WEDNESDAY OCT. 15 UPDATE: New WKRC-TV meteorologist Anne Campolongo says her desire to become a TV meteorologist came from watching the Weather Channel – in second grade.
“My passion for weather really started when . . . I watched the Weather Channel religiously as a kid. I have a grade school friend who to this day remembers me saying in third grade I wanted to do weather on TV,” she tells me.
She debuts Friday on WKRC-TV’s 4 p.m. news. She’ll also do weather in the 5:30 p.m. newscast.
After graduating from Ohio University in 2016 with a dual degree in journalism and meteorology, she worked nine years in Oregon and Iowa. She “wanted to get weather experience outside of Ohio when I first graduated from OU and I can successfully say I did that,” says the Loveland native.
Coming home “was always in the back of my mind, but I knew it had to be the right opportunity. After interning with John Gumm (at Channel 12’s Good Morning Cincinnati in 2013), I knew he'd be someone I wanted to work with again. All the pieces fit together for this opportunity,” she says.
Campolongo also interned in the WLWT-TV weather department in 2015. But she has never been seen in front of a TV camera in Cincinnati. The 2011 Ursuline Academy graduate says it’s “kinda cool” to see her teachers and classmates welcoming back home on social media.
“My family is very excited,” she says.
ORIGINAL POST NOON OCT. 14: Meteorologist and Loveland native Anne Campolongo makes her WKRC-TV debut on the 4 p.m. news Friday, 12 years after interning on Good Morning Cincinnati on a break from Ohio University.
“I’ve been away from Cincinnati for a long time, and when home calls, it’s hard not to answer,” Campolongo said in the Channel 12 announcement. She had been working at KCCI-TV in Des Moines the past four years.
“I interned there back in 2013, and this is a full circle moment for me. I can’t wait to hit the ground running in my hometown community that I know and love!”
For the first time in nearly a year, Channel 12 will have a full five-person weather staff. She joins chief meteorologist John Gumm, Tera Blake, Eric DoBroka, and Paul Poteet. Campolongo fills the daytime shift that has been vacant since Karaline Cohen did not return to TV after maternity leave.
Campolongo will do forecasts weekdays at 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. She also will be the main fill-in on evening newscasts when chief meteorologist John Gumm is off.
“Needless to say, I’m thrilled with this hire,” Gumm says.
Campolongo also interned in the WLWT-TV weather department in 2015, and was weather anchor at Ohio University’s WOUB in 2013-15. After graduating in 2016, she worked at KDRV-TV in Medford, Oregon (2016-18); KPTV-TV in Portland, Oregon (2018-21) and Des Moines (2021-25). Her weather team at Des Moines’ CBS affiliate won a regional Emmy Award for coverage of an EF-4 tornado that struck the town of Greenfield last year.
“Anne brings a tremendous amount of experience covering all kinds of extreme weather to our Weather Authority team. Her passion for weather and her passion for her hometown of Cincinnati makes her a perfect fit,” said Franco Gentile, WKRC-TV vice president and general manager,
After moving from Oregon to Iowa four years ago, she said that “being back in the Midwest is like reuniting with your best friend from grade school after ten years of not seeing them,” she wrote on her
“I enjoy working and living in a location that experiences all four seasons. Winter weather in Iowa has been my favorite so far. After a day of winter storm coverage, the best part is to come home and play in the many inches of new snow that just fell,” she posted.
And now she’s back home in Greater Cincinnati.
“I am back in a part of the country where the weather here just feels like home.”
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