Charles Roop

An Ocala, Fla. native, Charles became annoyed when it rained in the Florida summer afternoons and wondered why that happened. He started watching the weather on TV and wanted to learn more about it.

He earned his Associate of Arts from the College of Central Florida. He then transferred to the University of Florida where he briefly studied photojournalism, but earned his Bachelor of Science in geography and a certificate in meteorology and climatology.

Charles went to Mississippi State University to earn his Master of Science in meteorology. He participated in The Weather Challenge, a national collegiate-level forecasting competition. He ranked 13th in the nation out of over 2,000 participants in his final year in graduate school, and won two trophies for forecasting individual cities. For his graduate thesis, Charles studied patterns of tornado formation with landfalling tropical systems in Florida.

Since starting at WCTV, Charles contributed to the weather department by writing weather stories for the web, posting updates on social media, working on special projects, and learning the craft of on-air weather presentation.

Charles also puts together a weekly tech news segment that normally airs Sunday mornings.

Behind the scenes, Charles uses his broad media and technical background to help the newsroom with writing and editing news stories for the station's website. He also trains and assists reporters with news gathering technologies (camera gear, etc.) and how to properly shoot and edit video.

Outside of the office, Charles enjoys photography, going to the beach, learning more things, and spending time with his wife (who is also a degreed meteorologist) and their two sons.

If you have any weather questions, feel free to write him on social media or at charles.roop@wctv.tv.