up. So, of course, you've got to start in the atmosphere before you get to outer space. So we talked about that, which I thought was just terrific. So, yeah, it's a couple, ah, three, four weeks away.
Joe Martucci: yeah, that'll be our November 13 episode right now. So you can circular your calendar for that one. And of course, all the other ones we have coming out on mondays, too. So for John Sublette, Matt Holiner and Kirsten Lang, I'm meteorologist Joe Martucci thanks again for listening to the Across the Sky Podcast. We'll be back with you next Monday.