Weather update: More to come

After five years as a meteorologist for an Indianapolis TV station, Lindsey Monroe says it’s still her dream job. 

Monroe came home to Cambridge City to speak to the New Day Kiwanis Club on June 30. Her early morning visit — the club meets at 6:45 a.m. — came on a Friday when she also had a nighttime engagement as emcee for the Marion County Fair Queen Pageant.

Long days are not out of the ordinary for Monroe. Weather is constantly changing. Meteorologists track it, tell their audiences about it and forecast what’s coming next. In her case, work is from 3 a.m. to noon Saturday to Wednesday. She is on air at WTHR Channel 13 from 6-10 a.m. Friday through Sunday as the main meteorologist . Monday through Wednesday she works with the station’s head forecaster, Chuck Lofton, and does traffic reports.

But the weather doesn’t pay attention to schedules. That means she, like other on-air meteorologists, is on call 24/7 for major storm coverage. She’s been a storm chaser and, in one case, reported live from a severe hurricane for a group of stations.

The 2007 Lincoln High School graduate knew early in life that she wanted to become a meteorologist. Kiwanis member Brad Bowman, whose music teacher wife Beth taught Lindsey, said her teachers all knew it. 

Monroe said her experiences as a gymnast, a cheerleader, in showing 4-H horse and pony, and serving as the 2008 Wayne County 4-H Fair Queen helped prepare her to be in front of people on TV.

She completed a bachelor of science degree at Ball State University in 2011, majoring in meteorology and climatology with a minor in telecommunications. She gained experience there at a student-run news service, a campus radio station and served on a storm-chasing team.

Although she did not enjoy math-related college courses such as thermodynamics, she’s glad to have the knowledge. She uses that background every day as she and the station’s other two meteorologists study and discuss current weather patterns to come up with the forecasts that are then broadcast and published online.

She is looking forward to helping cover the 2024 solar eclipse. During a 20-hour work day on Aug. 21, 2017, she was assigned to a secondary crew covering a solar eclipse. When clouds obstructed the main crew’s view of the eclipse, her crew got the live shot.

Wayne County, she said, is smart to be preparing for a huge influx of eclipse watchers for next April 8. Tourism officials are predicting Indiana will see 145,000 to 600,000 visitors because the state is along the path of most totality, where the sun will be blocked for the longest. Totality will last 3½ minutes in parts of Wayne County.

Monroe, the daughter of Mike and Elaine Moistner of Cambridge City, sees herself spending years at WTHR. As a child, she had dreamed of working as a meteorologist there. She enjoys working with the staff, especially Lofton, and hopes that she might replace him when he retires.