New Addition To The ABC 33/40 Weather Team

The New Year will bring a new addition to the ABC 33/40 Weather Team. My associate John Oldshue, who has been with us for the last 10 years, will be stepping down from his regular television duties after he fills in for me next week. Now we aren’t getting rid of him, he will still be a part of our “Weather Company” family that provides additional weather support for ABC 33/40, the group that includes the great Alabama weather legend J.B. Elliott and Bill Murray.

Taking John’s place is Ashley Brand, currently the weeknight meteorologist for WTVY-TV, Channel 4, in Dothan. I first met Ashley when she was a 10th grade student at Mountain Brook High School; she came up several times when I was working at another location up on Red Mountain (this was over 12 years ago!) to see our weather operation and learn a little more about broadcast meteorology. The seeds were planted, and they were good ones. She went on to finish in the on campus broadcast meteorology program at Mississippi State University. In fact, Ashley interned with us here at ABC 33/40 in the summer of 2001. That was quite a class of interns; that group included Matthew East, who is now doing TV weather in Charlotte; Curtis Atkinson who is on TV in Lake Charles, LA, and Ginger Zee, who is a meteorologist for WMAQ-TV, Channel 5 in Chicago. Another member of the intern group that summer was David Peters, who is heads up the campus recreation program at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Even though he is out of weather for now, he is a great weather mind who made many of the computer graphics you see on ABC 33/40 today.

Ashley will be joining us in a month or so; she will anchor our weather segments on the weekend and do a variety of chores during the week. We hope she will be here for our annual Storm Alert tour in February so you can meet her in person. Having a female on the staff adds a little class to our operation! We are delighted Ashley is on our team and we look forward to her being with us for many years to come.

Below is a shot of Ashley as she was getting ready to fly with the Hurricane Hunters into Ivan in the summer of 2004. Below that are shots taken at the annual summer intern lunch in August 2001 at Dreamland…. what a crew! Ashley is the one with the sunglasses; Ginger is wearing the red blouse.

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