Andre Bernier

Infobox Person
name = André Bernier


image_size = 180px
caption = André Bernier
birth_date = May 22, 1959 (age 49)
birth_place = New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.
death_date =
death_place =
education = Bachelor of Science in Meteorology at Lyndon State College, 1981
occupation = Meteorologist
title =
spouse = Sally Bernier
parents = Herve & Claire Bernier
children = Noah Bernier
nationality = American
Web site = http://www.andrebernier.com

Born in May 22,1959 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, meteorologist André Bernier is WJW-TV's weekday evening meteorologist on the top rated evening newscast, "FOX 8 News At 5 PM," and tag-teaming with Dick Goddard, Cleveland's dean of weather, on "Fox 8 News At 10 PM." [citeweb|title=André Bernier|url=http://www.myfoxcleveland.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=846C3539E4D0C3E47E22EBBD9EE6B016?contentId=528635&version=13&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1|publisher="WJW (TV)"|accessdate=2008-09-18] He won two Emmy awards for his weathercasts there and has been at the station since February 1988 when Cleveland's very first, full-length local morning newscast began. After nearly twenty years on weekday mornings, André moved to the weekday prime-time on May 28, 2007.

Early years

His interest in meteorology began at the very early age of 4 when he noticed dark clouds from an approaching storm. It was the beginning of an all-consuming passion to understand weather of all types, but during his boyhood years in New England took a particular fancy to winter snowstorms and the well-known "nor'easter."

At the age of 16, André became a fixture in New Bedford radio by beginning his broadcast career supplying weekend weather forecasts to his hometown radio station, WBSM-AM. With the patient help of a number of mentors such as WBSM's Stann Lipp, Jim Loomis, Dick Stevens and newsman Jim Phillips, he polished his skills as a broadcaster while continuing to educate himself in synoptic meteorology (forecasting) by shadowing the late Charlie Taylor, meteorologist for WLNE-TV, whose studios still resided in New Bedford in the 1970s.

Education

After graduating from New Bedford High School in 1977, he attended Lyndon State College in Lyndonville, Vermont and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology in 1981. During his college years, he started a student-run company called "The New England Weather Net," which supplied local radio stations (including WSTJ-AM, St. Johnsbury, Vermont) with daily weather feeds by phone.

Career

After graduation, he left New England to accept his first position as weekend meteorologist in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at eastern Iowa's then premiere station, KGAN (which was known as WMT-AM-FM-TV). After only eight months, André left Iowa to join the then speculative national cable channel start-up known as The Weather Channel. André Bernier and Bruce Kalinowski (Edwards) were the very first on-camera meteorology team when The Weather Channel started broadcasting on Sunday, May 2, 1982 at 8:00 PM EDT.

In 1985, he moved to Minneapolis where he worked at WWTC-AM (the only commercial AM radio station in the U.S. to attempt an all-weather format), Northwest Airlines (as a trans-Atlantic flight forecaster) and eventually KARE-TV, Minneapolis, where he worked with his wife, Sally "Patrick" Bernier during the weekday morning newscasts.

In 1988, André and his family moved to Cleveland.

Other Interests

In addition to his activities as a television meteorologist, his faith journey began to take an increasing priority which led him to enroll in a distance-education seminary program. With completed courses from Southern Baptist Seminary in Nashville and ICU University, now known as Global University in Irving, Texas, he was ordained by an Ordination Council of Pastors on May 21, 2004 at Grace Community Church, Massillon, Ohio. He is an active member of Fellowship Bible Church, Chagrin Falls, OH where he is a creative arts pastor. He occasionally accepts invitations to other local pulpits as guest preacher and evangelist.

He is also active in digital film production, having been mentored by Hollywood film director, Jason Tomaric. Aside from a number of shorts, André's filmography includes the mid-feature length drama, "Christmas Lights In Pilaf" (2004) based on the first chapter of his Christian novel, "Welcome To Pilaf," and most recently a full-length documentary about a family from France who, with their life savings, bought an old, abandoned building in Olmsted Falls, Ohio to open an authentic French bistro. "French Toast" (2006) has been submitted to numerous film festivals in the USA including Utah, DC, Cleveland, Dallas as well as the national Telly Awards.

A proponent for energy conservation and renewable fuel technology including the deployment of a hydrogen vehicle, he is also noted for his opposition to the theory of anthropic causes of climate change. His support joins a growing number of degreed meteorologists and climatologists who challenge the IPCC's conclusion. [citeweb|title=Some of the Experts Whose Stories Your May See on Icecap|url=http://icecap.us/index.php/go/experts|publisher="icecap.us"|accessdate=2008-09-18]

References

* [http://apollo.lsc.vsc.edu/cgi-bin/alumni/alumview.pl?andre_bernier.1981 Lyndon State College alumni web site.]
* Washington, Julie; Cleveland Plain Dealer. [http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2007/05/gospel_singer_and_morning_radi.html Article referencing André Bernier] from May 18, 2007.
* [http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com/2007/05/newsy-newsy-weeks-end.html Ohio Media Watch] blog entry from Friday, May 18, 2007.
* [http://www.ametsoc.org/memdir/seallist/get_listoftv.cfm AMS Television Seal Holders from] the official site of the American Meteorological Society.
* On-line talent bio on [http://usatalent.tvjobs.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?Z=&action=search&individual=12323 TVJobs.com] .
* Station information referencing André Bernier at [http://reference.info.com/reference?qkw=WJW,%20Cleveland&source_id=2222&source_key=WJW info.com] .