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| This web site is a joint venture of the
Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium and
Vermont Public Radio with support from the Partnership
for a Nation of Learners, a Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Institute of Museum and Library
Services leadership initiative. |
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Museum/VPR partnership
Meteorologists Mark Breen and Steve Maleski became familiar voices in December 1981 with the debut of “Eye on the Sky” weather forecasts, which launched the partnership between the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium and Vermont Public Radio (VPR). Chris Bouchard joined the “Eye on the Sky” team in 2005.
"Eye on the Sky" provides region-wide detailed weather information complemented by science, history, astronomy, and lore. Meteorologists gather information with Lyndon State College's Meteorology Department, Level Nine, Inc., and the Connecticut River Valley Network and use state-of-the-art technology to produce accurate, local weather forecasts covering the tri-state region of Vermont, New Hampshire, and northern New York, as well as parts of southern Québec, northern Massachusetts and western Maine.
“Eye on the Sky” is produced daily at the Museum and broadcast by VPR, where it is heard by more than 150,000 listeners throughout Vermont and the surrounding region. The program continues to evolve and currently includes special features focusing on farm and garden information, seasonal recreation, storm coverage and a new focus on what comes up when the sun goes down, “Eye on the Night Sky”.
How did the Museum become involved with broadcasting weather forecasts?
 In 1948, Fred Mold became the director of the Fairbanks Museum. Mold shared a passion for weather phenomena and natural history with the Museum's founder, Franklin Fairbanks. He took advantage of an important technology, newly available to the northern Vermont region – radio. WTWN was the first local broadcasting station, and Mold initiated three-minute weather reports three times a day. Together with his Museum staff, Mold brought the Museum's weather observation and reporting system to a more efficient, professional level. Part of the popularity of these early broadcasts came from Mold's folksy style, peppering his forecasts with local stories, bird calls, and nature lore. This tradition of bringing history and folklore into weather broadcasts continues today, with the addition of agricultural, recreational, and astronomical information, and remains one of its most distinctive features.
Why is there a Weather Center at the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium?
 The Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium has been a weather observation site continuously since March 1894. Even Franklin Fairbanks founded the Museum, he kept meticulous weather records at his family home in St. Johnsbury, Vermont during the 1850's and 1860's. Shortly after the Museum doors opened, Museum staff kept recording daily weather statistics for the newly formed Weather Bureau. Data still kept at the Museum such as maximum and minimum temperatures, precipitation, relative humidity, wind direction and speed, barometric pressure and general character of the day represent the longest continuous record of weather at the same location in Vermont. |
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| Meteorologists |
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 Mark Breen is the senior meteorologist at the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium, and for over 25 years he has been heard on Vermont Public Radio's an "Eye on the Sky" each weekday morning. Along with weather forecasting, his work at the Museum involves teaching weather and science, as well as serving as the Planetarium Director in Vermont's only public planetarium. You can now hear Mark weekday afternoons on VPR, with the new astronomy program “Eye on the Night Sky”, at 4:30.
Mark Breen was involved with community theater while a student at Lyndon State College in the meteorology program. Friends and family in Vermont and his love of the outdoors brought him to the Fairbanks Museum in 1981, where he and Steve Maleski embarked on what would become an institution for weather fans. “In Vermont, in particular, weather plays a big role in the economy,” says Mark. “I enjoy wonderful conversations with farmers, skiers, factory managers, teachers, hang-gliders, bicyclists, hunters, hikers, just to name a few. They each help me understand the different parts of the weather that affect their activities, which in turn helps me to focus on certain aspects of the weather, say the wind, or humidity, or temperature.”
Originally from Dannemora, NY, Mark has lived in Vermont since attending Lyndon State College, where he graduated in 1982 with a B.S. in meteorology. He has been featured in a number of magazines, including Vermont Life, where he contributes to the Vermont Life Weather Calendar, and has occasionally appeared on Vermont Public Television. He is the author of the popular kids book, The Kid’s Book of Weather Forecasting. | |  For Steve Maleski, the journey to St. Johnsbury seems almost fated from an early memory when he was five and he witnessed an approaching thunder storm with the same awe and wonder he brings to broadcasts today. “At that moment I remember thinking, ‘I'm going to be a weatherman,’ almost as if someone were speaking to me. From that time, I always knew what I wanted to do.” Steve also found the meteorology program at Lyndon State offered the right mix of academic challenge in a beautiful setting. Except for a brief stint in Atlanta, Steve has lived in the Northeast Kingdom since 1978. | |  Chris Bouchard joined “Eye on the Sky” in 2005. Originally from Brunswick, Maine, Chris came to northern Vermont to attend the meteorology program at Lyndon State College. He says, “I have always been fascinated by weather, particularly thunderstorms. ... I am also very interested in photography, so often when I hear thunder, I head into the storm to photograph lightning, hail, clouds, wind damage, and other signs of the storm. It didn’t take me long to realize meteorology was the career of choice for me.”
While at Lyndon State College, Chris undertook a number of internships, including two at television stations in Portland, Maine. He also took part in a large national thunderstorm field research project known as “Bowecho And Mcv Experiment” or "BAMEX". His research into the causes of damaging winds mechanisms within large groups of thunderstorms became his senior thesis.
When he’s not chasing thunderstorms or forecasting the weather, Chris can be found hiking, biking, skiing, running, snow shoeing, canoeing, cooking or playing guitar. | | |
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