Gary Szatkowski

Gary Szatkowski is one of the most recognized operational meteorologists in the United States, with nearly 40 years of service at the National Weather Service (NOAA). He served as Meteorologist-in-Charge at the NWS Mount Holly, New Jersey forecast office for 19 years, overseeing weather forecasts and warnings for approximately 12 million people across New Jersey, Delaware, eastern Pennsylvania, and northeast Maryland — the second-largest population coverage of any NWS office in the nation. He earned his B.S. in Meteorology from Saint Louis University and held forecasting positions in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and the Washington, D.C. area before leading the Mount Holly office. Szatkowski gained national prominence during Hurricane Sandy (2012), when he broke from standard NWS language to issue an extraordinary personal plea urging coastal residents to evacuate, sharing his own cell phone number and writing: ‘I will be very happy that you are alive & well, no matter how much you yell at me.’ His direct, plain-language communication was widely credited with influencing evacuation decisions and saving lives. He managed forecasting for Philadelphia International Airport, pioneered NWS use of social media for two-way weather communication, and implemented the weather briefing package format that became a model for the service. After retiring in May 2016, he has worked as a training instructor for COMET/UCAR, as a senior forecaster at The Weather Company (IBM), and now operates OurWeather US LLC, providing forensic meteorology consulting for legal proceedings.