Rob Lydick

Rob grew up in the small western Pennsylvania town of Blairsville (Indiana County) and knew from a young age that his career would involve weather. He attended Penn State for meteorology and graduated in 2011. While at Penn State, Rob was actively involved in Campus Weather Service, the largest student-run forecasting organization in the country. He was also involved with the student-run show Weather or Not and was a forecaster on Weather World.

After graduating from Penn State, Rob worked for two years as a meteorologist at WABI-TV5 in Bangor, Maine. In Maine, Rob covered record-breaking warmth, snowstorms, and blizzards. He also got to do some hiking, ziplining, and snowmobiling in an outdoor adventure segment called Roaming Rob. Rob moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana in the fall of 2013 and began working at WANE 15 as a weekend morning meteorologist, co-host and reporter. While in Fort Wayne, he covered extreme winter weather and severe storms, including one of the largest tornado outbreaks in northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio on August 24, 2016. Besides weather, Rob also worked on feature segments at the local zoo and a local winery. Rob moved back to his alma mater in November of 2018 and returned to Weather World after a 7 year hiatus. He currently works as a host, producer, and forecaster for the show and works with students to help them prepare for careers in meteorology and weather broadcasting. In his spare time, Rob enjoys traveling, hiking, spending time with friends, volunteering for his fraternity, and wine-tasting.

Jon Nese

Jon Nese is a native of Steubenville, Ohio, and was a regular on Weather World from 1989 to 1998. During that time, he was a faculty member at the Beaver, University Park, and Hazleton Campuses, where he taught meteorology, earth sciences, and mathematics courses. From 1998 to 2002, he was chief meteorologist at the historic Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia. From 2002 to 2005, he was an on-air storm analyst at The Weather Channel. Jon has now joined the faculty of the Department of Meteorology at Penn State.

Jon has authored two books: The Philadelphia Area Weather Book (with Philadelphia television meteorologist and PSU alum Glenn Schwartz), and a college-level introductory textbook A World of Weather: Fundamentals of Meteorology (with Penn State meteorologist Lee Grenci), now in its sixth edition. Jon produces the very popular and Emmy-winning WXYZ (weatherwise) segment on Weather World each Wednesday. In his spare time, Jon enjoys attending Penn State sporting events and coaching youth basketball and soccer.

Marisa Ferger

Hurricane Gloria was the event that turned Marisa Ferger into an official "weather weenie". The storm forced her hometown of Bayville, NY to be evacuated and sparked her interest in meteorology. After graduating from the University of Oklahoma, Marisa worked as an on-air meteorologist and reporter at WPBN in Traverse City, MI and KOKH in Oklahoma City. Before joining the Weather Communications Group in July of 2002, Marisa worked in television and radio in State College, PA.

Marisa, along with Jon Nese won an Emmy in 2015 for one of the Weather Whys segments. She enjoys spending time with her family, hiking, cooking, and reading.

Ben Reppert

Ben was born in the Lehigh Valley region of Eastern Pennsylvania, and remained there until his time at Penn State. After having school cancelled by Hurricane Floyd in 1999, Ben developed a love for weather. He attended Penn State from 2011 to 2015, which included two years on the executive board of the Campus Weather Service: Head of Communications in 2013 and President in 2014. He was also a co-founder of the Penn State Storm Chase Team, and served as the fundraising chair in its inaugural year. Ben returned to Penn State in August 2015 as a full time member of the Weather Communications Group, serving as a social media content developer and a co-host of the 32 year old show, Weather World. Prior to returning to Penn State, Ben interned at KYW-TV, the CBS television station in Philadelphia, and was a weekday meteorologist for the Centre County Report and C-Net 7 in Centre County. Ben departed Weather World for Colorado in December of 2018 and worked in Denver at WeatherNation. He returned to Penn State late in 2021.

Bill Syrett

Bill Syrett was born in Bristol, CT and has been fascinated by weather that most people consider "bad" since he was 5 years old. He was pleased and surprised to find lots of other "weather weenies" when he came to Penn State in 1980. He received a B.S. and M.S. in Meteorology and was then hired by Penn State as a research assistant, again in meteorology. In 1995 he began his tenure as the manager of Penn State's University Park weather observatory, now the Joel N. Myers Weather Center. He teaches several meteorology courses and enjoys contact with his students and all others with an interest in the weather. He is married and has two grown children. He's been a forecaster on Weather World since 2001.

Dana Osgood

Dana is from Pearl River, New York, which is a small but bustling town outside of New York City. She got into weather through her love her photography, and eventually, taking pictures of clouds led to learning about them. At Penn State, she is the Head of Communications for the Penn State Campus Weather Service, and she makes forecasts for the Centre County Government C-NET channel and the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications Centre County Reports. She is also involved with the student-run show, Weather or Not. Dana has been a Tower Worker since the start of her junior year, helping make graphics and work behind the scenes of Weather World and taking weather observations. Also in the beginning of her junior year, she made her debut on Weather World as a host, both in the field and at the desk. In the summer of 2022, she appeared in the Hashtag Headlines segment of Weather World and became a forecaster for the show in June of 2022. Dana is so excited to be on the show and loves being involved with everything she can, and will continue her work on the show until her graduation in May of 2023.

In her free time, Dana enjoys being around horses, especially riding and showing her own horse, Phoenix, who she loves very much. Dana also enjoys the arts, and has been in a few theater productions in her life, her favorite being Mamma Mia! The Musical. As a member of the Penn State Creative Writing Club, she also enjoys reading and writing stories, and Dana hopes to be able to publish her own novel one day.

Kevin Appleby

Kevin grew up in the Northern New Jersey suburb of Rockaway, New Jersey. The wide variety of weather found in the tri-state area intrigued Kevin from a young age, including Hurricanes Irene and Sandy. Kevin began his journey at Penn State in the Fall of 2019 with an interest in broadcast meteorology, immediately getting involved with the meteorology department’s Campus Weather Service. Kevin spent summer 2021 in State College, helping out with Weather World, both on-air and behind the scenes. After starting with forecast recaps in the Spring of 2022, Kevin made his full forecasting debut on Weather World in June 2022. In his free time, Kevin enjoys watching his underachieving sports teams in the New Jersey Devils, New York Jets, and New York Mets, as well as spending time with family and friends.

Caroline Castora

Caroline Castora was born and raised in Plano, TX, and the severe weather there sparked her love for weather. Penn State's incredible meteorology program was what made her move thousands of miles away from home to study it. Caroline is also involved in the Campus Weather Service and is the proud president of Orchesis Dance Company, Penn State's oldest dance organization. She also had the opportunity to freelance in the spring of 2023 at ABC27 in Harrisburg, PA.

After graduation, she is moving to Shreveport, LA for a full-time meteorologist position at KTBS, the local ABC affiliate. She credits her success to her professors, mentors, friends, and all the amazing broadcast opportunities offered at Penn State. In her free time, she loves dancing and choreographing, Penn State football, and playing with her dog Lanie.

Jacob Hair

Jacob grew up in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania, a small town in the extreme southwest corner of the state. Jacob has been interested in the weather ever since he was a small child. At first, he was very afraid of high wind, heavy rain, and the booming thunder from severe storms. However, that fear turned into a passion when he watched Dr. Greg Forbes and Jim Cantore on The Weather Channel for hours on end. His parents bought him his first weather station in elementary school, and each day for five years, he would record the high and low temperature. The storm that cemented his interest in meteorology was the 2010 North American Blizzard (Snowmageddon) that dumped over 20 inches of snow at his house. Jacob joined Weather World in the Fall of 2019 as a forecast verifier of 12-Day Trends and as a behind-the-scenes timekeeper. He became a host in the Fall of 2021 and a forecaster in the Spring of 2022, with his debut later that Fall. He enjoys not only forecasting and communicating the weather, but also explaining the mechanisms driving it. Jacob is also very involved in research. He has had past research positions studying Atmospheric Rivers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, and research at Penn State University on snow bands within strong Nor’easters. In his free time, Jacob enjoys watching Pittsburgh sports (The City of Champions), watching horse racing, umpiring baseball, biking, camping, and being with friends and family. His favorite music is that which soothes the soul (70's and 80's of course).

Brian Michigan

Brian is from Brick, New Jersey, a beachside town in Ocean County. Starting in the third grade, Brian found himself always in tune with what was going on in the weather due to his passions for surfing and skiing. Being from Ocean County, Brian was inspired by historic weather events like Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Irene, and large nor'easters that come through each winter. In the fall of 2019, Brian started his freshman year studying meteorology at Penn State with a focus in forecasting and communications. From year one, Brian joined the Campus Weather Service and got involved in behind-the-scenes work for Weather World. During his 3rd year at PSU, Brian made his Weather World debut as a host and soon after, he started doing Hashtag Headlines. Since then, Brian made his forecasting debut in the fall of 2022. Brian can also be seen weekly on The Centre County Report or out in the lineup at his favorite surf breaks in Ocean County, NJ on the weekends!

Kyle Eck

Kyle Eck is from York, Pennsylvania. He's been passionate about the weather for nearly 20 years after seeing live news coverage of Hurricane Katrina as it made landfall along the northern Gulf Coast. Growing up, he'd always watch the Local on The 8's on The Weather Channel - so much so, that his parents often put a parental lock on the channel! Kyle didn't get his college career started at University Park, rather, he decided to stay close to home for his first few years at Penn State York. Upon transferring to University Park in August 2021, he got involved with the Campus Weather Service. He later began hosting and forecasting for Weather or Not, Centre County Report, and most recently, Weather World! Kyle was fortunate to have been a meteorology intern for CBS 21 in Harrisburg, PA through summer 2022. Once Kyle graduates in May 2023, he will be moving to Quincy, IL to work as a Weekend Meteorologist for WGEM, an ABC affiliate. He is greatly appreciative to have learned from and worked alongside the faculty at Penn State, the meteorologists at CBS 21, as well as his peers. In his free time, Kyle loves exercising and watching the latest episodes of RuPaul's Drag Race.