Into the Storm: Wilson’s weather journey takes Bulldog alum from MSU classroom to USAF Hurricane Hunter squadron
Contact: Carl Smith
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Andrew Wilson’s love of weather has taken him from a Mississippi State classroom to a TV station and now into a hurricane.
Wilson, a 2nd lieutenant with the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, is part of the U.S. Air Force’s Hurricane Hunters currently flying specialized Super Hercules Weatherbirds from Biloxi’s Keesler Air Force Base into Hurricane Isaias as it approaches the Gulf Coast.
“If we weren’t out here, we wouldn’t know what this storm is doing,” Wilson, an aerial reconnaissance weather officer, told WLOX-TV on a recent flight. “You look at satellite imagery and you get an idea of where the storm is, but you don’t really know what exactly is going on inside the storm. We get the data; we send it off to the National Hurricane Center. Then, they take all that data, they put it into the weather models and they’re able to give us an idea of what these storms are going to do.”
The future airman received his MSU bachelor’s degree in geosciences with a concentration in professional meteorology in 2013 after a summer internship with Biloxi’s WLOX-TV. After serving as a meteorologist for the station and at others in Arkansas, Texas and Georgia, Wilson joined the USAF in 2024.
“Andrew Wilson’s journey from our 2013 professional meteorology graduating class to television, and now hurricane hunting, illustrates the range of careers and the strong foundation in meteorology that our program at Mississippi State supports,” said MSU Professor of Meteorology Mike Brown. “Understanding atmospheric processes, collecting and interpreting weather data, and communicating clearly are essential whether you’re measuring life-saving data from a hurricane hunter aircraft or relating threats to viewers. Our programmatic goal is to prepare students with the scientific knowledge and practical skills they can carry throughout their careers. We’re proud to see Andrew apply that foundation to work that helps protect lives.”
Housed within the MSU College of Arts and Sciences, the university’s professional meteorology program prepares students to work for the National Weather Service or private meteorology sector, or continue their education in graduate school. Students choosing the program’s broadcast emphasis also can work for the NWS and earn the American Meteorological Society’s Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval.
One in three of today’s on-air U.S. broadcast meteorologists is a graduate of MSU’s nationally recognized meteorology program.
Mississippi State University is taking care of what matters.