I have always been interested in weather, and my dream in the future is to work at The Weather Channel as an on-camera meteorologist storm specialist! 

When I was around 13-years-old, I met Chief Meteorologist Ed Piotrowski. He was very welcoming and he even let me sit at his desk with him while he made his forecasts and then broadcasted them on live TV. Piotrowski went to school at North Carolina State University and earned his B.S. in Meteorology, received Magna Cum Laude honors and holds the Seal of Approval from the American Meteorological Society. He has been a meteorologist in the coastal Carolinas for over 30 years and is one of the most known meteorologists in the area! 

“I knew when I first met Liam he had tremendous enthusiasm for broadcast meteorology. For the past six years, he has pursued his passion and is quickly becoming an elite meteorologist. No matter what he does in the world of weather, he will be a huge success,” Ed Piotrowski stated.

From there, I became a kidcaster which is basically me giving the forecast to my friends and family on live TV. At the time, I was very nervous about being on live TV because if you mess up or say something wrong, it’s not like you can just do it over like you would do in a recording.

One day when I was in ABC15’s weather studio with Ed, he mentioned to me that The Weather Channel was hosting a mini-meteorologist contest for kids ages 6-16! As soon as he told me about this, I immediately submitted my entry. One day when I was at school, I was surprised by my parents and  assistant principals with balloons! I was one out of four kids from across the country who had won! They flew me to Atlanta where we went to tour The Weather Channel studio, met the meteorologists and received a bag full of Weather Channel accessories. We even did our own forecast for our local viewing area!

I remember watching The Weather Channel on TV when I was a little kid and the one person who really stood out to me was Jim Cantore. He is such an incredible person and has such an amazing on camera personality! On January 16, 2022, I was lucky enough to take a trip up to Asheville, North Carolina where I was able to meet with Cantore while he was doing his live shot in the middle of a huge snowstorm. During his commercial break, he was nice enough to even let me interview him!

“In meteorology, to be successful, you really need to love what you do and be dedicated to learning. Liam has about as much drive for the science as I’ve seen in anyone,” Jim Cantore commented.

Ever since I had that amazing experience, I have really been into weather forecasting! When I was around 14, I made my own YouTube channel where I had uploaded a couple of videos of me trying to forecast the weather, but it wasn’t anything fancy. During the pandemic, I really got into weather forecasting on YouTube, and my channel went from around 40 subscribers last April to over 550 subscribers now! I have received so much support from my fans on YouTube, my amazing, loving family, and more importantly, my amazing mentor Ed Piotrowski! 

I am now interning at the ABC15 News station every Tuesday and Thursday where I am job shadowing, learning how to use their professional graphic software and also creating my own forecasts that I broadcast before the night is over! Piotrowski has been my inspiration from day one and there are truly not enough words I could say or give him to say thank you for everything he has done for me over the last five years. 

Ever since I knew I wanted to go into the broadcasting / meteorology field, there have been some bumps and curves along the road. Every single time something like that has happens to me, I always tell myself to forget about it and move on! If you have a passion or want to accomplish something, do whatever it takes to accomplish it and don’t let anyone talk you out of doing it!