As the snow falls on the little town of Holland, Sr. Sam Williams opens Instagram on his phone. Meteorologist and local celebrity Blake Harms is live, and he’s delivering either good or bad news for the students and faculty of West Ottawa, and all other surrounding schools. As Williams listens intently, Harms goes through the list of schools. As the suspense grows, Williams holds his breath and crosses his fingers, hoping and wishing for the best news: a snow day.
Blake Harms has partnered with Wood TV8 for four years, although his on-air time started in 2022. Since then, he’s provided a great service to the community of West Michigan by predicting snow days and making sure the roads are safe enough to drive. Harms even works with Berlin Raceway on their broadcast team as a play-by-play analyst and pit road reporter. I had the privilege to interview him, and none of this was handed to him, as he has worked very hard to get where he is today. “I have known I’ve wanted to be a meteorologist since elementary school, which certainly helped guide my path. I attained my bachelor’s degree in meteorology from Valparaiso University. I began my career at WLNS-TV, the CBS affiliate in Lansing, where I was the weekday morning meteorologist for a year and a half. In November 2022, I had the opportunity to join the team here at WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids.”
Not only is Blake an experienced and accomplished meteorologist, but he’s quite the celebrity around West Ottawa among the students. He goes live on Instagram periodically to give high schoolers around the area news about snow days. “It’s hard to pinpoint a specific comment that’s given me a laugh, but anyone who tunes into the Instagram live streams I’ll host ahead of a prediction knows that there are plenty of options to choose from. I’ve certainly gotten a fair amount of negative commentary, but I choose to focus on the overwhelmingly positive amount of followers instead.” Harms is an asset to West Ottawa because of the service that he provides. He helps out not only West Ottawa but all of West Michigan when it comes to weather.
Harms is widely trusted around the area because of his degrees, but his ethos does not stop there. He puts in a commendable amount of work to help out his co-workers, the West Michigan community, and especially the staff and students of West Ottawa. “When a big snowstorm is looming, we typically know of the potential several days in advance. Our weather team will prepare staffing to provide “team coverage,” meaning multiple meteorologists working every shift. With regards to school closing predictions, I’ll check school calendars to see if any are on break, then will begin to analyze what I think the closing chances will be. There are a multitude of factors that play into the school closing predictions. The amount and timing of snow, temperatures, and the subsequent impacts on road conditions, weather alerts, and amount of snow days used are just a few pieces of information I use when putting together a closing prediction. Once the storm hits, I typically work at full speed until its end, between television coverage in the form of in-studio forecasts, outdoor live shots, and school closing prediction coverage. After I host the Instagram livestream, if I expect closings to begin coming in that night, I’ll watch our closings page like a hawk and begin posting updates as they roll in. It’s not uncommon for me to pull twelve-hour shifts, if not more, as the predictions add another time-consuming layer to my additional job responsibilities at WOOD.”
As for the prediction for this year’s winter, Harms is optimistic. “Our winter is looking to feature warmer conditions with less snowfall, so there’s a good chance West Ottawa will have fewer snow days this season than last.” Although that may be bad news, Harms also said, “That’s not to say we won’t have any, and despite a quiet winter so far, I’m optimistic we’ll have a few chances.”
When helping out his community, he accumulated some interesting stories to tell that are unique and unheard of. “We covered a damaging tornado in Comstock Park in August. While the tornado was on the ground, the evidence on the radar was very clear. That certainly upped the adrenaline factor, as the only thing we knew was that a tornado was on the ground and was producing damage. We were very relieved that no lives were lost as a result of that tornado, but it was an eye-opening reminder that we do still see our fair share of severe weather in West Michigan.”
Harms is best known for his help during the winter with extreme snowstorms, and he has some stories to tell about that field of expertise as well. “The Christmas week blizzard of 2022 was a pretty remarkable storm, especially given the timing and how much it disrupted holiday travel plans. That week was a very busy one here in the tracking center. Many schools were on winter break already, but if the storm had hit at a different time in the season, it would have likely been my easiest prediction ever made.” Even during the winter break, he’s still looking out for the students around West Michigan.
Students of West Ottawa should strive to be like Blake Harms. He works tirelessly to help his community, not only high school students wanting a day off but also many people around the Holland area who need to know if the roads are safe. More than just snow days can be learned from Blake. Work ethic, humanitarianism, involvement, and so many other valuable traits can be learned from Harms. Blake Harms is truly a cherished person and a local treasure around the schools of West Ottawa for all that he does for us and everyone in the Holland area.
