Meeting the News 12 meteorologists
Kidsday visited the News 12 department and met with meteorologists Norm Dvoskin, Samantha Augeri and Bill Korbel. Pictured with them are Kidsday reporters Jacob Nater, Michael O'Connell Everlyse Connolly, and Baylee Vester, all from Nokimos Elementary School in Holbrook on March 26, 2014. Credit: Newsday / Pat Mullooly
Recently, we went to the News 12 studio in Woodbury. We had planned to meet and interview Bill Korbel, the station's meteorologist, but we also were very pleased to meet with meteorologists Samantha Augeri and Norm Dvoskin, too.
We also met Stone Grissom, who was the anchor reporting breaking news on brush fires that were happening out on eastern Long Island. Later, we saw news anchor Lea Tyrrell give the 3 p.m. news report.
Samantha also showed us the "green screen," which was actually blue. Samantha even let us do our own weather forecast in front of the blue screen, and we saw ourselves on camera. We saw Samantha do a breaking story about a brush fire on Long Island. Samantha was super nice and she taught us a lot about weather, and she told us that you can't wear blue to work or you won't be seen on camera. When you do the weather on the green screen, it is like reverse, so when you point to the left, it shows on the right. When we talked to Norm, Samantha and Bill, we learned a lot about how they predict the weather using computer models and radar. Did you know that the News 12 Doppler radar comes from the Brookhaven National Laboratory? That is out east, in Calverton. While they are not always right about the forecasts, the meteorologists make the closest predictions they can. This is true because weather patterns change very frequently. We had a lot of fun at News 12 because everyone was very nice. It was a day we will never forget. Here are a few of the questions we asked Bill:
What is your favorite part of the behind-the-scenes work?
A couple of them. One is making up the forecast. That's like solving a puzzle and I enjoy doing that. The other is interacting with the other people on the air and people you work with. When there's a commercial and we're not on air, we have a lot of fun with each other. Talk about things, just a good group.
What's the most fun part of your job?
There's lots of it. Just working with people like Samantha and Stone. That's the fun part. The other fun part is when you make a weather forecast and it works out. You solved the riddle and you're happy about that. And you know that other people are probably happy that you were right, because they made certain decisions.
Do you feel bad when your weather forecast doesn't come out the way you predicted?
I do feel it. Sometimes it's more of a disappointment, but I realize now, too, that nobody's weather is always going to be right. It's just too complicated. As long as I know I tried my best and my forecast was not different from anyone else. That's the way the weather is.
