TOLEDO, Ohio — A Toledo native, John Burchfield fell in love with wild weather at a young age. The winter weather, severe storms, and temperature swings of northwest Ohio captivated his interest.
As a young aspiring meteorologist, John tuned in to WTOL for the latest information on the weather. In high school, John toured the WTOL studio and met some of his future co-workers. Inspired by his childhood role models, John built a green screen in his basement and uploaded local weather forecasts to YouTube.
In high school, John attended a summer weather camp at Penn State University and constructed a tornado simulation chamber for a science research project.
John's childhood experiences in meteorology culminated in four years at Cornell University studying Atmospheric Science.
While in college, John served as a fill-in meteorologist for WENY in Elmira, New York, and interned at his future workplace, WTOL. When John graduated, he earned his first professional on-air gig as a meteorologist for ABC21 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In June 2019, he started working at his hometown station.
When John isn't sharing weather updates on-air and on social media, he enjoys pursuing his passions of running, photography, and sleeping.