Weather Channel veteran Mike Seidel on why Harvey, Irma were like few storms he's covered

Mike Seidel has been on the road for 21 of 23 days, chasing a tropical disturbance, a solar eclipse and two of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history.

Finally back home in Atlanta, he cops to feeling tired and sore. It turns out that leaning into a gale-force wind for seven-hour stretches while on camera is an intense workout for your quads.

“It does take a toll on you," Seidel said by phone. "When you come home from a trip like this, you’re just blown out."

Seidel's image, raincoat clad and teeth gritted, has been ubiquitous in recent weeks on the Weather Channel, his employer, as well as on network news shows, including the "Today" show. This being 2017, those clips have turned up in viral fashion on social media. 

Sample headline: "Weather reporter can barely manage to stand through squall from Hurricane Irma."

As TV's weather warrior, it's his job to face down Mother Nature.

The Salisbury native has reported on more than 60 hurricanes and tropical storms — an exact count eludes him as he fights the fatigue of the past few weeks — during his 25 years as a Weather Channel meteorologist. 

But he ranks the winds of Harvey and Irma among the three or four most punishing he has faced. The other contenders: Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Irene in 2011.

“From a coverage standpoint, it was a pretty windy storm," he says of Irma, which made its U.S. landfall Sunday in the lower Florida Keys with 130 mph winds.

'I've got a few more years in me'

In one viral clip, Seidel, from his perch near the waterfront in downtown Miami, is seen turning his back on the camera as a heavy rain lashes his body.

“I’ve got to get over to the tree here," he can be heard saying into his microphone above the roar of the wind. He trudges stiff-legged to a tree and wraps his right arm around its trunk.

"Hoo!" he says in relief. “Man, that is some fierce wind out there. Not quite as windy. I’ve got a little protection from the building or the condo.”

In another clip, Seidel's videographer topples backward suddenly, his sneakers filling the frame. Seidel immediately asks the man if he's OK and, once he receives confirmation, he assures the audience that the prone man is fine. The videographer regains his feet and continues filming.

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After the live shot has ended, Seidel learns that the tumble had nothing to do with the storm. The cameraman had simply walked to the end of his video cord and gotten jerked backward.

It was a sobering reminder, though, of the potential dangers he and his crew face while bringing viewers images of wild weather as it happens, Seidel said. It also gets the 60-year-old thinking about how much longer he wants to brave the elements for a living.

"I’m sure I’ve got a few more years in me. I don’t think I’ll be standing there out on the beach 10 years from now," he says.

'I try to be as safe as possible'

The coverage of Irma and Harvey reignited a debate over whether television reporters should be broadcasting stand-ups — in which a reporter speaks directly to the camera — during storms.

The New York Times topped a Sept. 10 article on the subject with a photo of Seidel straining to talk on camera while standing in knee-deep, wind-whipped water.

Seidel has heard the criticism that reporters are warning people to take shelter while doing the exact opposite. And he's sensitive to it.

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"People say you’re not being safe. I try to be as safe as possible," he says.

With Irma, for example, he watched the hurricane's track closely and quickly ruled out any attempt at reporting from the Keys. 

"I have my limit," Seidel says. 

Instead, he stationed himself and his crew about 150 miles to the northeast in Miami, where top wind gusts reached as high as 100 mph but were much lower most of the time.

He also made sure to choose a location where he was just steps away from the safety of a sturdy building. He and his crew also are wary of being downwind from any objects that could potentially get thrown at them by the wind.

With Irma, he stopped broadcasting by about 11 a.m. that Sunday when he determined that the storm surge was beginning to get too high.

Irma's late shift to the west also reduced the risk in southeastern Florida, he added. Instead of a storm surge of up to 10 feet, the area would only have to grapple with 3-5 feet of extra water.

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Seidel has been tracking the weather since he was a 6-year-old measuring the snow with a ruler outside his family's home in Salisbury. After graduating from Salisbury State University, he received a master's degree in meteorology from Penn State.

He worked in front of the camera at both Salisbury stations, WMDT and WBOC, before joining the Weather Channel in 1992. There, he didn't originate the channel's live weather shots, but he was part of the team that elevated the form in the late 1990s into a fixture and ratings hit.

Their timing couldn't have been better. A barrage of hurricanes struck the United States during the 2004-05 seasons, wreaking untold damage along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Then came Superstorm Sandy's assault on New York City, the country's biggest media market. Then Boston's epic snowfall of 2015.

Seidel estimates that he spends about 150 days a year on the road, following the currents.

Why does he do it?

“If I’ve saved one life in all these years, it’s been a success," he says.

Now, it's Harvey and Irma. And who knows? Maybe Jose next.

“Right now, the odds favor Jose not directly impacting the East Coast," Seidel said from his home in Atlanta on Wednesday morning, with the storm still churning well out in the Atlantic. “But that could change."

If it does, you can just about count on Seidel overcoming his fatigue to be there, microphone in hand and knees in locked position.

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On Twitter @Jeremy_Cox

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