Brad_Burton's Blog

Why is it that us "weather nerds" are the first ones to be going blog-crazy here? I don't know, but I am the newest member of Fox 8's weather team to join the community... even though I'm just one of the summer interns, haha.

Being an intern this summer has been an absolutely wonderful learning experience, and I am very thankful to Van, Emily, and everyone else here at Fox 8 that I have worked with this summer. This has definately given me a new perspective on what has been my dream career since I was in 3rd grade.

So lets go back for a minute and review that.

As far back as I remember I have always been interested in weather. I figure that as a child, you're either scared of it or completely awe-struck by it. I was the latter. From when I was a young child, I can still remember being fascinated as I watched the news and effects of Hurricane Hugo on the Carolinas. Hopefully I was watching Fox 8... I don't remember. I also clearly remember spending what seemed like forever hiding in a bathroom in my house one night shortly after a news cut-in of a tornado warning had interrupted me from wathcing Woody The Woodpecker. After the storm I witnessed the damage around my neighborhood. Trees were dowm, power was out, and roofs were damaged. Although I was briefly upset by the interruption, I soon forgot all about my cartoons.

However, despite my fascination with these events, I still contribute the majority of my meteorological interest to a visitor to my 3rd grade class. A local meteorologist by the name of Van Denton came to talk, and I pretty much knew from then on that he had the job I wanted. Soon after that visit to my class, my parents arranged for me to make a few visits to the Fox 8 studio to see Van do the weather. Van took me on a tour of the station and let me watch him do his show for the news.

I visited one or two more times after that, but then at the end of my 6th grade year I was contacted to come visit again... this time not to watch Van do the weather, but to do the weather myself! This was the start of the Van's Weather Kids segment, which still airs every Thursday night. So I showed up there at the station again, helped make a promo-commercial for the program (which my infamous quote, "One day... all this will be mine!" still haunts me to this day), and did my spot as the Weather Kid. This solidified it for me. There was no stopping me. I was going to be "the weather man" one day.

Flash forward a few years, I ended up going to Mississippi State University to major in Broadcast Meteorology. I've been there for 3 years now and I am loving every minute of it. I came back to High Point this summer to intern for Van, the one person who got it all started for me. Even though I only have one year of school left, Van has promised to continue to work with me on my meteorological career. This coming May will be the 10 Year Anniversary of his Wether Kids program, and that happens to coincide with my (hopeful!) graduation from college. There are already plans underway for me to re-visit on a Thursday afternoon as the first Weather Kid to become a meteorologist. Although I'm pretty sure it will be quite humiliating for me as they show my old tape, and that horrible, horrible commercial, I am very excited at the idea of coming back to Fox 8 to be on the news again.

Here's to hoping I do well in school... haha.