Ben Frechette, a BREE undergraduate intern in 2017 and 2018, now serves as the newest member of the NBC5 First Alert Weather team as a meteorologist.
Raised in Somerset, Massachusetts, Ben attended Northern Vermont University (NVU) as an undergraduate. During his time with the BREE program, he worked with Vermont EPSCoR member Janel Hanrahan, PhD, an Associate Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at NVU. As an intern, he adided in the development of a foundation for a model capable of forecasting the frequency of extreme precipitation events over the Lake Champlain Basin.
"My experience with Dr. Hanrahan and the entire VT EPSCoR program gave me the confidence to pursue this opportunity at NBC 5," Frechette said. "I learned how to ask the right questions and present my findings effectively, which are skills I use in the studio every day."
Ben joined the NBC5 news team in November 2019, marking his first time working for a television station. He joins the team with previous forecasting experience, providing weather updates to the Vermont Agency of Transportation while in college.