Rain or Shine, Weather Reporter Rob Marciano ’91 Is On the Job

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A national correspondent for CBS News, the CALS alum is a veteran meteorologist who prioritizes the human angle in his work

By Joe Wilensky

“Before the sun rose over the Palisades fire, you could see the buildings still burning,” Rob Marciano ’91 says during a CBS News report in mid-January 2025, clad in protective gear as a foreboding and smoky orange California dawn shimmers behind him. “Here we are on day four, and there are these hot spots smoldering just about everywhere.”

Marciano is reporting in the midst of what would become weeks of on-the-ground coverage of the state’s devastating wildfires—and the massive efforts to contain them.

“Burning debris is falling into the road,” he says, the camera panning as he approaches a firefighting team to report on their progress. “No flames are too small to snuff out. These personnel are on high alert in a landscape of bone-dry brush that could quickly ignite into a fast-moving blaze.”

The national weather correspondent for CBS News, Marciano has spent his nearly three-decade career reporting on hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, and more—often out in the field.

And while Marciano is dedicated to meteorology as a discipline, he always tries to incorporate the weather’s impacts on people’s lives into his reporting.

“Hopefully that comes across: some compassion and humanity on top of the science,” he says, adding that he aims to give viewers a sense of “what it might be like to experience a weather event—so, for example, someone in Kansas might have empathy for someone who’s going through a hurricane in Pensacola.”

Plus: “I think there are a lot of closet weather geeks out there.”

I think there are a lot of closet weather geeks out there.

During the nine years he spent as a weather anchor and field correspondent for CNN, Marciano covered Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. He also spent a decade at ABC, where he was senior meteorologist for both “World News Tonight” and the weekend edition of “Good Morning America.”

He moved to CBS in 2024 and, in the span of just a few months, reported on a spate of weather events.

In addition to the California wildfires and the floods and mudslides that followed, he covered Hurricane Milton in Florida, severe storms that swept through Oklahoma and Texas, extreme cold and winds in the Midwest, and even an eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano.

“Most, if not all, meteorologists I’ve met have had some sort of event or epiphany at a young age that sends them on the path to studying weather,” observes Marciano.

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For him—a native of the NYC metro area—that catalyst was the massive 1978 Northeast blizzard. By middle school, he’d begun thinking seriously of meteorology as a career.

“I drove my parents crazy flipping the TV channels,” he recalls. “I knew when every weatherperson was on. I knew them by name, I knew their style, and I’d emulate them and dream of one day becoming one.”

I drove my parents crazy flipping the TV channels. I knew when every weatherperson was on. I’d emulate them and dream of one day becoming one.

After two years at St. Lawrence University, Marciano transferred to CALS as a junior majoring in atmospheric sciences and meteorology. After graduation, he landed his first forecasting jobs at local stations in Lake Charles, LA, and Portland, OR, before being hired at CNN.

“I love the visceral experience, and I try to pass that along to viewers—but we do toe a fine line of hypocrisy by saying, ‘It’s kind of dangerous out here; you should stay home,’” Marciano says of covering extreme weather in the field.

“I’m very aware of that, and I’m very aware of safety, not just for me, but for my crew. The last thing I’d want my epitaph to read is ‘Meteorologist who died of stupidity in a storm.’”

In 2013–14, Marciano took a career detour to co-host the newsmagazine show “Entertainment Tonight,” interviewing hundreds of celebrities.

The experience, he says, “made me a more engaging broadcaster—because for these tabloid-y types of programs, you have to sell it; you have to grab the viewer.”

In the decades that Marciano has been in meteorology, technology has significantly improved forecasting. And it’s again set to radically reshape the field in a shift that’s already underway.

The last thing I’d want my epitaph to read is ‘Meteorologist who died of stupidity in a storm.’

In 2024, Google released an AI weather prediction model. And in February 2025, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts brought its Artificial Intelligence Forecasting System online—which, it says, outperforms traditional physics-based models in both speed and accuracy.

“I didn’t expect it to happen this quickly,” Marciano says. “But here we go.”

Top: Marciano in front of a green screen, on air for CBS News. All photos provided, unless otherwise indicated.

Published: March 13, 2025

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Comments

1. 

   Gregory Ryan, Class of 1982

   25 Mar, 2025

   I’ve been admiring Rob on the CBS Morning show and am happy to hear he’s a Cornell Alum. I was a geology major who took a CALS Meteorology 101 class my last semester at Cornell and regretted not majoring in meteorology. Today the disciplines are combined under Cornell’s Earth and Atmospheric Sciences programs. I spent a career in environmental science, climate and sustainability so the education and interest paid off for me.

   Reply

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