It was six years ago that I was packing a moving truck in Southeast Idaho for a three day drive of over 2600 miles across three time zones to end up in Southwest Florida. I was leaving the High Desert of the Northern Rockies for the Subtropics and an entirely different weather pattern and new forecasting challenges.
I have had the pleasure of serving as the Morning Meteorologist on FOX 4 Rising for the past six years. Besides giving you the forecast every 10 minutes on the 4s, I had the distinguished honor of providing you with your daily 'brow' story. It has been a lot of fun interacting with our viewers and working with such a great news team.
Now the time has come for another change as I prepare to move back to the Upper Midwest in Mid-Michigan. I am excited to join the very capable and talented weather team of WEYI NBC 2 & WSHM FOX 66 in the Bay City, Saginaw & Flint television market as their Chief Meteorologist. I am anxious to return to the climate of four distinct seasons that includes thunderstorms, blizzards, summer heat and frigid winter temperatures.
I am sure a lot of people will wonder why someone would leave the beautiful weather of SWFL for the cold winter of the Great Lakes region. I am eager to return to the challenges of the ever-changing weather pattern of the Upper Midwest; growing up in Minnesota, this is the climate I am most familiar with and love. In addition, this move will place me much closer to family which is even more important nowadays as I am the uncle to six amazing nieces and nephews. I have been more than a day's drive away from family for the past decade which makes it very difficult to spend time with those most important to me. I have missed many birthdays and holidays over the years; this move will shorten the drive and make it possible for me to venture home for those imortant family events.
I also want to thank FOX 4 for taking a chance hiring me for their morning newscast. I had never worked on a fast-paced morning newscast prior to moving to SWFL. Besides the first six months of my career, I served as the Chief Meteorologist at my two previous television stations; before that, I was the Noon Meteorologist at KEYC before being promoted to Chief, which I served for 7 years. So it was something of a risk to hire me without that morning show experience; I'd like to think it paid off for all of us. It has been a lot of fun as well as a great learning experience.
That being said, my last day at FOX 4 will be Thursday, March 17th.
--Jamie Kagol
