Black History, Black Futures: Forecasting for Future Generations
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- June Bacon-Bercey is a name many people don't recognize, but she's a pioneer in a field people rely on every single day.
Alex Countee, former ABC57 Meteorologist, says that at the beginning of each year, Bacon-Bercey's name always comes up in the conversation for Black History Month.
“Her impact continues even to the present day,” he says.
Bacon-Bercey is the first Black female television meteorologist. Her daughter, Dial St. Claire, says her mother had a true passion for the sciences—from finding fascination in buoyancy and even nuclear fallout patterns.
St. Claire says, “My mother had seven roles within meteorology. From radio meteorologist to forensic meteorologist, to weather forecaster, to chief meteorologist-- just across the spectrum.”
As a Kansas native, Bacon-Bercey received her first degree in mathematics at Friends University in Wichita. She, then, became the first Black woman to earn a degree in meteorology at UCLA in 1954--a decade before the Civil rights act was passed.
Later, she received her journalism degree from NYU. After graduating, she began her career as a science reporter at WGRZ in Buffalo, N.Y. After the station’s chief was fired, Bacon-Bercey made her debut as a meteorologist in 1972.
Forecasting in the 1970s was more challenging than it is today. Dr. Petra Zimmermann, professor at Ball State University, explains, “You didn't have these constantly updated weather models that anybody can get online and look at. No, you're waiting for data that doesn't come in as quickly as it does now.”
After accurately forecasting a major heatwave, she got the job as chief meteorologist at WGRZ in 1972. Bacon-Bercey quickly became well known in her community. She later received her seal of approval—being the first woman and Black person to do so.
Current professionals like Indianapolis' Ashley Brown still benefit from her legacy today. “It's problem solving at its best, and you get to solve the problem that moment, that day,” Brown says.
Bacon-Bercey was the first in many arenas and received pushback because of it. Alan Sealls, President of the American Meteorological Society, or AMS, says that Bacon-Bercey's achievements were highly impressive for that era in American History.
Despite the strides Bacon-Bercey made, women were still not taken seriously. They were seen as props, rather than professionals.
Bacon-Bercey spoke to this point herself saying, “I didn’t want to because weathercasters, female weathercasters, were doing weather in a way that they would grab the public’s attention—by playing ukuleles and doing all little silly and absurd things. So, I didn’t want to do it.”
Bacon-Bercey’s legacy extended beyond the weather wall. From the classroom to the AMS, her outreach stretched far and wide.
In 1977, she appeared on the popular game show $128,000 Question and won $64,000. She used her winnings to help launch her scholarship fund, the June Bacon-Bercey Scholarship in Atmospheric Sciences for Women. Later, she even raised money for Jackson State University in Mississippi, to fund their meteorology lab.
Towards the end of her career, she found herself in the classroom as a substitute science teacher, continuing to empower the youth about the wonders of stem careers. Bacon-Bercey died at 90 years old in 2019.
In 2021, the AMS dedicated one of their highest awards to her, renaming it the June Bacon-Bercey award.
Work still needs to be done to make stem fields more inclusive. One way representation will continue to grow is through exposure. Sealls explains the last survey done with the AMS showed self-declared African Americans only made-up three percent of the membership.
Overall, African Americans are underrepresented in Meteorology and STEM fields; however, there is still hope for future generations.
St. Claire concludes by saying that Black meteorologists and scientists today are “setting the stage for the next generation, and that is why I look at hope and inspiration as sort of the core tenets.”