André Bernier (meteorologist)

André M. Bernier (born May 22, 1959 in New Bedford, Massachusetts) is an American meteorologist, serving as the Cleveland-based WJW-TV's weekday evening meteorologist, along with Dick Goddard.^[1] He won two Emmy awards^[2] for his weathercasts and has been at the station since February 1988,^[3] when Cleveland's very first, full-length local morning newscast began. After nearly twenty years on weekday mornings, Bernier moved to the weekday prime-time on May 28, 2007.

Early years

His interest in meteorology began at the very early age of 4 when he noticed dark clouds from an approaching storm. It was the beginning of an all-consuming passion to understand weather of all types, but during his boyhood years in New England took a particular fancy to winter snowstorms and the well-known "nor'easter."

At the age of 16, Bernier became a fixture in New Bedford radio by beginning his broadcast career supplying weekend weather forecasts to his hometown radio station, WBSM-AM. With the patient help of a number of mentors such as WBSM's Stann Lipp, Jim Loomis, Dick Stevens and newsman Jim Phillips (who is still heard on WBSM), he polished his skills as a broadcaster while continuing to educate himself in synoptic meteorology (forecasting) by shadowing the late Charlie Taylor, meteorologist for WLNE-TV, whose studios still resided in New Bedford in the 1970s.

Education

After graduating from New Bedford High School in 1977, he attended Lyndon State College in Lyndonville, Vermont and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology in 1981. During his college years, he started a student-run company called "The New England Weather Net," which supplied local radio stations (including WSTJ-AM, St. Johnsbury, Vermont) with daily weather feeds by phone.

Career

After graduation, he left New England to accept his first position as weekend meteorologist in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at eastern Iowa's then premiere station, KGAN (which was known as WMT-AM-FM-TV). After only eight months, Bernier left Iowa to join the then speculative national cable channel start-up known as The Weather Channel. Bernier and Bruce Kalinowski (Edwards) were the very first on-camera meteorology team when The Weather Channel started broadcasting on Sunday, May 2, 1982 at 8:00 PM EDT.

In 1985, he moved to Minneapolis where he worked at WWTC-AM (the only commercial AM radio station in the U.S. to attempt an all-weather format), Northwest Airlines (as a trans-Atlantic flight forecaster) and eventually KARE-TV, Minneapolis, where he worked with his wife, Sally (née Patrick) during the weekday morning newscasts.

In 1988, Bernier and his family moved to Cleveland, where in the same year he began work at WJW channel 8, serving as the morning meteorologist until 2007, when he moved to evenings.^[4]

Other interests

In addition to his activities as a television meteorologist, his faith journey began to take an increasing priority which led him to enroll in a distance-education seminary program. With completed courses from Southern Baptist Seminary in Nashville and ICU University, now known as Global University in Springfield, Missouri, he was ordained by an Ordination Council of Pastors on May 21, 2004 at Grace Community Church, Massillon, Ohio. He is an active member of Fellowship Bible Church, Chagrin Falls, OH where he is a creative arts pastor. He occasionally accepts invitations to other local pulpits as guest preacher and evangelist.

He is also active in digital film production, having been mentored by Hollywood film director, Jason Tomaric. Aside from a number of shorts, Bernier's filmography includes the mid-feature-length drama, "Christmas Lights In Pilaf" (2004) based on the first chapter of his Christian novel, "Welcome To Pilaf," and most recently a full-length documentary about a family from France who, with their life savings, bought an old, abandoned building in Olmsted Falls, Ohio to open an authentic French bistro. "French Toast" (2006) has been submitted to numerous film festivals in the USA including Utah, DC, Cleveland, Dallas as well as the national Telly Awards.

A proponent for energy conservation and renewable fuel technology including the deployment of a hydrogen vehicle, he is also noted for his opposition to the theory of anthropic causes of climate change.

Awards and honors

• AMS Seal of Approval (#286)
• Two-time Lower Great Lakes Emmy Awards recipient

References

External links

• Lyndon State College alumni web site.
• Washington, Julie; The Plain Dealer. Article referencing André Bernier from May 18, 2007.
• AMS Television Seal Holders from the official site of the American Meteorological Society.
• On-line talent bio on TVJobs.com.
• Station information referencing André Bernier at info.com.
• "Welcome To Pilaf" (2003) DVD from Amazon.com. .