Tweeted<\/a> Zee: \u201cHonored & humbled for my new opportunity at @GMA!\u201d<\/p>\nIt\u2019s a phenomenal promotion for the 32-year-old former farm girl and high school homecoming queen who developed a fascination for severe weather \u201con the stormy shores of Lake Michigan.\u201d Born Ginger Renee Zuidgeest in Orange, Calif., and raised in western Michigan, she graduated from Valparaiso University and worked at WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids before joining NBC 5 as weekend meteorologist in 2006.<\/p>\n
For the man who orchestrated it all, her remarkable rise was in the charts. Calling Zee \u201can accomplished meteorologist with the rare skill set of combining fearless storm chasing with genuine personality and credibility,\u201d agent Rick Ramage said: \u201cShe's a Midwestern girl who grew up in Michigan and gained a lot of experience covering severe weather in Chicago.\u00a0 Her success is a tribute to her great talent and incredible work ethic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among her professional role models, Zee counts Tom Skilling, the undisputed king of Chicago weather, for whom she worked as an intern early in her career.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeteorologists don\u2019t use a script, and most create their own graphics and certainly put together their own forecasts,\u201d she once told me. \u201cMost of us went to school to become scientists \u2014 at least I did \u2014 and studied thermodynamics, physics, and tons of calculus to take this young science to the next level.\u00a0Our accuracy is amazing and will only continue to improve.\u00a0Before you badmouth your local meteorologists for \u2018always being wrong,\u2019 count the times they are always right.\u00a0I guarantee you will be happily surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the name Ginger? That comes from the character on \u201cGilligan\u2019s Island,\u201d which was one of her father\u2019s favorites.<\/p>\n
I asked Zee how many episodes of the '60s sitcom she\u2019s watched. \u201cDozens,\u201d she said. \u201cAlthough I am totally more of a Mary Ann, I love the glamour that Ginger brings to the island.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just two years after she was working the weekend weather beat at WMAQ-Channel 5, Ginger Zee has been named chief meteorologist for the top-rated morning show in the country. Even those who still think of her as \u201cChicago\u2019s sweetheart\u201d couldn\u2019t have forecast a sunnier scenario in such a short time. With the resignation of Sam... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1501"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1507,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501\/revisions\/1507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}