Budding Bethlehem weatherman puts own forecasts online
For three and a half years, the Bethlehem native and budding weatherman has posted his own weather forecasts online. And they look nearly professional since he enrolled at Penn State in August 2011 and can use the university’s television studio.
“At first, they weren’t very good,” the 19-year-old said. “Now, it looks like a real weather forecast.”
Reppert has been interested in the weather for as long as he can remember. At age 3, he started collecting the daily weather forecasts in the newspaper. His parents used to have him do his own weather forecasts while standing in front of The Weather Channel.
In May 2009, he started producing his weather forecasts for a larger audience. A friend had discovered Windows Movie Maker and thought Reppert might want to put it to use to further his interest in weather reporting.
His first online weather forecasts took him a good hour to produce, between finding images online, modifying them with Microsoft Paint and putting them together with the movie maker. He used to produce weather forecasts about four times a week when he could while attending Liberty High School.
He now only produces weather forecasts once a week because of his college course load, but the quality has improved tremendously. Reppert’s forecasts now contain high-quality graphics, animated maps and his own image on the screen.
Reppert joined Penn State’s Campus Weather Service immediately upon his enrollment there. His membership with the club gives him access to its professional-level equipment as well as experience working for actual clients, including C-NET — a local television company in State College — and GoErie.com, a news website in Erie, Pa. See Lehigh Valley link below for full story.