Hingham Weather Man Continues to Pursue His Dream

Teachers remember him as the  student who reported the weather during his time at His peers at Penn State recognize his face on their campus TV station.   Members of the WCVB Channel 5 Boston’s weather team refer to him as the intern.  And  residents in Hingham and across the South Shore know Michael Page as their source for local weather.

Page, age 20 , is entering his junior year at Penn State studying meteorology with a focus on forecasting and communications.  Even though this 2009 HHS grad must wait some time before living his dream as a meteorologist for a Boston news channel, he  still continues to forecast the weather each day for the people of Hingham.

Page is the owner and forecaster for his very own website, HinghamWeather.com where he reports the weather each day for Boston’s South Shore.

“It's something people always like to talk about whether it’s the awkward small talk to get a conversation going- the weather’s always on people’s minds,” Page said.   “I like  the idea that I can help people plan things out based on the forecast.”

Page still has the same  love and passion for reporting the weather that he’s had since being 13 years-old when he first started sending in weather reports to Boston news channels.

In the Winter of 2003 when Boston was hit by several large snow storms, it was Page’s name that WBZ-TV Boston would attribute as their weather source. WBZ-TV (the CBS affiliate in Boston) asked viewers to send in their snowfall totals, and Page obliged. As a  middle schooler, at the time, he  was shocked when he heard “Michael from Hingham reports 8 inches of snow so far” on a subsequent weathercast.

This recognition sparked Page’s passion.  In the next few years, he began studying science and the hemisphere and he reached out to former Boston meteorologist Todd Gross who he chatted with online.  In the Spring of 2004, his parents purchased a full weather station for him.  With that, he began documenting the weather daily at his own house by using information he’d found on the internet. He also continued to report the weather in his backyard to the Boston television stations, and to the National Weather Service as a trained SkyWARN weather observer. 

Gross then recommended that Page purchase and read a forecasting book by Peter Chaston. It was dense reading, but Page found it fascinating.

“It’s kind of an interesting process,” Page said.  “Most of the information I use, like what any other meteorologist would use is all readily available on the internet.  So anyone else could look at the same information, the difference is I know how to decipher it.”

This summer, Page is currently interning at WCVB Channel 5 where he works with well-know meteorologist Harvey Leonard and builds graphics that viewers see on air.

“Channel 5 has been fantastic,” Page said. “I’m working primarily with Harvey Leonard.  For me it’s fun to work with someone who started his career before meteorologists used computers.  Someone like Harvey offers more insight on how to rely on instinct and gut feeling rather than just relying on computers.  For someone who is growing up in this computer-dependent era, I like going back to someone who has some of that insight and instinct.”

When he graduates from Penn State, Page’s dream is to become a television broadcast meteorologist like Leonard. He hopes to eventually move back to the Boston area where he can report the weather to Hingham resident. 

“A lot of people like to see my passion. I’m very lucky to know what I wanted to do from a very young age.  Without Weather I don’t know what I’d be doing.”