In the Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science at Penn State.

This is weather world.

Hello everyone, and welcome to Weather World.

Today is Tuesday, October 21st, 2025.

I'm Rob Lydick alongside Quinn Mulhern with the forecast tonight.

Quinn.

We've got a cold front sweeping through the Commonwealth, bringing some winds of change.

Yeah.

You know this cold front.

It's nice to finally actually have some active weather around the Commonwealth, especially with the drought that we've been dealing with.

So this cold front is going to bring a few showers and then some cooler air behind it.

So I'll get more into that in the forecast.

Okay.

Looking forward to those details from Quinn in just a moment.

Also coming up on tonight's show, we'll have a new edition of our Weather Water Cooler series where we'll talk with Heather Waldman, who graduated back in 2012.

But first, here's Quinn.

Yeah.

As you had mentioned, we will be dealing with the effects of this cold front as it pushes across the Commonwealth, and you can already see it in our P-a nine camera.

Now, you'll notice that many of the locations, especially in the center column of this image, have cloudy, dreary conditions, even a few showers moving across State College.

But you'll notice back out to the west, we're starting to clear and even out to the east we still have clear skies as well.

So it's really, you know, wherever these locations are in the vicinity of the cold front, they're the ones that are going to be dealing with the clouds and the showers.

And you can see it in our satellite and radar across Pennsylvania.

You'll notice this very narrow band of showers that seems to have decayed as it's moved from west to east across the state.

You'll notice that we will have some of these showers as they move towards the east, and those showers will persist into the overnight, especially across eastern Pennsylvania.

But the main story will be the lake effect that arrives following this cold front, especially across northwestern Pennsylvania.

And when you have that lake effect present, you are also accompanying that lake effect with some much cooler air.

And you can see behind our cold front, that's when temperatures are already starting to drop.

You'll notice that we're in the low 50s, especially along the I-80 corridor and along the higher elevations of Pennsylvania.

Still a little bit warmer back in southeastern Pennsylvania, where many are in the upper 60s, to even a few low 70s, especially in the Philadelphia area.

Now, all of this active weather, this cold front, is associated with this very large, low pressure system that's spinning across the upper Great Lakes right now.

You'll notice some of that cooler air.

Some of those lower 40 degree readings are present across Minnesota.

And that's where we have that northerly wind wrapping around that storm.

And we could even see the cold front stretching all the way down across the southeastern United States, where we have some of those green colors.

And that cooler air behind the front will begin to take over the northeast as we go through the next few days.

And like I said, it will bring the precipitation, especially in the vicinity of the lakes.

Looking at satellite and radar across the upper Great Lakes, you'll notice that most of the precipitation is back towards our west right now.

But as we have these bands of showers approach Pennsylvania, we're going to begin to change the wind direction, and that wind is going to begin to flow over the lakes.

And as a response, we are going to get some of that lake effect precipitation.

Now timing it all out, you'll see that our cold front has moved into the eastern portions of the state.

And as we go through tonight, it will slowly move off to the east.

And that low pressure system is going to meander over southern Ontario and Quebec.

And with that, we'll see that flow wrap around that low pressure system right over the lakes.

And with that cool air flowing over those very warm lakes this time of year, we're going to get some of those lake effect showers.

And now all of this will be in the form of rain.

We will not be dealing with any snow as of now, but the rain could be heavy at times, especially across Erie County in Pennsylvania over the next couple of days.

So finally, come Thursday, that low pressure system will move off towards the northeast and we will finally begin to have some high pressure built in.

But we're going to be dealing with those lake effect showers for at least the next couple of days.

So timing it all out for tonight.

Any of those showers associated with that cold front are going to push off to the east.

And as we go into tonight we may see some additional rounds of showers.

But you'll notice your attention may draw to northwestern Pennsylvania come tomorrow morning, where we have some showers and potentially even some heavy rain across northwestern Pennsylvania.

And I think in the vicinity of the lakeshore, we may experience some readings, upwards of two inches of precipitation.

So that's going to be something we're going to want to watch as we go through the next day, next few days and Thursday.

I would expect those lake effect showers to continue, but eventually start to die down.

So for the rest of tonight, cold front will pass.

We will see the cool air filter in behind.

You can see lows in the upper 30s for many across the higher elevations.

And then for Wednesday that lake effect rain is really going to build in.

And I would expect anywhere in the vicinity of the lakeshore, we may be experiencing rainfall totals of upwards of two inches.

And we'll notice that we have some more pleasant conditions across southeastern Pennsylvania that's going to continue into Thursday.

While the lake effect showers continue across northwestern Pennsylvania.

We'll be back in a moment with more.

The Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science here at Penn State has a vast alumni network, and we're lucky enough when some of our alumni come back to visit.

And tonight we have that for you here.

Joining us on Weather Water Cooler is 2013 graduate Heather Waldman.

She may look familiar to some of you out there.

Heather, welcome.

Thank you so much.

It's so nice to be back.

So nice to be back on campus.

See what's changed but also see a lot stay the same.

Well, it's great to have you here.

You were very involved in things at Weather World when you were here as a student.

We'll talk a little bit more about that later.

But what have you done since you graduated in 2013?

So I didn't go far initially.

When I graduated in winter of 2013, I hopped right over to AccuWeather.

I was an on camera meteorologist there for some of their live to tape work, and eventually the AccuWeather network stay there for three years and then hopped one state over.

Went to Buffalo, New York.

I was there for five years, working primarily as the evening meteorologist, so I handled the forecast at I think it was 4 or 5, six, ten and 11 when I was there.

Lake effect snow, all that good stuff.

Beautiful summers in Buffalo, by the way.

Um, and wonderful sports atmosphere too.

And then from there hopped over to California.

I never thought I would be in Buffalo.

I never thought I would be in California.

Um, but I wound up following my now husband out for his job in Northern California, and I'm now Kcra, the Hearst owned NBC affiliate in Sacramento.

And what do you do there?

I am the evening meteorologist there Monday through Friday, four, five, six, seven, ten, 11.

Lots of news.

Um, not a whole lot of snow, at least not down in the valley.

But we do cover up to the Tahoe area, so just a really vast forecast area.

Uh, do the regular forecast, do some reporting as I, you know, come across stories that I find interesting.

So it's been a fun go.

So you moved, as you said, from Buffalo to Sacramento.

How different.

And I know I know the answer to this, but tell us how different it is to forecast for Buffalo versus Sacramento.

This is going to sound like an exaggeration, but for my first few months in Northern California, I feel like I moved to a different planet, right?

So I spent the first 30 years of my life in the northeast.

I'm from Pennsylvania.

I went to school in Pennsylvania.

My first job was in Pennsylvania, and New York wasn't all that far away.

Um, we're used to it raining or snowing every two, three, four days.

I know much of the fall here.

It really hasn't been, um, but in an ordinary season, we have precipitation to talk about at least once in a seven day forecast in Northern California, we go through a stretch of at least 4 or 5 months where it doesn't rain at all.

That took a lot of getting used to, but also there are some similarities between Buffalo and Northern California.

Um, Buffalo.

You've got your lake effect snow, which is the ultimate microclimate.

You've got one spot not getting any snow.

You go five miles to the south, they're getting two inches of snow every hour.

That's just how lake effect snow works.

California has its microclimates, too.

You're at the coast.

It's 65 to 70 degrees.

You go an hour inland into the valley.

It's 105 degrees.

You go up into the Sierra.

It's in the 80s.

Maybe there's thunderstorms.

Um, so just learning how to talk about all of those microclimates.

Very similar, but very different.

So you also, at your current station in the past have done a lot of climate reporting.

Can you tell us a little bit about that experience?

Right.

So one of the things I learned while I was at Penn State was, you know, as a meteorologist, yes, you're there to talk about weather, but you are also the trusted station scientist.

You are probably one of the only people in the newsroom that has that science background, where maybe you are not a an astronomer, maybe you're not an expert in earthquakes.

But guess what?

You're probably the person in your station that knows the most about that.

Same thing goes with climate reporting.

So I was first asked to start producing climate content.

My second job when I was in Buffalo continued that on in Sacramento.

And my thing is always am I a climate scientist by training?

No.

Can I find community, quote unquote experts who can tell their story, whether it's a farmer, whether it is someone who runs a ski resort or anything like that, they know it best.

If they've been doing it 30 to 40 years, they know how the weather has changed.

They can speak to it from their own experience.

So that's really where I've tried to to base my climate storytelling.

You find the people that can tell the story for you.

I'm there to back up the science, so I'm going to step back a little bit.

Your time at Penn State.

Not only were you on Weather World during your final year here at Penn State, but you also from the day you walked in the door, you started working behind the scenes here at Weather World.

I'm just curious, how did that prepare you for this career that you've just, you know, taken off on?

Well, so it gave me my first experience, first of all, in editing for a show that was actually going to air on TV somewhere.

So give me that, that producing experience, the, um, you know, hitting the buttons behind the scenes.

Um, but Weather World, while it wasn't my first on air experience, it was my first live experience.

Right?

Where okay, you get one shot, whereas everything else I had done was, oh, if you mess up, you can just do it again.

Nope.

One take and you've got to fit it in a certain amount of time.

So that was kind of my first low pressure experience to to get that in, because that is a thing where until you're forced to think about time constraints and you've got one shot, it is that little added layer of pressure.

So it was it was good to to get that in here in a safe space with a wonderful audience too.

All right.

Now, um, you've lived in some pretty spectacular places when it comes to covering weather.

Do you have any memorable weather events that you can think of?

I can't think of any one specifically, but I do have photos in both Buffalo and in my Northern California market because we cover all the way up to Lake Tahoe, which is 6200ft at lake level, but goes up to like 8500ft in the mountains.

I have photos from both markets where I am reaching up like this, and the snow is still several feet above my head.

And growing up in the Philadelphia area, you don't see that?

Um, and unless you've stood next to a snow pile that big, it's just like, wow.

Um, but I think it's just what's most memorable for me is kind of just the sheer difference.

And we already kind of covered it.

Northeast versus Northern California, getting to experience those two very different zones.

And speaking of memories, at the end of these segments, we always like to ask our alumni, who's here?

What is your favorite memory from your time at Penn State?

Again, I don't think I have a single memory, but when I think of my time at Penn State, I think of late night study sessions in the weather center.

I think of, you know, messing around with my my friends living in Irvine Hall in West Halls.

I think of those those moments of community and camaraderie and just the nostalgia is what I look on fondly.

That's wonderful.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, thank you so much for taking time out of your vacation to come and talk to us here on Weather World.

We appreciate all the time you spent with us so many years ago, but also here today.

And I appreciate everything the team here did for me.

All right.

Well, thank you.

Heather Waldman, meteorologist at Kcra in Sacramento, California.

And we'll be back in a moment with more.

Like Quinn said, we are going to be seeing that lingering low over the upper Great Lakes, bringing with it some pretty active weather for us here in Pennsylvania.

Throughout the rest of this evening, we have that cold front sliding its way across Pennsylvania, bringing with it a passing shower or two for many in central and eastern PA.

With that lake effect, wind is really going to be prominent across the northwestern region of Pennsylvania.

We have those cooler winds moving over that warm body of water, really creating some perfect fuel for increased rain chances over the northwest.

Totals potentially upwards of two inches for some, but the rest of the Commonwealth is going to be seeing some of those cooler and more calm conditions.

The real outlier is going to be some of that more intense wind we see, especially across the southern area of Pennsylvania, around 10 to 20mph.

But this is going to continue and roll over into Thursday as well, with temperatures staying prominently in the 40s and 50s for many a few 60s around the Philadelphia metro region.

But those showers migrate a little bit further eastward across the northern tier of the state.

But we do see those decreasing clouds really begin to start making their way into the area, especially eastern PA, for sure.

So it's going to be a bit chilly.

I might have to turn the heater on a little bit, try and push it off, but definitely excited to see those leaves won't be lingering much longer.

No.

Definitely not.

Well, thank you very much tonight, Luke, and thank you for tuning in.

We'll see you back here tomorrow for weather wise and