GRANITE CITY, Ill. — Women make up about a quarter of the meteorology workforce, even less when it comes to lead roles. One woman from the Metro East is breaking the glass ceiling ... or in her case ... the glass atmospheric boundary.
"I was the first female forecaster at the Storm Prediction Center to issue a watch," Liz Leitman told 5 On Your Side.
The Storm Prediction Center is a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The SPC has a team of meteorologists that issue advance outlooks before a stormy day.
Liz Leitman is a meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Center, and she is in training to be a fill-in lead forecaster. When she issued her first watch, making her the first woman to do so, she said it felt amazing.
"It was very exciting. I've wanted to work at the Storm Prediction Center since I was in high school, and so it was kind of like a lifelong goal and achievement, and that was very exciting," she said. "And of course, I was thrilled to be the first woman to be able to do so."
Her career is centered around storms, something she used to be afraid of.
"My fascination with weather actually really started out of fear. I was pretty terrified of thunderstorms when I was a little girl, and so my mom thought, knowledge is power," she said. "And so, she took me to the library, we checked out kids' books about weather and that kind of started the obsession."
Leitman provided reassuring advice to woman seeking careers in science and said, "You know what you are capable of so go for it."
"Don't let anyone else determine your path for you," she said. "There are going to be other women there supporting you along the way."
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