The Weather Channel meteorologist braves Francine’s downpour & wind gusts in South MS
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Hurricane Francine
Francine is expected to make landfall Wednesday as a Category 1 hurricane. While the storm appears headed to the Louisiana coast, Southern and coastal Mississippi could see a risk of flash flooding, according to the National Weather Service.
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The Weather Channel meteorologist Molly McCollum stood in a downpour during Hurricane Francine, showing viewers how tropical-storm-force winds slanted the rain sideways in Gulfport’s harbor
She wore sturdy rain gear and, at times, googles to protect her eyes. While she and her crew were out in the storm for live shots, the National Weather Service issued a flash-flood warning for the city and others in Harrison County.
This was McCollum’s first season in the field with the famed team from The Weather Channel, headed by Jim Cantore. He’s the meteorologist nobody wants to see show up in their town for a hurricane because he’s always stationed closest to its deadly force.
“That sends a message to people,” McCollum said. “You know you’ve got to prepare because Jim’s coming to town.” For Francine, Cantore was in Morgan City.
McCollum, 32, has nothing but respect for Cantore. “Jim has actually been at The Weather Channel longer than I’ve been alive,” she said. “That kind of respect is earned. It’s earned over the years of doing storms.”
Reporting live on Francine
McCollum was on a team of seven that The Weather Channel dispatched to Louisiana and Mississippi for Francine.
She grew up watching The Weather Channel in Atlanta and still can’t believe she’s on the team. She joined the national weather network in May 2021, having earned an Emmy for her coverage of the 2018 hurricane season for an Atlanta television station.
The meteorologist is comfortable watching radar and gathering data on storms. (She even enjoys computer programming in her spare time.) But, she said, there’s nothing like being out in the field.
She likes to experience what she’s telling viewers about on-air. Weather, she said, is always a learning experience. Still, she said, “It’s hard watching these unfold because you know in all these areas you’ve got real people who are going to be impacted.”
She had never been to Gulfport to cover a storm, although she has previously visited the Mississippi Gulf Coast and is very familiar with the record-breaking hurricane so many here lived through, Katrina in 2005.
“We talked about Katrina on air this morning and just how the surge here was so devastating,” she said Wednesday afternoon before heading to the harbor for her live shots. “You really want to be very careful when you talk about surge because you don’t want to scare people.”
By Thursday morning, McCollum had been cleared to return to Atlanta — until the next storm beckons.
This story was originally published September 12, 2024 at 11:23 AM.
