Jessie Hawila

E-mail Jessie at: jessie.hawila@wlfi.com

Jessie joined the WLFI family in December of 2011 and is our Weekend Meteorologist and a multi-platform journalist.

Jessie was born with a strong fascination for all things weather. Growing up in Houston, Jessie was exposed to some the wildest of weather events including tornadoes, tropical storms, droughts, floods and even an ice storm when he was very young. From the youngest age he can remember, Jessie always knew he wanted to be a meteorologist.

When his family moved to Indiana, Jessie was exposed to a true Hoosier winter. The new experience of a real snowfall sparked an entirely new passion for the weather. Winter weather forecasting is Jessie’s favorite type of weather to forecast due to its complexity, great variability, and large socioeconomic effects it can have on a community.

Jessie attended Ball State University where he studied Operational Meteorology and Climatology. He got his first start in broadcasting with the campus and student-owned nightly news program, NewsLink Indiana.

Outside of broadcast meteorology, Jessie is an avid storm chaser. He was an active member in the Ball State University storm chase team, and has chased everywhere from the great plains to right in Hoosier backyards. Jessie believes this field experience is invaluable and has really helped him better understand severe weather. He has also been an active research assistant with his professor in high-altitude weather balloon launches which launch weather condition collection instruments nearly 100,000 feet into the atmosphere.

Non-weather related, Jessie is an avid musician and drummer and enjoys all styles of music, especially progressive metal.

Jessie is very excited and looking forward to providing a helping hand to Weather Team 18 in order to provide the best local coverage possible.