Rob Lightbown says science weather is changing his work: extreme forecasts that were rare when he started in 1992 are now more common. The Sturbridge resident and owner of Crown Weather Services and Route 20 Weather said climate change is helping drive that shift.
Lightbown said he began in meteorology as early as age 4 and started as an intern for the National Weather Service in 1992. He said he has kept the same weather website service since 1994 and turned the work from a side job to a full-time job in 2013.
Route 20 Weather in Worcester
Route 20 Weather was formed in 2018 after Meg suggested forecasting weather around Worcester and Central and Western Massachusetts. Lightbown said the service covers Springfield, Worcester and towns in the Worcester metro area, giving readers a more local view than Crown Weather Services, which typically handles tropical storms, hurricanes and weather activity stemming from the Caribbean.
He said the local focus became sharper when Canadian wildfires sent smoke across the region on July 14 and 15. Lightbown shared photos and warnings as the skies turned hazy, another example of the kinds of fast-changing conditions he now tracks more often.
Winter storms for Rob Lightbown
Lightbown said winter storms remain his favorite weather to forecast. He also said they are the weather he likes to work in most, going outside in snowstorms and blizzards to measure how much snow has accumulated while it is still snowing and right after the storm has ended.
That preference comes with a split view of the forecast desk. He said severe thunderstorms and tornadoes are his least favorite types of weather to forecast, even as those events have become part of the more common extreme-weather work he says climate change has brought into his daily routine.
For readers in Western and Central Massachusetts, the practical shift is simple: the forecasts that matter most now include winter storms, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and wildfire smoke, not just the routine day-ahead outlook. Lightbown’s work through Route 20 Weather is built around that narrower, more local need.
June 9, 1953 tornado
Worcester’s memorial to victims of the June 9, 1953 tornado marks one of New England’s most extreme tornadoes, a reminder of why local forecasting carries a different weight in this region. Lightbown’s approach puts that history next to the present, with more frequent extreme-weather calls now shaping what he watches, measures and warns about.
