Rain, snow, sleet or hail, Amy Freeze is the most popular television weather forecaster in the northern New Jersey and New York City region, according to TV viewers who voted in an NJ.com poll.
The ABC7 meteorologist with the coolest name in the meteorology world was the top pick by thousands of NJ.com readers who casted votes for their favorite TV weather forecaster in the region.
The week-long online poll drew more than 24,000 votes, and it turned out to be a fierce battle for the No. 1 spot. Freeze edged out her ABC7 colleague Bill Evans by a razor-thin margin of 20 votes. (Freeze got 6,010 and Evans garnered 5,990.)
Evans, by the way, campaigned hard for votes, trying to appeal to animal lovers and anyone who enjoys warm weather. In a faux campaign photo he posted on Twitter, Evans posed with a cute dog and promised to deliver endless sunshine to his supporters.
Another nominee in the poll, Dave Curren of News 12 New Jersey, tried to outdo Evans by posting a photo of himself with three rescue dogs he adopted.
"Hey Bill, I see your campaign dog post and raise you 2 dogs," Curren tweeted in jest.
Curren was one of five finalists in the online weather poll, along with Mike Woods of Fox 5 New York and Lonnie Quinn of CBS2 New York. The initial round of voting included 21 weather broadcasters.
About the winner
So, for those of you who don't watch "Eyewitness News This Morning" on ABC7 each weekend, who is Amy Freeze?
First things first. Freeze is not a stage name, it's her real name. She was born in Utah 42 years ago to parents Bill and Linda Freeze.
Freeze has four younger sisters, three of whom played college basketball and one who sells real estate in Colorado.
Not every weather forecaster on TV is a certified broadcast meteorologist, but Freeze is that. And more.
The Indiana-raised forecaster holds three degrees, one each from Brigham Young University, Mississippi State University and University of Pennsylvania. Those include a master's degree in environmental sciences In addition, Freeze holds seals of approval from both the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association.
'Twist of fate'
Ironically, her name played a big role in launching her career.
"When I was in my 20s, working as an entertainment reporter at a television station (in Oregon), the meteorologist needed bypass surgery," Freeze recalled. The station needed someone to fill in for him, and an assistant news director walked into the room, looked at the young reporter and said, 'Freeze. You're gonna do the weather. You're meant to do the weather.' "
Back then, she had no weather experience, she noted. So she learned as much as she could on the fly, and used pieces of paper as cue cards to deliver the daily forecasts. To boost her weather knowledge, Freeze enrolled in meteorology courses and science classes. That led to her three degrees and a successful television career.
"It was kind of a twist of fate," she said in an interview this week with NJ Advance Media. "My last name led to a career in meteorology."
And, speaking of her last name, she said it's the most prevalent question she gets asked, and it doesn't bother her.
"It's so common that people do change their name in TV and radio," she said. "I love to talk about this. This is how I was born."
Along with the name comes the inevitable jokes. "People said my dad was Mr. Freeze, and my sister was Anti-Freeze," she said with a laugh.
"I guess I could have been a cop -- 'Amy, Freeze!' -- or an ice cream person," she added. "But weather has turned out to be a good step for me."
More than weather
Freeze juggles her television career with a busy family life. She lives in Manhattan with her four children -- with a view of New Jersey from her apartment -- and also manages to find time to run in marathons, take part in charity events and speak to school kids about the weather.
She's also not afraid of water or dangerous fish. Freeze is a certified SCUBA diver and has taken swims with 300-pound sharks at the New Jersey State Aquarium.
Her TV career started at KPTV's local morning news program "Good Day Oregon" in Portland. After that, she worked as a morning meteorologist at KMGH-TV in Denver, where she also was a storm chaser, as a meteorologist at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia and as chief meteorologist for Fox News in Chicago before joining Channel 7's "Eyewitness News" weather team in 2011.
Freeze said it's "super flattering" to be chosen as the favorite weather forecaster by NJ.com's readers, but she said any of her ABC7 colleagues -- Evans, Lee Goldberg or Jeff Smith -- would have been deserving of the top spot.
Amy Freeze stands in front of a green weather screen with "Eyewitness News" colleagues Lee Goldberg, Bill Evans and Jeff Smith. (ABC7 New York)
She said the entire "Eyewitness News" weather team works well together and is uniquely qualified, with all four being broadcast-certified and three of the four having meteorology degrees.
"It's great to work with people who are very serious about the weather and who also are great communicators," Freeze said.
She also has a lot of respect for her competitors, including Audrey Puente from Fox 5 New York and Janice Huff from NBC4 New York.
One of her biggest role models in meteorology works in a different TV market -- Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz from NBC10 in Philadelphia. Freeze worked with him in the past and said he was a terrific mentor.
"He just has a knack for doing his job very well. He's super-focused on accuracy," she said of Schwartz. "He is a stickler for accuracy. If it (the forecast) didn't go right, he really wants to know why it didn't go right."
Other roles
Throughout her broadcast career, Freeze has reported on entertainment stories and movies, and covered the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City and Atlanta. She also was the first female sideline reporter for Major League Soccer and spent part of her TV stint in Chicago certifying the weather conditions at Soldier Field.
She clearly remembers one of the coldest Chicago Bears games ever recorded, a "Monday Night Football" game in December 2005, when the field temperature was 12 degrees -- 22 degrees colder than normal -- and the wind chill was 8 below zero. She said the TV announcers mentioned her name on the air but thought it was a joke about the frigid conditions.
Turns out this meteorologist named Freeze actually enjoys the cold weather.
"There is just something about cold weather for me that is magical. I love it," she told an Illinois newspaper in 2011. "How can I not with my last name?"
She said her love of cold weather persists today.
"You'll never see me turn down a beach or a warm weather day," she said, "but I absolutely love the cold."
Len Melisurgo may be reached at LMelisurgo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @LensReality or like him on Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.