2016 Inductee
With 40 years of hard work and dedication to our industry, Mike Nelson has served 25 of those years as Colorado’s most trusted meteorologist and has proven to be a staple of our community. Growing up in Madison, WI – Mike has been interested in weather since the age of 7. In 1976, he began working with Weather Central and WKOW TV. Mike graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1981 with a degree in Meteorology and married his wife, Cindy, a week later!
Mike worked at Weather Central for a decade with Terry Kelly, his friend and mentor. Kelly, a visionary, developed one of the first weather computer systems for television. Nelson was very active in the actual development of early weather computers and delivered systems and trained meteorologists throughout the nation. Al Roker, Harry Volkman, Stormy Rottman and Gary England are just a few of the many meteorologists Mike Nelson trained on their first weather computers.
Mike was on air at WKOW from 1979-1985. In mid-1985, he became Chief Meteorologist, at the age of 27, in St. Louis, Missouri for KMOX TV and Radio. KMOX was later sold and became KMOV TV. Mike worked in St. Louis until 1991, when he was hired by KUSA in Denver.
Mike served as Chief Meteorologist at KUSA for 13 years until KMGH offered him a chance to change the Denver weather landscape. In 2004, Mike accepted the job at Denver7, and is still working to innovate and improve on-air weather coverage.
Mike does at least one school presentation per week and many weekend charity events throughout the year. One of his passions is educating children on severe storms, climate change and calming the fears of hundreds of students afraid of tornadoes. Over the last 40 years, Mike as visited nearly 4,000 schools, inspiring nearly 1.2 million kids to focus on math and science and even pursue a career in meteorology or journalism.
Throughout his career, Mike has also served as a mentor educating his interns, co-workers and visitors on a daily basis and has hosted over 500 station tours over the last 40 years. A big supporter of the college weather internship program, Mike has trained over 30 meteorologists that are now on the air, working at TV stations around the nation.
After 40 years in the industry, Mike Nelson has received 18 Emmy awards and a “Colorado Broadcaster of the Year” award from the Colorado Broadcasters Association. Mike is perhaps most proud of the “Broadcast Meteorologist of the Year” award he received in 2010, given to him by the National Weather Association (NWA).