Get to Know Me!My name is Emily Merz and I am a meteorologist at KEYC-TV in Mankato, Minnesota.
My love for weather started when I was a little kid growing up in Minnesota, just outside of the Twin Cities. There was a tornado siren at the park down the street from my childhood home and I was absolutely TERRIFIED of it. Needless to say, bad weather also scared me. This changed in first grade, when I went to a book fair at school, and brought home a box set of picture books about weather. I was mesmerized by the photos of lightning and tornadoes. I quickly realized that the more I learned about weather, the less scary it was. Fast forward to middle school, I went from one weather extreme to another when my family moved to northern Mississippi. My love for weather only grew as I went through my first Dixie Alley tornado seasons. In high school, I started writing for my school's newspaper. This led to my involvement with the broadcasting program. (see the Where It All Started tab for some fun old video clips!) With both of these clubs I discovered my passion for journalism and being on camera. I put my passions together with my love for weather, and along came Broadcast Meteorologist Emily Merz. I attended Mississippi State University where I received my Bachelor of Science in Geoscience, with a concentration in Broadcast Meteorology and a Minor in Communication. I graduated with honors in May 2023. I made my on-air debut in June 2022, during my Gray Future Focus Internship with KEYC-TV in Mankato, Minnesota. In July, I began filling in on weekends. In early August, my internship had come to an end and I returned back to Starkville, Mississippi to complete my last two semesters at Mississippi State. At the end of August, I officially joined the KEYC Weather Now team as a remote, part-time weekend and fill-in meteorologist. In June 2023, following my graduation, I returned to the KEYC studio, and begin working as a full-time meteorologist. The box set of weather picture books still sits on my bookshelf. |