Ann Lockard, a native West Virginian, joined the StormTracker 59 team as a part-time meteorologist in January 2020. She started her life in the Kanawha Valley and later moved to the coalfields.
Ann has distinguished herself academically in her fields of expertise. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Geography, with distinction, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Geography with a minor in Meteorology, summa cum laude, both from Marshall University. She also has an Associate of Arts degree with honors from Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College. Ann has also provided public communications training to the meteorologists at NWS Charleston WV and is a National Weather Service Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador.
Ann’s passion is to communicate weather hazards effectively to make people safer. She worked as a student volunteer with the National Weather Service office in Charleston, West Virginia during the summer of 2019, working over 150 hours. On-shift the evening of the June 24, 2019 Charleston tornado, Ann has proven hands-on, real-time experience with severe weather. Other meteorological passions of hers include fire weather, climatology, and forensic meteorology.
As a lifelong resident of our region, she has experienced first-hand historic weather events such as the 2012 “Superderecho”, as well as watched real-time as severe weather impacts unfolded for her neighbors and friends, such as the catastrophic flooding in 2016. Her family will tell you, though, that she has talked about the weather since she was in kindergarten. During the Blizzard of ’93, she recalls walking to the mailbox in the deep snow and a sudden blue flash illuminating her vision, then a peal of thunder. This first experience with thundersnow was one of many events that inspired her respect for, and fascination with, the power of nature.
Ann’s hobbies include gardening, hiking, metal-detecting, and crochet, but she’s always getting into something new. Ann and her family live in Boone County, WV with their cats and ferrets. Catch her on-air and on Twitter, @annlockardwx!
