Aaron Brackett joined the 4Warn Storm Team in September 2013. He came from KGUN in Tucson, AZ and WREX in his hometown of Rockford, IL.
After graduating high school in Rockford, he decided to follow his lifelong passion of weather by attending Valparaiso University in Indiana in pursuit of a degree in Meteorology. As his mom says, “Aaron pretty much learned to read by watching the local forecast on television”.
During his time in Indiana, Aaron became the Director of Valparaiso University’s Storm Intercept Team and participated in three 11-day storm chases on the Great Plains. He also spent time interning with WGN’s Tom Skilling in Chicago gaining valuable forecasting experience. While back at the university, he worked as an on air personality and mentor for the inaugural year of VUTV. Aaron also earned national recognition on MSNBC for his coverage of a rare January EF-3 tornado that devastated northern Illinois in 2008.
Aaron got his first on air job while still in his senior year at Valpo, commuting three hours each way to give the weather to his hometown on NBC affiliate WREX. A year into working at the station, he was promoted to weekday morning meteorologist.
In 2011, Aaron received an Illinois Broadcasters Association Silver Dome Award for his coverage of a high end EF-2 tornado that ripped through Caledonia, IL. He was first on the scene and the only meteorologist streaming live for nearly two hours.
Aaron moved to Tucson in 2011. At KGUN he forecasted anything from record Monsoon rain to blizzards.
Aaron knew he had wanted to end up in the nation’s heartland after watching one of Oklahoma’s worst severe weather outbreaks in 2013. Aaron was tuned in and reported on our state’s severe weather in Arizona.
“In Tucson this past May, I watched what was happening here and afterwards I knew I wanted to come and work here. I want to use my skills, everything I’ve learned to help save lives,” Brackett said.
Aaron holds the Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal from the American Meteorological Society.
