Amy Freeze is the Chief Meteorologist at FOX Chicago News.
She is one of a few women in the world with a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist accreditation from the American Meteorological Society. Freeze has Seals of Approval from both the AMS and the National Weather Association.
Freeze has a Master Degree from University of Pennsylvania in Environmental Science.
Her educational background includes a B.A. in Communications from Brigham Young University, with an emphasis on Broadcast Journalism. She has a B.S. in Geosciences from Mississippi State University, with an emphasis in Severe Weather and Forecasting. She also has a Certificate of Broadcast Meteorology from MSU. Freeze also studied foreign politics abroad in both South Africa and Germany. Amy’s full bio can be found here.
Andy Boxell has been a Meteorologist Intern with the National Weather Service (NWS) in Chicago/Romeoville, IL since June, 2009. Andy graduated in May, 2009 from Valparaiso University with a Bachelor of Science degree in meteorology. He first joined the National Weather Service as a student employee in June, 2008, and worked at NWS offices in Louisville, KY and North Webster, IN before coming to the Chicago office. While interested in all types of weather, he has particular interests in severe convective meteorology and the impacts of weather on society. He is originally from the Evansville, IN area.
Edward Fenelon has served as the Meteorologist in Charge (MIC) of the National Weather Service Forecast office in Chicago/Romeoville, IL since July 2005. Prior to working in Chicago, he was the MIC of the Marquette, Michigan NWS Forecast Office for 5 years, and the Science and Operations Officer for 5 years in Marquette before that. He is a 23 year veteran of the National Weather Service and has held positions as meteorologist and weather forecaster at NWS offices in Detroit, Kansas City, and North Dakota.
Edward graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison with a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology in 1986. Areas of research and study have included lake effect snow, marine meteorology, and impacts of tornadoes on cities. Most recently he has worked to develop a leadership training experience and served as facilitator for a leadership course for National Weather Service employees.
During his free time, Ed enjoys traveling abroad, listening to selections from his vast collection of music, or cheering on his beloved Wisconsin sports teams.
Jim Allsopp is the Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) with the National Weather Service (NWS) Chicago office, located in Romeoville. As WCM, Jim is the liaison between NWS and other federal, state and local government agencies and organizations dealing with hazardous weather preparedness. He also works closely with the local media to help provide a unified and efficient delivery of hazardous weather information to the community. He works to make communities, schools, and businesses better informed and better prepared for hazardous weather. This is in support of the primary mission of the National Weather Service – to save lives and protect property and to promote the nation’s economy through weather warnings and forecasts.
On a personal note, Jim grew up in the Chicago area and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in meteorology from Florida State University in 1978. Jim has been with the NWS for 31 years. He began his career in St. Louis and Los Angeles and spent 10 years as a forecaster at Indianapolis. He has been the WCM at the Chicago office since 1991.
Stephen Rodriguez, Jr. has been a Meteorologist Intern with the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Chicago/Romeoville, IL since August, 2007. Before working for the Chicago office, Stephen held a Student Career Experience Program position for the National Weather Service Forecast Office in St. Louis, MO. Stephen’s educational background consists of a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma and a Master of Science degree in Meteorology from Saint Louis University. During his Master’s work at Saint Louis University, Stephen conducted research on Mesoscale Convective Systems. Stephen enjoyed this research transferring over to his thesis work, as he has a strong passion and appreciation for the various modes of severe weather.
Amy Seeley has been with the NWS for 19 years, and is currently the Webmaster and Hydro-Meteorological forecaster with the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Chicago/Romeoville, IL. She graduated in May 1992 from Northern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Science degree in meteorology, and spent her senior year in college working at the Chicago office. She then worked at the Peoria, IL and Rockford, IL offices before coming back to Chicago in May 1994. Amy’s particular interests are in marine weather and serving the boaters on the Great Lakes. She does outreach to the marine community, teaching them about weather and where to find the latest information on the webpage.
Chris Novy is the Assistant Chief Engineer for Fox25/CW34 in Oklahoma City. He volunteers as a communicator for Oklahoma and Canadian County EMA. Chris graduated with a Masters Degree in Law Enforcement at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and has 30 years experience in emergency management and storm spotting. For over 25 years, Chris has been an active amateur radio operator (callsign WA9V).
Mike Umscheid has been an operational meteorologist in the National Weather Service at Dodge City, KS since September 2002, upon graduating from the University of Kansas with a B.S. degree in Atmospheric Science earlier that spring. Mike’s primary professional interests include the study of non-traditional tornadogenesis processes, severe and unusual winter storms on the High Plains, and in-depth radar interrogation of anomalous severe local storms. Mike was a recipient of the 2007 National Weather Association’s Operational Achievement (Individual) Award for his role in the life-saving warning services provided during the Greensburg tornado disaster of May 2007. His main hobbies include storm chasing and fine art landscape and storm photography, as well as competitive bowling.
Tyler Allison grew up in Southern California where severe weather is unheard of. Not until moving to the Midwest early in his career did he experience his first true severe thunderstorm. Mr. Allison has been storm spotting and storm chasing since 2004 and can be routinely found helping the nearby College of DuPage meteorology and storm chasing program.
In 2003, while searching for a more effective way to obtain severe weather data, Mr. Allison developed the prototype of what would later become AllisonHouse LLC. AllisonHouse is a data aggregation and integration company that specializes in weather and weather related data. AllisonHouse is one of the only sources on the Internet that provides a full range of high resolution customizable weather data including the Super Res Level II and the North American Precision Lightning Network (NAPLN) to end consumers. AllisonHouse data feeds have been integrated with some of the most well known weather applications including Gibson Ridge, StormLab, RadarScope for the iPhone and several others.
In his free time he is the primary developer and manager of the Spotter Network, a Not-For-Profit company pushing the envelop of technology integration between storm spotters/chasers the NWS and other public entities. In 2006, while storm spotting for the Ripley County, IN SKYWARN group he came up with the idea for a website that would make tracking spotters and reporting severe weather easier. The Spotter Network, or SN for short, now has over 7500 registered members and receives over 2100 severe criteria reports annually. Spotter positions are available in real-time and severe weather reports are routed in under 5 seconds to the NWS via several channels as well as publicly distributed in many common formats directly on the Spotter Network website.
President & Founder, AllisonHouse LLC
President & Founder, SpotterNetwork Inc., (NFP)
