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In July 2019, Zach Krauss assumed role of Chief Meteorologist & Owner of SWCT/NY Weather. I graduated with his Bachelor’s in Meteorology from Cornell University where I was the Education & Outreach Chair for the Cornell Chapter of the American Meteorological Society and was chosen to present at the national American Meteorological Society conference for his work. I am currently pursuing his Master’s degree in Environmental Management. I have been forecasting weather for over 6 years in our region. I have been featured in many local papers over the years for my knack at weather forecasting. I began at SWCT as an intern in the summer of 2018. I am very excited to for my new position at SWCT and to continue to grow the region’s best hyper-local weather forecast provider. Feel free to contact [email protected] with any questions! .
Austin is a meteorologist with a Bachelor’s in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma. Raised in Texas and going to college in Oklahoma, he is most familiar with severe weather such as hail and tornadoes. In his time as a professional meteorologist, he has researched severe hail sizing and detection, a project which he presented at the annual American Meteorological Society conference in 2017, provided weather forecasts for the shipping industry, developed web-based weather forecasts, and provided radio weather forecasts for agricultural areas.
This page is co-run by founder Jacob Meisel, a weather consultant who grew up in Westport, Connecticut and recently graduated cum laude from Harvard College. His degree in Social Studies focusing on Climate and Politics in North America and his minor in Energy and Environment were attained with the goal of furthering his research into the social impact of weather and weather forecasting. This website remains one of the predominant outlets for Jacob’s meteorological interests. Jacob has been studying meteorology for upwards of 11 years now, and has operated a weather website for this region previously for 9 of those 11 years. As a middle and high school student he forecasted primarily in winter months, but is now focusing in on year-round New England weather prediction. He is also trained in forecasting patterns for thunderstorms and other summer storm systems, allowing him to provide summer weather consulting services even when his free site is not updated as consistently. Jacob’s specialty is large scale systems and determining exact tracks and expected impacts, hence winter forecasting which involves the time of year when most low pressure systems, or Nor’ Easters, tend to impact Southwestern Connecticut. Jacob has also increased his study of seasonal patterns, applying numerous statistical tests to various upper air patterns and climate drivers to try and compile statistical estimates for each season. He has been featured on BBC News, The Weather Channel and a number of regional news sources and radio stations for his local forecasts while also being featured on Bloomberg News, CNBC, Natural Gas Intel, and other market news sources for his energy market analysis stemming from longer-range weather forecasts. Forecasts will be updated daily on the Premium page, and when more extreme weather is expected more frequent storm reports will cover it from all angles.
At first forecasts focused specifically on Fairfield County, but in the 4 years ago they were expanded to officially cover neighboring Westchester and New Haven counties, which can now expect updated forecasts on a day to day basis, and updates can often give up-to-the-minute information on breaking weather events. This website also has a Facebook and Twitter for shorter updates, both of which are listed on the home page. The Twitter account, @SWCTweather, livetweets during storms for second-by-second breakdowns of expected conditions.
Jacob has upgraded potential personalized service offerings through SWCTweather in the past years, providing a competitive pricing scheme to offer individuals forecasts for specific events up to a month in advance. For additional information on any of these individualized weather services, please see the “Additional Forecasting Services” section of the website or contact Jacob directly at [email protected]. Many of these services are also available through a Premium Subscription, which you can sign up for here.
While at Harvard Jacob also conducted research into market-driving weather patterns and the economics of meteorological forecasting, putting weather forecasts to work in equity and commodity investments. These services are available via Bespoke Weather Services at bespokeweather.com. Jacob has moved on his career but experienced energy meteorologist Brian Lovern now runs Bespoke Weather, who you can reach at [email protected].
Jacob also conducted research into the sociology of meteorology and climate science while at Harvard, writing an award-winning thesis on the conflicting stances of meteorologists and climate scientists on the topic of climate change. He is available for consultation on various sociological biases that may be plaguing various forecasting techniques or on how climate change may impact your business in the coming years and decades. For more information on this research, please email Jacob at [email protected].
A Personal Note From Jacob: Originally, while in high school, all the content on this site I ensured was free no matter how in-depth it was to reach a maximum possible audience. As I worked my way through college, however, I found a number of other things vying for my time, and realized the only way I could afford to continue offering in-depth forecasting and analysis was if I could turn it into a money-making enterprise. At first I introduced donations (and I am still very grateful for everyone that donated!) but in order to justify the amount of time consistent site upkeep took I realized I had to switch over to steady revenue in a subscription-based model. Now, having graduated college and working full-time, it is this subscription-based model that allows me to continue updating this site at all. Without it, I simply could not afford to spend the amount of time I do breaking down weekly weather and winter storms. In an ideal world, it would be great for all my forecasting to be free, but I am so grateful to all my subscribers who allow me to continue following my passion providing the detailed hyperlocal forecasts that I’ve been creating for upwards of a decade now. And for those of you enjoying the free site, please also thank my subscribers who allow for me to continue providing live Twitter updates and Free content as well!
On a different note, I often get asked how I, a recent college graduate who is doing this weather analysis independently, think I can deliver more accurate results in forecasts than the National Weather Service, Accuweather, The Weather Channel, or other paid professionals. The answer is I don’t, at least not every time. But what I have done is try and create a model that even an amateur forecaster can follow and achieve as close to a success rate as the National Weather Service does: focusing in on a small geographic area in which you reside in. For awhile this has always been a theory of mine as to how I can deliver accurate weather information as just an individual running a weather company, but recent testing by meteorology professors at various Universities now prove that this is in fact true. The regional expertise combined with forecasting experience can outlast just forecasting alone. If you don’t believe me, read up on it here. One of my favorite quotes straight from the abstract is:
“Specifically, experienced forecasters are able to use regional knowledge to their advantage in forecasting temperature and precipitation amount, while their less-experienced counterparts cannot advantageously use such information for either type of forecast.”
I hope that through my website I can properly convey precipitation and temperature forecasts that fit the numerous needs of people across not just Southwestern Connecticut but the surrounding area as well. It’s always been argued that specialization is the key to success in any economy: my goal is to bring that to weather.
