Paul Douglas (meteorologist)

Paul Douglas is the stage name[1] of Douglas Paul Kruhoeffer (born June 12, 1958),[2] a meteorologist, author, and entrepreneur in Minneapolis-St.Paul, Minnesota. He has over 30 years of broadcast television and radio experience.[1]

Early life and education edit

Douglas Kruhoeffer was raised in Pennsylvania.[3] His hometown is Lancaster, Pennsylvania.[1] While in high school, he began using the stage name Paul Douglas.[1] He graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology in 1980.[4]

Career edit

Broadcasting and journalism edit

While a senior in college, he began broadcasting the weekend weather reports for WNEP-TV in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pennsylvania, and then after he graduated, he moved to weekdays.[1] He worked for Satellite News Channel, based in Stamford, Connecticut, from 1982 to 1983.[4] This was followed by a move to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he worked at KARE-TV 1983 to 1994.[4] He was a weatherman in Chicago at WBBM-TV for three years[5][3] before returning to Minneapolis where he worked at WCCO-TV from December 1997 until he was laid off in April 2008 as part of nationwide cutbacks by station owner CBS.[6][5]

Douglas wrote a daily weather column for the Star Tribune from 1997 until his replacement by the WCCO-TV weather team in February 2009. He provided forecasts for three local radio stations. He has been a reporter for the Twin Cities Public Television show Almanac.

In 2009, the St. Cloud Times appointed him as the head of their meteorological team[7][8] and Conservation Minnesota partnered with him to create MNWeatherCenter,[9] a hub for Minnesota weather.

In 2010, the Star Tribune rehired him as a weather blogger.[10]

Businessman edit

Douglas leads a number of companies that he founded or co-founded, including WeatherNation (as CEO), Broadcast Weather (as CEO) and Smart Energy (as President).[11] In 2007, he co-founded SingularLogic LLC, a patent holding company, and he founded Broadcast Weather and NoozMe LLC, which hoped to capitalize on SingularLogic's patents.[12]

He founded EarthWatch Communications in 1990, which created weather visualizations for the feature films Jurassic Park and Twister.[3] He made a cameo appearance in a weather center scene in the latter. He co-founded Digital Cyclone in 1998[3] which created weather applications and supplies content for wireless devices under the My-Cast brand name. Douglas sold Digital Cyclone to Garmin[3] in 2007 for $45 million.[13]

Author, educator and speaker edit

Douglas regularly writes and speaks about global warming and is critical of those who say that it is not occurring or is not caused by human actions.[14]

Douglas has authored two books, Prairie Skies: The Minnesota Weather Book (1992, ISBN 9780896582088) and Restless Skies (2004, ISBN 0760761132).[15]

He has taught broadcast meteorology courses at Saint Cloud State University.[1]

Personal life edit

Paul Douglas and his wife have at least two sons, Brett and Walt.[3]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Paul Douglas". calvin.edu. Calvin University. Retrieved January 14, 2020.
  2. ^ Rocks, David (March 27, 2001). "The World Wide Web's Local Weatherman". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved January 14, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Paul Douglas". broadcast-weather.com. Media Logic Group, LLC. Archived from the original on April 24, 2012. Retrieved January 14, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. ^ a b c "Bio". PaulDouglasFoundation.org. Archived from the original on 2011-10-27.
  5. ^ a b Battle, Roxane. "With Douglas out at 'CCO, TV anchors are no longer 'safe'". MinnPost.com. Archived from the original on April 21, 2010. Retrieved January 14, 2020.
  6. ^ Collins, Bob (April 4, 2008). "WCCO layoffs". minnesota.publicradio.org. Minnesota Public Radio. Retrieved January 14, 2020.
  7. ^ Kaiser, Emily (March 30, 2009). "Paul Douglas is back! In St. Cloud, at least". CityPages.com. Archived from the original on December 28, 2009. Retrieved January 14, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  8. ^ St. Cloud Times Weather
  9. ^ "MNWeatherCenter". mnweathercenter.org. Archived from the original on June 18, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  10. ^ Douglas, Paul (February 14, 2010). "A Midwinter Reality Check". On Weather. Star Tribune. Archived from the original on February 18, 2010. Retrieved January 14, 2020 – via startribune.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  11. ^ "Paul Douglas". LinkedIn.com. Paul Douglas.
  12. ^ Gordon, Jack. "Paul Douglas's New Forecast". Twin Cities Business Journal. Archived from the original on 2008-12-04. Retrieved January 14, 2020 – via TCBMag.com.
  13. ^ Vomhof, John Jr. (April 4, 2008). "WCCO-TV cuts staff, including weatherman Paul Douglas". Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Retrieved January 14, 2020.
  14. ^ Brauer, David (October 28, 2010). "Paul Douglas: 'I'm a recovering Republican, and I don't recognize my party any more.'". MinnPost.com.
  15. ^ "Publisher notes".

External links edit