Michael Wasserstein ’21 is Middlebury College’s unofficial resident weatherman. Wasserstein, a physics major hailing from Middlebury, Conn., runs @addisoncountyweatherwatchers, a popular Instagram account, where he posts daily forecasts, as well as a weekly radio show and a blog, which he uses to discuss and analyze the weather.
Wasserstein has been fascinated by weather since a young age. “I grew up as a skier, and I was always waiting for it to snow, checking forecasts, reading blogs, watching TV, trying to find when the next snow was going to be. I was always looking at the weather,” Wasserstein said.
During his freshman year, he decided to start the Addison County Weather Watchers radio show for WRMC 91.1 FM, which airs every Sunday from 5 to 6 p.m.
Wasserstein created his Instagram account, which now has nearly 300 followers, during J-Term of his sophomore year. Every day Wasserstein posts a photo from around campus with a short write-up about the day’s forecast. He has enjoyed watching students incorporate his weather forecasting into their daily routine.
“Especially [recently], I’ve seen the Instagram start to gain some traction,” Wasserstein said. “People tell me that they don’t look at their weather app; they’ll just wake up every morning, read my post and plan their day accordingly.”
His blog, born out of pandemic idleness, includes more detailed write-ups of weather events.
Two Middlebury weather events have been particularly memorable to Wasserstein. He was shocked when a tornado touched down in Middlebury on March 26.
“Tornados almost never happen in Vermont, and they almost never happen in Vermont in March,” Wasserstein said. “The fact that this one happened in Middlebury literally two miles away from campus is incredible.”
Wasserstein also vividly remembers a big snowstorm during Martin Luther King Day weekend his sophomore year. Wasserstein recalls frigid temperatures and powerful winds. He continued exploring this particular storm for his senior research project in physics.
Middlebury does not have a meteorology program, so Wasserstein has never formally studied weather in an academic setting, but he is planning to attend graduate school at the University of Utah to study atmospheric science this fall to pursue his love of weather. Wasserstein is most interested in studying past storms and events.
The summer after his sophomore year, he interned at his local NBC television station in Connecticut. There, he worked with presenters to prepare their forecasts, created weather graphics and even had the opportunity to practice presenting in front of a green screen. Although he does not want to pursue a television career, the internship cemented his interest in studying weather.
“Before the summer after my sophomore year, I wasn’t 100% sure I wanted to go into weather, and after that experience, it was, ‘Yes, I absolutely want to do it.’ I don’t want to be on TV, but it was cool just learning about weather and gaining connections,” Wasserstein said.
Wasserstein also led introductory meteorology workshops for the past two J-Terms, allowing students to learn more about the weather.
What does the ideal day of weather look like to the Addison County Weather Watcher himself?
“We get a storm system that moves in at 8 p.m. the previous night, drops a lot of snow overnight, and you wake up, and the skies are completely blue, but we’ve gotten a foot of new snow,” Wasserstein said. “It’s sunny and cold, 20 degrees, for the entire day. Absolutely a good day for skiing.”
Charlie Keohane ’24 (she/her) is an Editor at Large. She previously served as the SGA Correspondent and a Senior Writer.
She is an environmental writing major and a psychology minor from Northern California. Outside of academics, Charlie is a Senior Admissions Fellow at the Middlebury Admissions Office. She also is involved with the women’s track team and hosts Witching Hour, a radio show on 91.1 WRMC. In Spring 2023, she studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, watching Greta Gerwig movies, polar plunging, sending snail mail, and FaceTiming her rescue dog, Poppy.
