John Farley

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Chief Meteorologist

 

John Farley has worked as a Meteorologist for more than 20 years and is honored to be the Chief Meteorologist for ABC Columbia. He understands the challenges of forecasting the ever-changing weather of the Midlands. That was never more important than on Saturday night October 3rd, when the worst storm of a generation dropped up to 21 inches of rain right here in Columbia. During that storm, John spent the night and following day in continuous coverage, warning viewers of the perils of the flooding. He says, “It’s a period of 36 hours that has left an indelible imprint on me. Seeing our neighbors, whose lives are now changed forever because of the power of this storm, is very impacting.”

Before joining ABC Columbia, he was the Chief Meteorologist for NBC Affiliate in Columbia for 5 years. Prior to that he was at KNTV, the NBC affiliate in San Francisco, where he was the Chief Meteorologist for 9 years. John is an EMMY Award winning meteorologist, and is a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) with the American Meteorological Society. He holds a Master of Science Degree in Meteorology from San Jose State University, in San Jose, California, where he received the honor of Graduate of the Last Decade from the College of Science in 2001.

While in Graduate School, John worked with a team to create mathematical models that forecast the fog at San Francisco International Airport. His team was given the Excellence in Aviation Award from the FAA in 2002. John Farley is happy to report that the FAA still uses those models today. While in California, John also worked as a consultant for a power company which provides gas & electricity to roughly 16 million people. His responsibilities included temperature, wind, snow, and severe weather forecasting, as well as providing long-term electricity generation forecasts for proposed wind farms.

John loves to talk weather and he has visited with thousands of students over the past 20 years. He lives in Lexington with his wife and three children. They are all thrilled to call the Midlands home.

John Farley

Articles

Climate Change and the West Coast Wild Fires

There's been a lot of discussion about the reasons for the massive fires in the west this summer. To be sure, there are some obvious things that have contributed to these fires. To begin with, the general strategy for managing…

Today’s Forecast

Look for highs coming in near 90 degrees with scattered showers through the weekend.

Fire Records Keep Falling in California

Here's a tweet today from @CAL_FIRE "This year's fire season has already hit the record books, with more acres burning in 2020 than any other year in the past 3 decades (since statewide figures have been tracked). 2020 has already…

Today’s Forecast

The next several days will deliver plenty of clouds, occasional showers, and temperatures mostly in the mid to upper 80's.

Record Breaking Fires in California

California has set a record for the amount of land burned in a season, and there's still a long way to go as fire season typically continues through November. So far in 2020, more than 7,600 fires have consumed 2.3…