Who We Are
WCVB Legendary Meteorologist Harvey Leonard with Mike Haggett
Mike Haggett has been in Maine since 1970. Raised in Yarmouth, he graduated from Yarmouth High School in 1988, and then went on to Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute for Hotel & Restaurant Management.
After a 14-year career as a line cook, kitchen manager and chef in many popular restaurants and hotels in the Portland area, he hung up his apron for good in December 1998. He then moved on to commercial vehicle truck parts purchasing in Portland, where he has been for 21 years.
While preparing food and doing his part to keep trucks on the road, Mike did radio production work for All Sports 1440 AM and a brief time as a DJ for Ocean 98 FM in the mid-1990s. He then joined the Portland Pirates American Hockey League team for three seasons as an intern on the sales and marketing end and assisted with statistics for the hockey operations end.
After a move from Portland to Poland Spring in July of 2001, Mike joined the Lewiston MAINEiacs Quebec Major Junior Hockey League team soon after their arrival in 2003. He spent parts of 8 seasons with the club, first as moderator of the chat board, then worked his way into writing articles for the team program and color commentary on the radio. He was director of media and community relations at the time the club was sold and disbanded in June of 2011.
It was that following winter where Mike began his weather forecasting pursuits.
Using media connections made over the years, Mike was able to build relations with local, regional, and national broadcast meteorologists, along with others in the private and public sector. With some guidance and mentor ship, he started Western Maine Weather in December 2012.
Western Maine Weather had a four-year run covering the western half of the state. With others seeing his success and style, he was encouraged to cover the whole state in a blog for the Bangor Daily News in 2016. It was at that point where Western Maine Weather then became Pine Tree Weather.
After a change in editorship and philosophy at the BDN, Mike started his own website at pinetreeweather.com after the Great October Gale in 2017 and has steadily grown a statewide audience ever since.
Mike and his family moved from Poland Spring to Kennebunk in April 2018.
In the winter of 2020, he went back to college for weather forecast certification through the PennState World Campus program, which he expects to complete by May 2021.
After a 14-year career as a line cook, kitchen manager and chef in many popular restaurants and hotels in the Portland area, he hung up his apron for good in December 1998. He then moved on to commercial vehicle truck parts purchasing in Portland, where he has been for 21 years.
While preparing food and doing his part to keep trucks on the road, Mike did radio production work for All Sports 1440 AM and a brief time as a DJ for Ocean 98 FM in the mid-1990s. He then joined the Portland Pirates American Hockey League team for three seasons as an intern on the sales and marketing end and assisted with statistics for the hockey operations end.
After a move from Portland to Poland Spring in July of 2001, Mike joined the Lewiston MAINEiacs Quebec Major Junior Hockey League team soon after their arrival in 2003. He spent parts of 8 seasons with the club, first as moderator of the chat board, then worked his way into writing articles for the team program and color commentary on the radio. He was director of media and community relations at the time the club was sold and disbanded in June of 2011.
It was that following winter where Mike began his weather forecasting pursuits.
Using media connections made over the years, Mike was able to build relations with local, regional, and national broadcast meteorologists, along with others in the private and public sector. With some guidance and mentor ship, he started Western Maine Weather in December 2012.
Western Maine Weather had a four-year run covering the western half of the state. With others seeing his success and style, he was encouraged to cover the whole state in a blog for the Bangor Daily News in 2016. It was at that point where Western Maine Weather then became Pine Tree Weather.
After a change in editorship and philosophy at the BDN, Mike started his own website at pinetreeweather.com after the Great October Gale in 2017 and has steadily grown a statewide audience ever since.
Mike and his family moved from Poland Spring to Kennebunk in April 2018.
In the winter of 2020, he went back to college for weather forecast certification through the PennState World Campus program, which he expects to complete by May 2021.
Alumni
Alex Hatfield is heading into her senior year of atmospheric science at Penn State in State College, PA. She hails from Wakefield, Massachusetts. She's familiar with the weather patterns of New England, having experiences many storms that we gone through in Maine.
Alex has already amassed a wonderful resume which includes: Community Outreach Chair for the Penn State Branch of the American Meteorological Society/National Weather Association; Head of Business for Penn State's Campus Weather Service; Secretary for the Penn State Storm Chase Team; and Ambassador for the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.
Alex will begin her career with AccuWeather's severe forecast center in Wichita, Kansas.
Alex has already amassed a wonderful resume which includes: Community Outreach Chair for the Penn State Branch of the American Meteorological Society/National Weather Association; Head of Business for Penn State's Campus Weather Service; Secretary for the Penn State Storm Chase Team; and Ambassador for the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.
Alex will begin her career with AccuWeather's severe forecast center in Wichita, Kansas.
Kaitlyn Lardeo is going into her senior year of college at SUNY Oswego in Oswego, NY, pursuing a B.S. Meteorology degree with a Mathematics minor. She is from Syracuse, NY, where she’s become acquainted with the systems that affect New England and the snow it can bring in the wintertime. She’s a short-range forecaster for SUNY Oswego's operational forecasting station, the Lake-Effect Storm Prediction and Research Center (LESPaRC).
Kaitlyn has done research on weather forecasting and communication during lake effect events that has been presented at the Northeastern Storm Conference and SUNY Oswego's student conference Quest. In addition to being a weather nerd, she also plays violin for Oswego State's orchestra, chamber orchestra, and opera orchestra.
Kaitlyn has done research on weather forecasting and communication during lake effect events that has been presented at the Northeastern Storm Conference and SUNY Oswego's student conference Quest. In addition to being a weather nerd, she also plays violin for Oswego State's orchestra, chamber orchestra, and opera orchestra.
