Who are The Weather Junkies?
Tyler Jankoski is a broadcast meteorologist communicating the forecast on daily basis. Dakota Smith is a atmospheric science graduate student studying the carbon cycle. Different careers, different perspectives but both are "weather junkies" at heart. Join them every week for their conversations on various topics in the weather and climate enterprise.
Tyler Jankoski joined the NBC5 First Alert Weather Team in January 2017 and is happy to be forecasting the weather in New England and northern New York. Tyler grew up in Bristol, Conn. and he’s been studying Connecticut weather for more than a decade, especially wintertime Nor’easters. He interned twice at NBC Connecticut under Chief Meteorologist Brad Field. A member of the American Meteorological Society, Tyler is no stranger to the ever-changing New England weather patterns. Out of college, he jumped at the opportunity to work as the weekend evening meteorologist in western Massachusetts at WGGB-TV ABC 40.
Tyler is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University, one of the nation’s top meteorology schools. He earned a Bachelor of
Tyler Jankoski
Science degree in meteorology and was honored with the Department of Meteorology’s Service Award for his contributions to Campus Weather Service.
Dakota Smith
Dakota Smith (on the left) recently graduated with a Master's degree from the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University (CSU). His research focused on using remotely sensed data to improve the modeling of land-atmosphere interactions in seasonal grasslands. He now studies climate risk and adaptation at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Growing up in central Maryland, Dakota was fascinated with the powerful nature of severe storms and nor’easters. To learn more about the atmosphere, Dakota attended Pennsylvania State University to study meteorology. The summer after his freshman year, Dakota participated in Research Experience for Undergraduates at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. During his sophomore year at Penn State, he became a NOAA Hollings Scholar. Through the Hollings program he interned at the Center for Multi-scale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes at CSU. He enjoyed his experience so much he made CSU his eventual home after graduating from Penn State with a Bachelors of Science in meteorology.
