Mike Buresh Biography
Mike Buresh is an American journalist who is the Chief Meteorologist on Action News at WJAX-TV/WFOX-TV in Jacksonville, Florida. He broadcasts the weather on all evening newscasts (5, 5:30, 6, 11 on WJAX-TV and an hour-long 10 p.m. newscast on WFOX-TV) and can be heard daily on News 104.5 WOKV.
Buresh is a self-professed “weather holic” and his fascination with weather developed at a very young age while growing up in rural Iowa. As early as the second grade, Mike’s mom says he was drawing weather maps and “always looking at the sky.”
Mike Buresh Age
Buresh was born on June 6, 1964, in Iowa, United States. He is 55 years old as of 2019.
Mike Buresh Education
Mike studied meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. He also chased storms and was employed by the National Weather Service while in college. He graduated from Iowa State University. Shortly after graduating, Mike became a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist.
Shortly after graduating, Mike earned the American Meteorological Society’s “Seal of Approval” and has also achieved his Certification for Broadcast Meteorologist which certifies that Mike meets specific educational and experience criteria and has passed rigorous testing in his knowledge and communication of meteorology and related sciences needed to be an effective broadcast meteorologist.
Mike Buresh Career | CBS 47
Buresh began his television meteorology career at WHO-TV in Des Moines, Iowa then moved on to WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio before coming to the First Coast.
Mike was a member of the CBS47 News at 11 team which won the Edward R. Murrow award for “Best Newscast” in Florida and Georgia in 2006 and again in 2013 and is part of the Action News team that was awarded the 2012 Emmy Award for “Overall News Excellence”. Since 2006, Mike and his First Alert Weather team have been rated as “Most Accurate” in the Jacksonville television market according to the independent service “WeatheRate”. If you would like the most accurate Chief Meteorologist to visit your school, club or civic organization, E-mail Mike ». Mike is also an active member of the Jacksonville Salvation Army Advisory Board.
Mike Buresh Fun Facts
Buresh and his First Alert forecast have been rated as the “Most Accurate” in the Jacksonville television market according to the independent service “WeatheRate”.
If you would like the most accurate chief meteorologist to visit your school, club or civic organization, email Mike at mburesh@ActionNewsJax.com. Mike is also an active member of the Jacksonville Salvation Army Advisory Board.
He has traveled extensively including trips to Australia, Asia, Central, and South America, Galapagos Islands and three times to Africa.
When Mike isn’t forecasting your weather he enjoys golf, basketball, football, swimming, water skiing, the beach, reading, community outreach and, most of all, spending time with his lovely wife, daughters and “best friend”, Opie, the dog.
Mike is an avid writer and has a large following in the blog-o-sphere — “Buresh Blog” and “Talking the Tropics With Mike” (hurricane season June 1st-Nov. 30th).
Mike Buresh Hurricane
Northeast Florida hurricane building code standards lower than other parts of Florida
Hurricanes have proven to be costly in Florida. Most recently, Category 5 Michael devastated parts of the Florida Panhandle last October. As Andrew showed South Floridians in 1992, followed by Charley in 2004 and Irma in 2017, strong, well-built homes can withstand the powerful winds of one of Mother Nature’s most powerful storms.
“Since Andrew, with these innovations, these additions to the building code, we’ve seen it now after Irma, after Michael that building codes work, that building better, stronger … surviving the storm saves everybody money,” said Erik Salna, of the International Hurricane Research Center at Florida International University.
But an inspection of the map of Florida building codes is cause for concern. Based more on probability versus reality, codes for most of Duval County and much of Northeast Florida are based on peak winds of 115-130 mph versus 170-180 mph winds for more hurricane-prone far South Florida and the Keys and versus 130-150 mph for parts of the Panhandle.
“History shows that wind loads in this area haven’t been as high. We get direction from the state what to design to,” said Thomas Goldsbury, Chief of Building Inspection for the City of Jacksonville.
Jacksonville and surrounding areas have some of the lowest maximum wind building codes in all of Florida based on the near nil probability that a catastrophic hurricane will hit us here at home. So are we tempting fate?
“Florida is the hurricane capital of the U.S. We should lead the U.S. in the building codes across all of our coastlines because it can happen along any of our coastlines during any hurricane season,” Salna said. “We could one day get a major hurricane in Jacksonville. You have to look at it that way and adjust the building code accordingly.”
The wall of wind at Florida International University can really simulate what happens in a hurricane. First of all, that wind is funneled through the backside to increase the wind speed up to Category 5 — that’s up to 160 mph. The surface is sort of rugged, if you will, to represent houses and trees and businesses because that affects the wind flow, too.
Mike Buresh Survivors Of Hurricane Michael
Article by Mike Buresh;
Chief Meteorologist Mike Buresh recently visited the Florida Panhandle, which was so severely hit by Hurricane Michael nearly four months ago.
Buresh found Panama City, Mexico Beach and Port St. Joe teeming with demolition machines, busy workers and residents still trying to pick up the pieces.
One of the more profound interviews he had was with Clayton Studstill in Port St. Joe, which is about midway between Panama City and Apalachicola. Studstill and his wife did not evacuate and tried to ride out the storm in the attic of their home, but a natural gas leak eventually ignited, them to swim for their lives.
Studstill spends much of his time now sifting through the ashes of his home, hoping to find anything that might be salvageable or that might be meaningful to his wife and three kids. His big regret is failing to have added: “shut off the gas to the home” to his hurricane to-do list – a lesson everyone can learn from.
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