Staff
Owner and Chief Meteorologist
Tony Schumacher
Tony Schumacher has lived and worked in Wisconsin his entire life. He developed a sharp interest in the weather as a young child on his family’s dairy farm near Dorchester, Wisconsin. Watching how the weather greatly impacted their crops and livestock left a deep impression on him. He has covered every possible type of Midwest weather situation, many times over, in his 32-year weather forecasting career.
Tony received his B.S. Degree in atmospheric science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He began his career in 1993 as a staff meteorologist for Great Lakes Weather Service and WSAW-TV in Wausau, Wisconsin. He quickly moved up to become chief meteorologist at WSAW. Tony earned the distinguished American Meteorology Society Seal of Approval for TV weather in 1995. Moving on to the Green Bay area, Tony worked for WFRV-TV from 1997 to 1999, which gave him additional experience in dealing with the effects of the Great Lakes on weather patterns.
In March 1999, he returned to Wausau to be chief meteorologist at WAOW-TV and pursue a purchase of Great Lakes Weather Service. He also obtained official certification for doppler radar interpretation in the early 2000s. From 2007 to 2023, Tony was a staff meteorologist at WAOW. Over the years Tony has written dozens of weather columns for the regional magazine, Silent Sports. He has provided many weather articles and forecasts for various newspapers in Wisconsin as well. Tony received the Wausau Area’s favorite meteorologist award 8 years in a row by the City Pages Newspaper reader’s survey.
Tony continues to enhance his skills and knowledge by attending as many National Weather Service seminars and training sessions as possible on a wide variety of topics as well as tapping into resources through the American Meteorological Society. Through many speaking engagements and articles, he strives to educate the public regarding climate change and other important weather topics. Tony enjoys gardening, growing trees, playing trumpet, music, movies, sports, hunting, and taking care of his pets. Tony cherishes the time he spends with his wife of 27 years, Kathy, and visiting their two children Douglas, and Elaine. He is active in his church and also volunteers in the local 4-H program. Tony has enjoyed getting to know the clients of Great Lakes Weather Service over the years and looks forward to helping them well into the future!
Staff Meteorologist and Technical Director
Douglas Schumacher
Douglas Schumacher joined the GLWS team in May of 2020. However, this is far from his first experience with the company. Douglas’s interest in meteorology was largely developed as he grew up in the shadow of his father’s forecasting company in north-central Wisconsin and filled in for occasional shifts throughout high school and college. Douglas graduated with a B.S. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and a certificate in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the spring of 2020. His previous job experiences in weather come from an internship at WAOW-TV in Wausau, Wisconsin, and a summer research position on flash droughts at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies in Madison, Wisconsin. Some of his research work in college included a comprehensive synoptic case study of the western Wisconsin blizzard and windstorm of February 2014, and a senior thesis on the application of modern machine learning techniques to improve flash drought forecasting. Douglas is also employed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center. There he is part a team that provides software support for the National Weather Service’s geostationary and polar weather satellite systems. In addition to his meteorological knowledge, Douglas brings a wealth of experience in computer programming and information technology to the company, which he has used to upgrade the company’s website and develop forecasting workflow improvements. Douglas looks forward to serving the clients of Great Lakes Weather Service using the latest scientific and technological methods.
Staff Meteorologist
Brittney Merlot
Brittney Merlot joined Great Lakes Weather Service in August of 2023. She got her weather calling at the very young age of 5, when her family was in an F5 tornado that completely ripped the house from the foundation in Illinois. After growing up scared of thunderstorms, she began taking Meteorology classes at the College of DuPage. There she studied tornadogenesis and faced her fears by traveling all across the country chasing tornadoes and helping get warnings out, to save the lives of people in the path of destruction. After completing her Associates Degree in Science, Brittney transferred to Northern Illinois University to complete her Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism and Meteorology. While there she was the Chief Meteorologist for the college TV station and interned at WGN-TV News in Chicago with Tom Skilling, where she became skilled at forecasting snow storms, lake effect and Midwest severe weather.
Upon graduation, she began working as a midday Meteorologist in Rockford, IL at CBS WIFR-TV. It wasn’t long until she found her way to Duluth, MN at KQDS-TV Fox 21 News as a Morning Meteorologist. While there, she obtained her Master’s Degree in Applied Meteorology through an online distance program at Mississippi State University. She also became an expert at forecasting microclimates, lake effect snow events, extreme temperatures, severe storms and tornadoes. After 6 years, she made a switch to WDIO-TV ABC News in Duluth, MN but was quickly offered a more prominent position in Green Bay, WI. Where she worked for the Official Packers Station on NBC 26 News WGBA-TV as their morning Meteorologist for two years. Now, she currently works as the Chief Meteorologist for Civic Media and does radio forecasts statewide for Wisconsin. She is also the Bureau Chief and anchor at WXCO News Bull Falls Radio in Wausau, WI.
Brittney is extremely passionate and energetic, her face lights up when she is asked about the weather. You can find her outside in any harsh weather too (she truly enjoys it). Making snow angels, tracking and chasing storms, battling the bitter cold and enjoying the bountiful water activities that Wisconsin offers in the summer. You can find her kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, sailing, ATVing, mountain biking, hiking, snowmobiling, skiing, ice fishing and getting into just about anything as long as it’s outside and in the elements of the weather. She also loves photography and videography, so please send her your pictures, weather updates and more to BrittneyGLWS@gmail.com.
“I commonly refer to myself as the female version of ‘Jim Cantore’ from The Weather Channel.” – Brittney Merlot
Staff Meteorologist
Heath Bradberg
Heath Bradberg joined the Great Lakes Weather Service team in June 2024. Heath’s passion for weather started at a young age, when he was completely enticed by the movie “Twister”. Other events in childhood also helped mold his passion for becoming a meteorologist, including going to the Minnesota State Fair and getting a chance to try weather broadcasting on a green screen a few years as well as experiencing stronger storms like derechos and a few macrobursts. His passion for wanting to know how weather events are connected drove him to attend college for weather. Graduating from St. Cloud State University in 2017, Heath earned his Bachelor of Science degree in atmospheric science and mass communication. While in college, Heath was involved with the campus TV and radio stations, becoming Chief Meteorologist during his senior year. He also did his internship for two summers at EAA in Oshkosh, Wisconsin doing the weather segments for EAA Radio. He also volunteered for the local humane society and helped with Walk to End Alzheimer’s fundraiser.
After college, Heath worked at three different TV stations across the county, each with a different climate to forecast. In 2017, he went to Casper, Wyoming to work at KCWY News 13 as the weekend meteorologist, forecasting for both plains and mountains. In 2020, he landed a job at KLST in San Angelo, Texas as the morning meteorologist, dealing mostly with desert-like weather and conditions. He also worked in Eureka, California in 2023 as the chief meteorologist for Redwood News, learning ocean and fire weather. Currently, he is living back in his hometown of Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
In his free time, Heath enjoys doing a lot of activities, especially outdoors. Some include running, rollerblading, archery, hiking, and kayaking to name a few. He also enjoys exploring new areas and enjoys supporting local businesses as much as possible. He also makes time to visit family and friends as well as read a bit as well. In 2022, Heath wrote and published a children’s book, titled “What is Thunder and Lightning?”, hoping to help kids understand the very basic idea of why thunderstorms can be loud and sometimes scary. He hopes the book helps calm fears for kids whenever a bigger storm comes through. He is currently working on a few more books to be released at a future date.
Feel free to contact Heath at heathglws@gmail.com for suggestions on local businesses to visit, great places to eat or have a good cup of local coffee, or any events you recommend he should attend!
Staff Meteorologist
Tony DeGrand
Tony has been in and out of the weather business for about 20 years. As with most meteorologists, the interest in weather started at an early age. Growing up in Milwaukee, Tony was fascinated with lake effect snowstorms and the possibility of a snow day. This led him to the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee where he achieved a Bachelors of Science in Atmospheric Science. While attending UWM, he interned at WTMJ-4 where he was mentored by his mentors Paul Joseph and John Malan. He learned a lot about the television business that he did not learn in the classroom.
Tony took what he had learned in the classroom and his internship to land his first TV gig in Rhinelander, WI at WJFW-TV. Following his two and a half years in northern Wisconsin, life took him to Lincoln, Nebraska where he worked for KOLN/KGIN as a broadcast meteorologist. Between growing up in the Milwaukee area and seeing how Lake Michigan affects the weather to moving to Northern Wisconsin to see how lake superior affected the weather and then moving out to Nebraska to see the abundance of thunderstorms and tornadoes, he has a lot of experience, seeing the various types of severe weather from blizzards to tornadoes.
He took a slight detour from television and went to graduate school at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln where he achieved his Master of Arts in Science Teaching. This led him to teaching high school science for ten years. The classes included Earth and space science, physical science, biology, and astronomy. Most recently, he was teaching a Weather and Climate class at D.C. Everest Senior High School where he wanted to get students as excited about weather as he is. He also shared an insight about the technical aspects of meteorology which most of the public does not understand. He would even teach them how to forecast and have a forecasting challenge at the end of the semester. In each of those classes, he would find a way to weave in anything about the weather.
Tony is a dad of three boys and is very active keeping up with them. While working in schools, he coached cross country and track, so he likes to run. He also likes being on his bike riding the many trails of Wisconsin and doing some bike racing. He enjoys being outside in all of the elements, including snowboarding and cross country skiing, so weather forecasting is essential to knowing how to dress to be outside in the elements. Please reach out at tonydglws@gmail.com if you have an upcoming race or outdoor sporting event and would like the forecast!