Juliana Mejia joined the WINK News team as a Bilingual Meteorologist in June of 2022. She grew up in the Chicagoland area and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma.

While still in college, during the summer leading into her senior year, she worked part-time as an on-air meteorologist for KCCI Des Moines, IA.

For her senior capstone research project, she and her collaborators studied the psychological attunement and understanding of extreme weather of the Hispanic/Latinx communities in the United States. They successfully expanded the scope of their research beyond the class project, obtaining two significant research grants to conduct paid surveys of over 1000 Spanish speakers nationwide. This research is her passion project as it is the crossroads of her personal and professional goals of improving weather communication for one of the fastest-growing populations in the country.

Their research was accepted for presentation at the American Meteorological Society (AMS) 49th Conference on Broadcast Meteorology/Sixth Conference on Weather Warnings and Communication in June of 2022.

Being one of the few minority students in her class in the School of Meteorology, Juliana hopes to inspire young students and see more minorities in STEM and meteorology in the future.

Her other interests include staying active by working out, spending time outdoors, rock-climbing, singing, playing ukulele or piano, reading, watercolor painting, and traveling!

Humid start to breezy Wednesday before drier air returns

Another quiet day with no rain is ahead for Wednesday afternoon. Ahead of an incoming, weak frontal boundary, humidity will be higher in the morning before dropping during the day and returning to drier-than-usual conditions.

Mostly sunny Tuesday afternoon with lower humidity

Another quiet day for Southwest Florida with highs in the upper 80s and lower humidity keeping things comfortable. Skies will be mostly clear to start the day. High-level cloud cover will increase slightly by the afternoon and persist into the evening.

Chances for severe storms, mainly inland, into Wednesday evening

All of Southwest Florida is included in a marginal (1/5) risk for severe storms. The forecast is focused on inland areas again where there is a slight risk (2/5) for storms to become severe. Portions of Highlands and Glades counties are now under an enhanced (3/5) risk of severe weather. The upgrade was made due to an increased threat of damaging hail in those areas.