Michael Barak

Founder / CEO

Stemming from his passion for weather and a keen interest in its economic impact on the private sector, Michael Barak founded WeatherBELL Analytics in 2011. Prior to the inception of WeatherBELL, Mr. Barak was a Vice President at Crossways Consulting Group, an aerospace/defense-focused consulting firm. Mr. Barak helped develop channels to market and business opportunities for clients in the United States and abroad. He worked alongside industry leaders where his input was strongly valued.

Mr. Barak earned his Bachelor's Degree in Engineering from Cornell University.

Thomas E. Downs, V

COO, Meteorologist

Thomas Downs serves as Chief Operating Officer for WeatherBell Analytics. He has been with WeatherBell since January 2014, ensuring that all of the commercial forecasts are issued in a timely and professional manner. He also provides forecasting expertise and support to a wide variety of commercial-level clients.

Mr. Downs continues to serve the legal and insurance communities as a Forensic Meteorologist, specializing in slip and fall cases. He previously served as Director of Forensic Meteorology at WeatherBELL for over 10 years and had the same position for more than 10 years while at Expert Weather Investigations and Weather 2000, Inc. He has provided hundreds of expert reports for a broad spectrum of legal and insurance cases in various state and federal jurisdictions and has been cited in multiple appellate court decisions. Mr. Downs has been deposed and has appeared in court to testify as an expert in analyzing official weather records. He has been interviewed by various media as a weather expert, and has assisted in the production of various documentaries.

Tom earned a B.S. in Atmospheric Sciences from Cornell University and is a member of the American Meteorological Society.

Joe Bastardi

Chief Forecaster

Joe Bastardi is a well-respected meteorologist known for his bold and accurate forecasts. Born on July 18, 1955, in Providence, Rhode Island, Bastardi's career has spanned several decades, during which he has been an influential figure in the field of weather forecasting.

Bastardi's approach to forecasting is rooted in a comprehensive understanding of global oscillations and an in-depth analysis of historical weather patterns. He is known for using an analog approach, which involves finding similarities between current and historical weather patterns to make accurate forecasts. This method often allows him to make accurate predictions that may go against the consensus of computer models.

Throughout his career, Bastardi has been associated with WeatherBell Analytics, where he serves as Chief Forecaster. Before joining WeatherBell, he was the Chief Forecaster for Accuweather Inc., where he built a large private client services business. Bastardi's exceptional skills and reputation have earned him appearances on major television programs such as Fox News Live, ABC World News, The O'Reilly Factor, The Colbert Report, CBS's The Early Show, and Imus in the Morning, among others.

In addition to his meteorological work, Bastardi is also an amateur bodybuilder and a previous NABBA American Bodybuilding Champion. This demonstrates his commitment to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and pursuing his passions beyond his professional career.

Joe Bastardi's contributions to the field of meteorology have made him a notable figure in the industry, and his ability to make accurate forecasts has earned him respect and admiration from his peers and the public alike.

Joe D'Aleo

Chief Forecaster

Joseph D'Aleo has been co-chief Meteorologist of WeatherBell since the company started in 2011, is a major contributor to WeatherBell Premium and serves WeatherBell Commercial and WeatherBell Premium Agriculture clients. He continues to research how sea surface temperatures, global oscillations, soil moisture and solar cycles influence seasonal weather.

Mr. D'Aleo was a co-founder and the first Director of Meteorology at The Weather Channel. He has over 45 years experience in professional meteorology, previously Chief Meteorologist at Weather Services International Corporation and the WSI Intellicast.com website. He was a partner and Chief Meteorologist at a hedge fund trading energy and agriculture before joining WeatherBell at its founding.

Mr. D'Aleo was a college professor and chaired the Meteorology program at Lyndon State College. He has authored a resource guide on El Niño and La Niña and papers on how research into ENSO and atmospheric, oceanic and solar oscillations have made skillful seasonal forecasts possible. Mr. D'Aleo has also published numerous peer-reviewed papers and books and made numerous presentations focused on seasonal forecasts and their impacts on agriculture, energy, and industry to conferences for government, professional societies, and industries in the U.S., Brazil, Canada and China.

Mr. D'Aleo is a Certified Consultant Meteorologist and was elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). He has served as a member and then chairman of the American Meteorological Society's Committee on Weather Analysis and Forecasting, and has co-chaired national conferences for both the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association. Mr. D'Aleo was elected a Councilor for the AMS, the first private sector meteorologist to be elected by his peers for that role.

Antonio Riggi

Senior Meteorological Developer

Antonio Riggi has been with WeatherBell since December 2013 and specializes in obtaining, processing, visualizing, and rendering large meteorological datasets, including maps and data products.

Mr. Riggi's interest in meteorology goes back to the many snowstorms he experienced growing up in northern New Jersey. His desire to learn more about meteorology led him to pursue a degree and ultimately a career in meteorology.

Antonio earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 2010 from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and Master of Science degree from Florida State University in 2013. In his graduate work, he investigated transport and dispersion of atmospheric tracer gases using high-resolution modeling ensembles, also employing variational data assimilation, through which he gained extensive knowledge of the inner workings of numerical weather models.

Chris Dickson

Technical Project Manager, Meteorologist

Christopher Dickson joined WeatherBELL in July 2021 and specializes in the development of meteorological software products.

Chris's interest in weather started at a young age and continued through his time as an undergraduate student at Cornell University, where he collaborated with researchers and performed television broadcasts at Ithaca College’s local television station. After graduating with a Bachelor’s in Atmospheric Science he worked as manager of tropical cyclone products at Climate Forecast Applications Network for three years before joining WeatherBELL.

Chris Jarzynka

Meteorologist, Full Stack Engineer

Chris joined WeatherBELL in August 2022 and specializes in front-end and back-end development of all WeatherBELL website and data API technologies. Chris brings over 30 years of broadcast, developer, vendor and media sales experience to WeatherBELL.

Prior to WeatherBELL, Chris was an on air meteorologist for WMTW in Portland, Maine and WMUR in Manchester, NH. He also appeared in a fill-in capacity on NECN in Boston and appeared on CNN and ABC's Good Morning America for guest segments.

After broadcast television, Chris moved behind the camera at IBM/WSI to design graphics for stations across the US and Canada. Chris served as trainer, graphics coordinator and eventually joined the development team for WSI's TruVu MAX.

Chris worked for Vizrt, a leading graphics display system in the broadcast industry building their broadcast weather and traffic platforms for sale in North America.

Chris most recently worked as a full stack developer for CNN building an intranet data infrastructure platform used for on air, digital and mobile weather data display.

Chris holds a BS in Meteorology and BA in Mathematics from Lyndon State College (now Northern Vermont University) in 1992. He resides in New Hampshire.

Dr. Tim Coleman

Chief Agricultural Meteorologist

Dr. Tim Coleman serves as Chief Agricultural Meteorologist for WeatherBell Analytics, LLC. He joined WeatherBell in 2022. Tim produces Daily Grain Summaries during the growing season for North America and other parts of the world, and Global Crop Forecasts for Citrus, Cocoa, Wheat, Corn, and Soybeans twice weekly throughout the year. He works with Joe D’Aleo on long-term forecasts and also a weekly podcast on agricultural weather.

Tim also works on forensic meteorology cases involving hurricanes, severe local winds, flooding, and hail, in conjunction with Tom Downs. He has worked on over 400 cases in Europe and the U.S. since 2009, some including deposition and trial testimony.

Tim holds a B.S. degree in Physics from Samford University and holds an MS and a PhD in Meteorology from The University of Alabama in Huntsville. He started his career in meteorology at age 16 with the National Weather Service, where he worked for nearly 10 years. After 3 years in television, Tim went back for his PhD in 2005 and began a career in academia, where he has taught classes, advised students, and authored twenty peer-reviewed articles published in several academic journals. He has been interviewed twice on The Weather Channel about some of his most important findings. Tim is a member of the American Meteorological Society and The National Weather Association.

R. James Woolsey

Jim Woolsey is a Board Member with WeatherBELL Analytics, LLC.

Jim is also a Venture Partner with Lux Capital, and a Venture Partner and Senior Advisor to VantagePoint Venture Partners. Previously, Jim served in the U.S. Government on five different occasions, where he held Presidential appointments in two Republican and two Democratic administrations, most recently as Director of Central Intelligence from 1993-1995.

Jim has also been a Vice President and Officer of Booz Allen Hamilton and a partner at the law firm of Shea & Gardner in Washington, DC, now Goodwin Procter, where he practiced for 22 years in the fields of civil litigation, arbitration and mediation. Jim currently chairs the Strategic Advisory Group of the Washington, D.C. private equity fund, Paladin Capital Group, and is Counsel to the Washington, D.C. office of the Boston-based law firm, Goodwin Procter. He also serves as an officer or advisor to a range of government, corporate and nonprofit groups, including the National Commission on Energy Policy, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and the Clean Fuels Foundation. Previously, he was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Regents of The Smithsonian Institution, and a trustee of Stanford University.

Jim has also been a member of The National Commission on Terrorism, The Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the U.S., The President's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform, The President's Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management, and The President's Commission on Strategic Forces.

Tuvia Barak

Tuvia Barak has served as a Board Member with WeatherBELL Analytics since 2013.
In 1982, Mr. Barak joined Tadiran, Inc., the North American subsidiary of Tadiran, the largest electronics conglomerate in Israel. During his 12-year tenure, over $3 billion in revenue was achieved under his direction, and Tadiran became one of the major suppliers of tactical communications to the U.S. Army. Mr. Barak developed strategic alliances and partnerships with some of the largest aerospace and defense companies. In 1993, Mr. Barak established his own marketing and consulting practice, advising U.S. and international companies on business development, marketing strategies, technology assessment, and mergers and acquisitions in the aerospace and technology fields.

Mr. Barak is a member of the Board of Directors of Skyline Software, WhiteCanyon Software, and Toonimo, a Venture Partner with Lux Capital, and special advisor to Kymeta Corp., and Heller Industries. He previously served as a Board Director at Brashear LP., Fairchild Imaging, and Arinc Corp., all of which were acquired by major companies with exceptional returns to their investors. His many clients have included The Carlyle Group, Boeing, L-3 Communications, ITT, General Dynamics, AAI/Textron, BAE, EDS, DRS, Elbit Systems, Schott, Selex, Ness Technologies, Vought Aircraft, SanDisk, United Defense, Mantech International, NanoSys, MapInfo, Rockwell Collins and Raytheon. Mr. Barak has a M.Sc. in E.E. from the Technion Institute of Technology, Israel.

Steve Pudles

Mr. Pudles has been a Board Member with WeatherBELL Analytics since 2011.

Steve has more than 30 years of electronics manufacturing industry experience. His most recent positions include CEO of Spectral Response, CEO of API Technologies Corp. and API Defense USA and CEO of Nu Visions Manufacturing (OnCore).

Mr. Pudles has been a member of the Board of Directors of the IPC, a leading global electronics manufacturing trade association, since 2000 and has recently served as Chairman, Vice Chairman and headed the Budget & Investment Committee, Nominating and Governance Committee, and Audit Committee. Steve also serves as co-Chairman of Origo Acquisition Corp., A SPAC in the Aerospace, Avionics and Defense space, a Director for Answernet Inc. and Apex Remarketing Group (ARG), as well as WeatherBELL. Steve has a Bachelor's of Engineering and Master of Science in Management from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Michael Barak

Mr. Barak's passion for weather and keen interest in its economic impact on the private sector led him to assemble a team capable of the most accurate forecasts. He developed a close relationship with two meteorologists, Joe Bastardi and Joe D'Aleo, whom he believed to be second to none in forecasting ability. Prior to founding WeatherBELL, Mr. Barak was a Vice President at Crossways Consulting Group, an aerospace/defense focused consulting firm. Mr. Barak helped develop channels to market and business opportunities for clients in the United States and abroad, working among industry leaders.

Thomas E. Downs, V

Thomas Downs serves as Chief Operating Officer and Meteorologist for WeatherBell Analytics. He has been in the weather industry since 2003 and with WeatherBell since January 2014, becoming an integral member of the team in various business and operational capacities.

Tom earned a B.S. in Atmospheric Sciences from Cornell University and is a member of the American Meteorological Society.