Jack Drake with his son, Warren. (Photo credit: Kat Drake Creative)

The recent unprecedented flooding in Connecticut sent residents in search of a weather forecaster they could rely upon and trust. During the onslaught of rain that ultimately resulted in deaths and property damage, Western Connecticut State University Meteorology alumnus Jack Drake quickly stood out as a local weather source who provided not only data and information, but a voice of compassion and concern for his neighbors.

Drake, who grew up in Redding and graduated from Joel Barlow High School in 2012, had been  interested in meteorology since his childhood. When it was time to consider colleges, Drake said he applied to the five northeastern university programs located in New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Connecticut. In the end, he chose WestConn because it had a great program and was close to home.

Once on campus, Drake joined the Meteorology Club and participated in intramural softball. As part of the Meteorology Club, he developed his ability to explain weather phenomena to a diverse audience by taking part in activities that included a weather balloon launch with students at Danbury’s Mill Ridge Elementary School. During his sophomore year, he started predicting weather-related school closings on social media platform Twitter and gained a significant following. By his senior year at WestConn, Drake was doing green screen weather forecasts that were posted on the university’s website and social media channels.

Having grown up watching Dr. Mel Goldstein on WTNH Channel 8, Drake had seemingly fulfilled a childhood dream by earning an internship at the station before graduating. Goldstein was responsible for the creation of the Meteorology degree program at WestConn, and inspired countless future weather forecasters. Drake was able to meet Goldstein a few times before Goldstein passed away, and it was something Drake will never forget.

His internship at WTNH also revealed to Drake that he did not want his primary career to be as a weather personality on television news. Armed with a transcript that included successfully passing the grueling courses required of Meteorology graduates — chemistry, physics, thermodynamics and more — Drake set out to find a laboratory-based science career. His first such job was at Duracell and now he’s employed as a Customer Quality Engineer at Integris, a semi-conductor supply chain company based in Danbury.

“After showing my prospective employers my transcript filled with lab-based science courses, it was pretty easy to convince them that I had as much education, or more, than other candidates who had engineering degrees,” Drake said.

The meteorology bug does not just go away in individuals like Drake, who have been fascinated since childhood, so he also works part-time at the CT Weather Center as a forecaster for municipal clients like the City of Danbury. “It’s an adventure every day,” he said.

With the arrival of Covid, working from home and the birth of his first child, Warren, in 2020, Drake found he had time to return to social media forecasting, this time on Facebook. “Warren would be sleeping on my lap and I wanted to be productive while he was sleeping, so it seemed like a good time to revitalize my social media presence from years ago,” he said. Drake soon found an eager audience for his forecasts and is approaching 20,000 Facebook followers.

In addition to his highly accurate and technical weather forecasts, many Facebook followers also enjoy Drake’s folksy, family-friendly content. He often shares photos of sons Warren (age 3) and Mason (6 months) and his wife, Katerina Cuneo, a professional photographer he met when they were both students at WestConn.

Jack Drake with his son, Warren, in the Newtown Labor Day parade (photo credit Kat Drake Creative).

Now residing in Bethel, Drake’s familiar face makes him come across as everyone’s weather-savvy neighbor in southwestern Connecticut. As a result, he recently was invited to ride in the Newtown Labor Day parade and previously has appeared with Lou Milano of I95 radio. In times of crisis, like the August flooding, Drake was a reassuring presence whether he was sharing storm warnings or lamenting the unimaginable aftermath of the incessant rain.

“People have told me my weather knowledge is just as good as meteorologists who studied anywhere else,” Drake said. “It’s right on track with the more ‘well-known’ schools. I learned so much from professors Rob Eisenson and Jim Boyle about broadcasting and the behind-the-scenes forecasting. I had a really good time at WestConn, and met my future wife there, too.”

Who could have predicted?

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