Dave Eichorn will not just provide weather information to people as the new digital weatherman for Syracuse.com — he will make predicting weather interactive.

“There are true advantages to not just delivering information, but receiving it,”

said Eichorn, a professor at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Eichorn accepted a job with the Syracuse Media Group, the company that will run Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard, on Jan. 11. Syracuse Media Group will run the news sources starting Feb. 3, according to a news release on Syracuse.com.

In addition to his job as weatherman, Eichron also teaches a spring semester meteorology course and a summer online course for ESF that focuses on climate change and meteorology.

Eichorn’s previous position with WSYR-TV made him a familiar face among an older generation. However, now that he is using new, innovative media, he will also attract interest from a younger generation, said Charles Spuches, associate provost for outreach at ESF.

Spuches said Eichorn’s passion for weather and his rare ability to communicate to not only meteorology experts but also average people makes him a perfect fit for the job.

“It’s so exciting what he is doing and he is just the person to do that,” he added.

His new position will be focus more on regularly engaging with residents of Central New York, Eichorn said. In the past, Eichorn has contributed articles about the weather to Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard.

Eichorn said going digital is a great opportunity to provide real-time information, using everything from text to videos, about the short-fused weather of Central New York.

“Syracuse.com is getting serious about providing weather information,” he said.

By integrating social media, the position will also allow Eichorn to quickly answer questions and respond to observations concerning the weather, he said.

Eichorn’s willingness to communicate using new media is another reason he is appropriate for his new position at The Post-Standard and Syracuse.com, Spuches said. He said Eichorn has demonstrated this by teaching a one-credit online course this summer called ENS 200: “Climate Change Science and Sustainability.”

Ross Mazur, a sophomore, is currently taking the meteorology course with Eichorn. He said Eichorn is very enthusiastic about the course and often incorporates his work at other jobs into the class curriculum.

“He will often talk about how he stays up late at night predicting and forecasting,”

Mazur said. ”He’ll also tell us the thought process he went through to make these judgments and how they apply to what we are learning in class.”

Katrina Cornish, a sophomore environmental science major, took the course last spring. She also said Eichorn often used his connections and knowledge from his many jobs in meteorology to enhance the class.

She gave the example of how he let the class have an up-close experience with Doppler on Wheels, a professional weather-predicting device used to track tornadoes and lake-effect precipitation.

Cornish said she thinks Eichorn’s new position is just one more area in which he can be successful.

Said Cornish: “I think his drive to learn more and his enthusiasm are enough to make him successful in anything.”

Published on January 28, 2013 at 12:28 am

Contact Shannon: smhazlit@syr.edu