Lt. Col. Nicole Mitchell takes the AMS Weather Band inside the missions and experiences of the renowned Hurricane Hunters! This special event also features discussion with Bryan Norcross as moderator.
Help us celebrate Hurricane Preparedness Week as Lt. Col. Nicole Mitchell takes us inside the life and missions of a Hurricane Hunter.
Nicole Mitchell is currently the on air morning meteorologist for Minnesota Public Radio and a contributor for KSTP-TV as well as Commander of the 126th Weather Flight for the National Guard, where she currently holds the rank of Lt. Col. Nicole previously worked as a military forecaster in Europe in support of military operations in both Kosovo and Bosnia, and even worked in Saudi Arabia in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. In 2003, she transferred from the National Guard into the Air Force Reserves, where she worked as a Weather Officer for the Hurricane Hunters, a unit which performs reconnaissance missions into tropical weather to gather data which aids in the forecasting of tropical storms and hurricanes, until 2019. Storms she has flown into include hurricanes Charley, Katrina, Wilma, and Harvey and she had the most seniority on staff by the time she left. She also helped develop and teach a Diversity and Inclusion program for the Reserves during that time, wanting to ensure all members of the military are treated with respect.
As a TV Meteorologist, Nicole has also worked in Rapid City, SD, South Bend, IN, Tulsa, OK, The Weather Channel (also providing hurricane expertise), Al Jazeera America (also covering climate and environmental issues) and CBS.
Joining Nicole to moderate our discussion is Bryan Norcross, one of the country's foremost hurricane broadcasters and hazard communicators.
Bryan became nationally known as the man who “talked South Florida through” Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which lead to his work on NBC and as the CBS News Hurricane Analyst from 1996 to 2008.
In appreciation for his work before, during, and after Hurricane Andrew, Bryan was publicly recognized with designations of Bryan Norcross Days in Miami, Miami Beach, and Fort Lauderdale, among other cities. In addition, he’s the recipient of an Emmy Award from the southeast chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and the DuPont and Peabody awards, among many other honors.
After working on emergency management communications with America’s Emergency Network, Bryan joined The Weather Channel as Senior Hurricane Specialist in 2010.
In 2018, Bryan returned to WPLG in Miami as Hurricane Specialist, covering hurricanes and tropical storms that threaten South Florida.
Bryan was profiled in the New York Times following his long hours of coverage of Hurricane Sandy on The Weather Channel, plus his blog and Facebook posts that provided detailed analysis of the storm threat and criticism of the government’s communications systems. The Times article quotes a Twitter post that described Bryan as “the most trusted hurricane human on the planet.”
Bryan is a longtime resident of Miami Beach.