Tom Coomes, Chief Meteorologist
I grew up in Michiana; Little League in North Liberty, hockey in the IYHL and high school football at South Bend Washington. I remember summers on Lake Manitou in Rochester at one set of grandparent's house and winters sledding in South Bend at the other.
After graduating from Purdue and moving to Colorado to start my career in Grand Junction, I wasn't sure if I'd be back. 300 day of sunshine, mountains and skiing, who would leave? For most, it sounds like paradise, unless you're a meteorologist, then it can get a little boring.
When I got the call from my now boss “We're launching a new news station in South Bend” I thought he was pulling my leg. It's all I could ask for in a new chapter in my career. I enjoy taking on a challenge, and building something from the ground up was just the thing. Not only that, but in what I'd consider one of top weather markets in the county. Not many places can it snow 100 inches and get down to 20° below zero in winter, to severe weather and 90s in summer and everything between. Oh, and I was home.
I got the love of science from my grandfather, who was a PhD physics professor at the University of Notre Dame, he helped me with my first science project in first grade that was on light and the color spectrum. Starting at Purdue, I thought I wanted to be a chemist, but being stuck in a lab all day didn't' seem right to me. I picked meteorology because it combined what I thought to be my two best talents, talking and science.
When I'm not doing all things weather I like to travel, enjoy the outdoors, garden, grill and of course enjoy some craft beer. You're likely to find me on my bicycle on sunny day, at the South Bend Farmers Market in the summer and at one of our local breweries on a Friday night.
I have a passion not just for weather, but for informing the public. I feel I live the First Warning brand because I think telling you “in the moment” of the storm is already too late. I'm a planner and I take it as a mark of pride when I can help others plan for the next hour, day or week. I look forward to taking Michiana weather into the modern age and love using social media, especially Twitter.
You can send me an email, follow me on Twitter and like me on Facebook.
Articles by Tom Coomes
- Spring Beings: Temperatures rise and fall with blustery weather
- Wind, windy, then cooler this weekend
- Change on the way: Rainy, windy, colder end of the week
- Temperatures fall through midday, Tuesday
- Sunshine returns, rain holds-off until late Monday
- Tom's Winter Forecast 2024: Final Grade
- More mild weather to start March
- The next warm-up begins, Thursday
- A cold start to the weekend, thunderstorms next week
- Sudden Shift: How Our Warming Climate Impacts You
- Sudden Shift: A deep dive into our local data, with a climate scientist
- Mild through midweek, rain Thursday
- 10-Day: Thunderstorms more likely than snow storms
- A very short cold-snow, milder next week
- Falling temperatures through Saturday
- Fair Wednesday, rain Thursday, snow Friday
- Messy, colder weather will end the week
- Colder but quiet weather ahead
- Mild until the rain early Saturday, then temperatures fall
- A more active end to the week; mild, breezy and rain showers
- A spring-like warm-up, before a return to February norms
- Fair and mild most of this week
- A fair and mild start to February
- Everyone will see their shadow Friday, and many days after
- A sunny, milder weekend in the forecast
- The gloomy weather comes to an end
- The clouds start to break, midweek
- The end of the soggy-foggy cycle is in sight
- Soggy, foggy and more fog
- Soggy and foggy weather continues
- Rounds of fog and rain
- Light snow tonight, one more frigid day
- Temperatures will fall below zero
- Snowy, windy and colder, Saturday
- Winter Storm: slushy, windy then snowy and colder
- Light snow Thursday morning is separate from the winter storms that starts Friday
- Wet then wintry overnight, low impact until Friday
- Winter weather changes by the hour Tuesday and Wednesday
- Light snow this weekend, messier next week
- Rounds of snow, still waiting for the cold
- Quiet for now, a more active pattern starts this weekend
- Snowfall estimates and impacts remain low
- A colder, snowy end to 2023
- Damp weather takes a break by Saturday
- Besides Thursday, the end of the year is dry
- Cooler but not THAT cold to end the year
- Rounds of rain, no snow through Christmas
- Rain on the way for Friday and Christmas Day
- Wet Weather on the way
- Melting snow, before rain to end the week, Christmas
- Holiday Heroes: Meals-on-Wheels
- Good viewing for the Geminid Meteor Shower this week
- The slightest chance of rain this weekend
- Uneventful through mid-December
- A quiet pattern through mid-December
- Wind, rain and falling temperatures
- Enjoy the fair and mild end to the week, there's another storm Saturday
- Improving weather to end the week
- Sloppy Tuesday, then fair weather
- Planning around rain this weekend
- Fair Thursday, then a wet pattern heading into the weekend
- We're done with snow, rounds of rain return for the weekend
- Lake effect snow, then a mid-week warm-up
- Thanksgiving sunshine, Sunday snow showers
- The forecast improves through Thanksgiving
- Rainy Tuesday, fair through Thanksgiving
- Clear, crisp weekend, colder for Thanksgiving
- A rainy Friday morning, then temperatures fall
- Timing out the rain and wind to end the week
- 5th National Climate Assessment: Impacts are widespread and worsening, but the worst can still be avoided
- The weather changes Friday, rain then a cooler weekend
- Rain will end the week and start the cool-down
- Fair for awhile
- Cool and fair weekend
- Temperatures fall but the weather improves
- Two rounds of rain Wednesday
- The focus turns to Wednesday's rain
- A nice November weekend, updated timing on rain next week
- Rain holds off until next week
- Milder, dry until Sunday