Wayne Mahar
Chief Meteorologist

wmahar@CNYcentral.com

School: National Weather Service
Hometown: Brunswick, Maine

Wayne has been Chief meteorologist at WSTM since January 1985. At that time he became the first fulltime meteorologist on Central New York television, which began a whole new era of taking television weather more seriously. A couple of other rather unique situations that have developed with Wayne over the years are The Weather Outside, and Doppler the Weather Cat. WSTM is one of only a dozen or so TV stations across the country that does the weather outside on the Weather Deck, no matter how cold or snowy it might be in the winter. On the Weather Deck with Wayne a few times each week is Doppler, a tradition which developed about ten years ago when a stray cat wandered onto the Weather Deck one evening while Wayne was live on the air. In case you didn't realize, that worked out well as Wayne is an animal lover and has had a variety of dogs and cats all his life.

Wayne belongs to several meteorological associations, has been a professional member of the American Meteorological Society for over 30 years, and holds the AMS Television and Radio Seals of Approval for excellence in weather broadcasting. Wayne is proud of being selected one of the "Outstanding Young Men in America" in 1984 by the United States Jaycees organization. He has written many weather related publications. In 1989 he authored a 35 page weather workshop for high school Earth Science classes entitled "Wayne's Weather Workshop". In 1990 Wayne co-authored a course workbook on the science of meteorology, which was sold worldwide. In 2007, Wayne, with the help of Channel 3 meteorologists Chris Brandolino and Peter Hall developed a college level “mock weather disaster” being used as part of the educational requirements for a college degree in Emergency Preparedness.

Wayne is also founder and owner of Precision Weather Service, a private weather consulting firm for business and industry. This is a company Wayne started long before getting into television. Precision Weather Service encompasses more than a dozen employees, with hundreds of clients worldwide. The New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, City of Newark, New Jersey Dept. of Transportation, Steven Speilberg's DREAMWORKS movie studios, Paramount and NBC Universal all depend on Wayne and his company, and he even provides weather forecasts for The Academy Awards, The Cannes Film Festival in France, the Golden Globes, the Sundance Film Festival and movie premieres world wide. Radio stations, highway departments, construction companies, utilities, school districts and ski areas from Newfoundland to the U.S. and Canadian West Coast depend Wayne and his staff for accurate weather. Locally the City of Syracuse, Hancock Airport, Onondaga County Department of Transportation, Cities of Watertown and Albany, Syracuse University, National Grid, Greek Peak ski resort, the State Fair, Syracuse Crunch hockey, Syracuse Chiefs baseball and many more rely on Wayne and his staff for accurate and timely weather. Over the years, Wayne has also been called upon to gibe weather briefings to the Blue Angels navy flight demonstration team as well as forecasting for Canadian Olympic teams.

When not forecasting the weather, Wayne can often times be found in State Supreme Court providing Expert Testimony on weather related accidents from slip and falls to car accidents. To date, Wayne has researched more than 450 weather cases across the country and testifying in court as an Expert Witness several dozen times. Cases have ranged from oil rig fires in Oklahoma and in the Gulf of Mexico to weather related building collapses in southern California and Florida, and even several murder trials. Wayne has been an Expert Witness several times in the New York State Court of Claims testifying against the State of New York and other times in defending the State against weather related lawsuits.

Obviously, between television and Precision Weather Service, this has kept Wayne very busy over the years. Good thing he can get by on a mere four or five hours of sleep each night, although Wayne jokes that the lack of sleep sometimes seems to make his thinking process a little slow. In any event, as Wayne says "getting out into the community, school and nursing home talks and visits, work with charities, is all very, very important to me, and something I love to do, have always done and will always do!" The Toys for Tots program is also very important to Wayne, and he looks forward to working with the program each Holiday season.

In early 2008, Wayne established the Priscilla Mahar Animal Welfare Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation raising and distributing money to animal welfare organizations around central New York. The foundation was established on behalf of Wayne’s mother who passed away in 2007, and who, like Wayne, loved animals. Anybody interested in learning more about the Priscilla Mahar Animal Welfare Foundation or wanting to help is asked to please contact Wayne at wmahar@cnycentral.com.

Wayne is very proud of how weather has developed over the years since his arrival at WSTM Channel 3, proud of his great staff at Channel 3, and proud of acquiring the areas first Live Doppler Radar, then Triple Doppler Radar and Interactive Doppler Radar. Now, with expanded newscasts both on WSTM Channel 3 and WTVH Channel 5, a nightly 10:00 pm news on CW 6 and even our own 24 hour local weather channel, NBC WeatherPlus on digital cable 133, Wayne and the other meteorologists at Action News continue leading the way for weather in Central New York.

• Year Hired at Channel 3: January 1985
• Memorable Stories: Labor Day Storm and Blizzard of 1993
• Dream Job: Professional Hockey Player (but I’m a little too old for that now)
• Role Model: My mother. She taught me that you have to work hard in this life, be nice to people, and value family.
• Education: Trained by the National Weather Service
• Hometown: Brunswick, Maine
• Current Residence: Baldwinsville
• Astrological Sign: Aquarius (figures... air and water)
• Family: wife Dianne and two daughters, Caitlin (23) and Emily (21)
• Hobbies: Ice Hockey, working out, third degree black belt in karate
• Favorite Sports Team: New Jersey Devils
• Favorite Musician or Group: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Trace Adkins, Van Halen
• Favorite Books: non-fiction, educational, instructional and self improvement material (Yes, I am boring)
• Favorite Movie: Remember the Titans, Top Gun, Airplane, The Naked Gun series
• Favorite TV Shows: 24, The Amazing Race, Law and Order series, House
• Favorite Food: Chinese (Shepard's) pie, pizza, hot wings
• Favorite Destinations: Sedona, Arizona and Bermuda