John McLaughlin is Chief Meteorologist for NewsChannel 8 and joined the KCCI team in 1985.

John McLaughlin grew up in Glidden, Iowa, and forecast his first tornado while in junior high school. That tornado touched down in Glidden in August of 1976 sparking John's career in meteorology.

John is past-president of the 3000-member National Weather Association and has served two terms as Chair of the American Meteorological Society's Board of Broadcast Meteorology. John has been awarded the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association Seals of Approval.

John has also obtained the recent Certified Broadcast Meteorologist designation by the AMS. John was chosen to receive the award for "Outstanding Service by a Broadcast Meteorologist" by the AMS and has received "Member of the Year Award," "Broadcaster of the Year Award," "Publication Education Award," and the "Larry R. Johnson Special Award" from the NWA.John specializes in Doppler radar and has published and presented several technical papers on the use of Doppler radar in severe weather detection.

He has trained hundreds of television broadcasters in the use of radar systems. He earned his broadcast meteorology certification at Mississippi State University and has continued his education through distance learning programs at several universities, including recent study on dual-polarmetric radar from Colorado State University.

He spends part of his time speaking to meteorological organizations, as well as local schools and community groups. John is a commercial pilot, flight instructor and FAA Examiner in both helicopters and airplanes. He has logged more than 5,400 hours of flight time in dozens of aircraft and has visited more than 5,000 children during helicopter visits to schools. Check out John's personal flying web page at www.IowaHelicopter.com.

An avid outdoorsman, John was the host of John McLaughlin Outdoors, a half-hour fishing show on KCCI-TV for more than a decade. Now you can get the latest fishing and hunting information weekend mornings on KCCI with John McLaughlin's Outdoors Minute. Check out recent outdoor photos and articles at www.McLaughlinOutdoors.com. Send John your hunting or fishing photo for use on the air.

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