WFLA-TV (Tampa Bay) Chief Meteorologist and Climate Specialist. BS Atmospheric Sciences Cornell U. MA Climate Columbia U. Past CBS News NY and Miami, Tampa, WPB

Tampa, FL
Joined November 2012
Jeff Berardelli retweeted
Replying to @mattlanza
Matt, here is the dirty weather content you ordered. Please tip appropriately, this is my only income source.
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Jeff Berardelli retweeted
Subsurface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific have soared 12°C (21.6°F) above average, the highest of this El Niño, with actual temperatures reaching 33.4°C (92.1°F). The y-axis maximum was raised again to accommodate this extreme warmth. We are witnessing climate history.
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“The best climate change documentary I’ve ever seen.” That’s what Jeff Masters wrote about Weather Under Fire in Yale Climate Connections, and I’m still trying to find the words for how much that means to me. Jeff co-founded Weather Underground and flew into hurricanes with the NOAA Hurricane Hunters, and I grew up reading his work as a weather geek, so hearing that from him is something I am blown away by. I may be the one on the film poster, but this film is much bigger than my story. It’s about the meteorologists across the country who are being threatened and silenced for explaining the science, and about the cuts to the National Weather Service that leave all of us less safe. It’s also about what happens to a nation when the people trying to warn us about extreme weather are pushed out. The film is complete - what’s left are the final touches. We’re raising this last bit of money now, because keeping Weather Under Fire independently funded has been a goal from the start so that we never had to give up our editorial independence. If you’d like to help get it over the finish line, contributions are tax-deductible: donate.mazloweb.com/donate/t… This Wednesday, October 21, at 7:30 PM ET (4:30 PM PT, 6:30 PM CT), director Sarah Gibson, Jeff and I are hosting a 30-minute Zoom. We’ll share clips from the film and take your questions live, and Jeff will close with a preview of what the strengthening Super El Niño could mean for California this winter. To get your invite, RSVP at [email protected] Please share/pass along!
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Jeff Berardelli retweeted
Appears to be absolutely MASSIVE protests all across the US yesterday and this platform is so skewed to the Trump/Putin side that this is the first I've seen or heard of it.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
The montage uses recycled footage from larger 2025 and March 2026 No Kings protests, not Oct 17 2026 Vote Early events. Those were smaller localized gatherings (hundreds to thousands per city) focused on early voting, not the massive crowds shown. nytimes.com/2026/10/17/us/… abc7ny.com/post/no-kings-… minnesotareformer.com/2026/10/17/hun… npr.org/2026/10/17/nx-…
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Jeff Berardelli retweeted
Josh Morgerman
@iCycloneOct 17
And that’s a hard miss. A near miss—but a hard miss. #Typhoon #CHAMPI’s intense core passed just S of #Guam, sparing the island a direct impact. But it'll be a soggy, messy start to your Sunday, so have your umbrellas handy. & have caution near large puddles & fallen branches.
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Jeff Berardelli retweeted
She rescued this pitbull two years ago, and the way he reacted when he saw her again was absolutely priceless.
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Jeff Berardelli retweeted
Brazilian Amazon deforestation falls to lowest level on record as pivotal vote looms for President Lula New data shows forest clearance fell by 71.2% since 2022, the final year of Bolsonaro administration. Story by me theguardian.com/environment/…
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Jeff Berardelli retweeted
This map ranks U.S. counties by quality of life for families using 108 indicators, including crime rates, schools, housing affordability, child care costs, health care, jobs, air quality, and other risks. How does your county compare?
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Jeff Berardelli retweeted
OHC: +3.35 Subsurface: +12C Surface: 30C isotherm strengthening/expanding even more at 140W. Record-breaking WWB/DWKW in progress and yet we still have people downplaying this El Niño. Pure comedy
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Jeff Berardelli retweeted
Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) 🪬@DoctorViveOct 12
A new study identifies "a statistically significant doubling of the global warming rate during 2011–25 (0.40 °C per decade) compared to 1971–2025 (0.20 °C per decade)." It claims that "the ensemble mean of 26 climate models fails to capture the observed doubling of the warming."
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Overall that was one of the more wild missions of my career… the eye was crazy shaped and closed on the first pass and then open on the second. On the third pass we had a call from the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center about a boat with an emergency beacon that was transmitting just outside the eye. We dropped down and searched for them for a bit. That’s all the wind arrows clumped together sorta in the middle. The beacon was loud but we didn’t get any response on the radio or see anything visually or with radar. Coast Guard was headed out in a helo but storm was well north by the time they made it on scene so no idea what happened with that. Then there was a bunch of severe turbulence on the open south side of the eye, clear air with nothing on radar but pilots had to do all their pilot stuff to keep us flying. Took a radar fix because the turbulence was too violent on the fourth pass. Then made it back in for one final fix before calling it a day. Pics and vids tomorrow… Our PA office got a bunch of them up on DVIDs if anybody wants to use them.
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Jeff Berardelli retweeted
This is crazy man. Starting to think damage might be worse in this isolated area than those in the #Isaias’s eyewall. Finally got my hands on velocity & it’s clear as day. Sting jet ripped through far western Santa Rosa & northeast Escambia, & parts of SW AL. Biggest reported gust so far is Jay, FL (118mph), which is NW of Milton, FL. I tried to go out & explore some in Pace, FL, and roads are impassable. Tree damage is bad. I knew this “sting jet” scenario was possible, but to see it come to fruition is wicked. These places were 20-30 miles west of the eyewall. Just insane stuff.
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Jeff Berardelli retweeted
Terrifying footage of a violent tornado ripping through the city of Marsala in Sicily, Italy earlier this morning. Heavy damage reported in the area.
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Jeff Berardelli retweeted
136 kt FL winds were just recorded within Hurricane #Isaias. This would support 120kt (140mph) surface winds
Windfield on the eastern side of Hurricane #Isaias continues to expand in size. As the hurricane approaches land, the worst of the weather will be colocated here, and the increased radius will extend surge impacts across the coast.
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Jeff Berardelli retweeted
Interested to see how Hurricane Isaias responds to the warm eddy ahead of it. Nearly all 1,000 Google DeepMind ensembles take it to major (Category 3+) intensity in the 24N to 28N band around the eddy, reaching lifetime max intensity in the stippled area on the plot below.
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Jeff Berardelli retweeted
NHC also favoring the AI modeling camp for their first forecast track of soon-to-be Isaias (from their 5 PM ET Tue Oct 6 forecast discussion) 👇
Agree with Andy. Still early but the AI models seem to have a better handle on the general evolution and steering. The EC-AIFS in particular seems like a reasonable compromise today. We'll see how things pan out this week.
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Jeff Berardelli retweeted
Looks like we'll have Tropical Depression Nine sooner rather than later. 12Z Google DeepMind (GDM) 1,000-member ensemble (just in) doubles down from 6Z, upping its odds of a major (Cat 3+) Gulf hurricane from ~45% to ~55%. Nearly all GDM members say we see Hurricane Isaias.
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Jeff Berardelli retweeted
Josh Morgerman
@iCycloneOct 4
See that? That's #NOLO's center crossing International Date Line (180°E or W longitude) in Pacific. That means NOLO gets to keep its name, but it's no longer a hurricane. Now it's #Typhoon NOLO. (Yep, this is the same thing that threatened Hawai'i last week.) Some trivia for ya.
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A man in Mexico risks his life to save someone, then casually goes back to work
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Jeff Berardelli retweeted
My expectation for Hurricane Polo to undergo an "extreme intensification rate" was met - and then exceeded. In just 42 hours, Polo went from a tropical depression to a category 5 hurricane - the fastest in modern records (1970-present) in both the Atlantic & East Pacific.
Hurricane Polo continues to rapidly improve in structure, with an eye clearing out on visible satellite & two vortical hot towers rotating around its nascent small eyewall. Combined with ambient moisture, very high SST & low shear, an extreme intensification rate is imminent.
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