"WEATHER GEEKS" TO PREMIERE ON THE WEATHER CHANNEL

Weekly Talk Show Will Tackle The Most Important Issues Affecting The Weather Community; Show Will Debut Sunday, July 20

ATLANTA -- July 16, 2014 -- For scientists, policy makers, emergency managers and fans of meteorology, it's hard to remember a time in the weather community as interesting or as complex as this one. Today, The Weather Channel(R) is announcing "Weather Geeks" - a televised forum by and for the weather community. Whether it be mitigating against drought, chemtrails and HARRP; debating machines vs. humans in weather forecasting; or discussing the pros and cons of storm chasing -- Weather Geeks will seek to tackle the issues that are top of mind in the weather community but rarely explored in depth on television.

Weather Geeks will premiere on Sunday, July 20, at noon ET on The Weather Channel network and will air weekly in that time slot. The show will be hosted by Dr. Marshall Shepherd, past president of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and director of the University of Georgia's atmospheric sciences program.

"One of the greatest aspects of my involvement with AMS and our community as a whole is the opportunity to hear the best minds in our field discuss the most pressing issues in weather," said Shepherd. "Our vision is for Weather Geeks to be a weekly forum for those types of discussions, and I am looking forward to inviting scientists from across the weather community to be a part of the show."

Guests on Weather Geeks will come from all areas of meteorology -- from NOAA and NWS officials to academics and members of the media or private sector. The first episode of Weather Geeks will focus on the merits of storm chasing and ask the tough questions - is it worth it? what is the value? are chasers putting themselves and others at risk? The episode will feature expert host Dr. Marshall Shepherd and his guest, world-renowned storm chaser Dr. Charles Doswell.

"The opportunity to have Dr. Shepherd as a regular contributor and host made this an ideal opportunity to create a national platform for a discussion of weather issues," said David Clark, president of The Weather Channel TV network. "We recognize that we play a role in a much larger community and we felt an obligation to set aside air time for that community to come together and share ideas and expertise."