Mark Torregrossa
Mark Torregrossa is a meteorologist who leads weather and related environmental coverage at MLive, focused on how atmospheric patterns shape daily life across Michigan and the Great Lakes. His work stands out for clear, direct forecasts that avoid exaggeration while spelling out what conditions mean for travel, recreation, and outdoor planning. He blends day-to-day forecasting with seasonal outlooks and climate explainers, consistently grounding his coverage in specific locations, time windows, and probabilities rather than broad generalities.
Daily Michigan weather forecasts
Torregrossa’s core output is daily and short-term weather forecasting for MLive’s audience, delivered in straightforward language that emphasizes what people will actually experience.
He focuses on concrete details such as when rain will start and end, how long showers will last, and which hours of a weekend are most favorable for being outside. In beach advisory coverage, he notes that most Michigan locations will see only brief showers of around 15 minutes and stresses that there will be many more dry hours than wet, giving readers confidence about planning time on the water.
For holiday periods, he characterizes conditions with concise phrases, such as describing an extended Labor Day weekend as “arguably perfect” once storms clear, then backs that up with expected sunshine, mild temperatures, and low humidity. His forecasts are woven into broader news and environment pieces, where he is quoted to explain upcoming rounds of severe thunderstorms and short-term storm systems moving through the state.
Translating climate patterns into local impacts
Torregrossa often takes large-scale climate drivers and turns them into practical guidance for Michigan and the Great Lakes region. In his coverage of El Niño, including work on whether a “Super El Niño” is realistic, he breaks down national outlooks into probabilities for the state being warmer than normal, near normal, or colder over the October–December period. Rather than leaving those statistics abstract, he ties them to what residents should expect from fall and early winter, framing temperature odds in a way that supports planning for agriculture, commuting, and outdoor activities. His reporting on warming USDA planting zones shows the flip side of climate change, highlighting how a warmer climate can be good news for gardeners and how the Great Lakes region is shifting to allow a broader range of plants.
He has also engaged directly with training on climate change and the news, focusing on impacts in the Great Lakes, which informs his ability to connect long-term trends with the everyday decisions of his audience.
Environment coverage on beaches, flooding and air quality
Beyond pure forecasting, Torregrossa contributes to environment stories that sit at the intersection of weather, water, and public use of natural spaces. When Michigan beaches are closed or under advisories, he adds context on imminent weather, explaining how scattered showers, storm timing, and temperature shifts will affect swimmers and boaters over the weekend.
His flooding coverage includes pieces on closures of roads, parks, and boat launches in places like Cadillac, where he not only reports on the disruption but also anticipates when floodwaters will begin to recede and how a stretch of dry weather will help. Earlier work has examined why scenic parts of Michigan can have surprisingly poor air quality, using meteorological and geographic factors to explain a counterintuitive environmental problem and outlining the mechanisms behind stagnant air and pollution. Across these stories, he positions weather as a driver of environmental conditions - water quality, flooding risk, and breathing conditions - rather than treating it as a separate topic.
Great Lakes, maps and outdoor timing
Torregrossa’s coverage frequently centers on the Great Lakes region and the timing of outdoor experiences, using maps and regional analysis to show how patterns unfold. In a story on Traverse City State Park reopening over 150 campsites, he offers a forecast that the area’s peak fall foliage will occur roughly between October 14 and 21, giving campers a specific window for seeing colors at their best.
He has produced explanations built around unusual temperature maps across the Great Lakes, highlighting anomalies and helping readers interpret what they mean for local conditions. His planting-zone reporting connects warming climates to what gardeners and lake-adjacent communities can expect to grow, emphasizing both the opportunities and the broader climatic shift affecting the region. Outside of written work, he appears on regional radio to discuss scientific findings on fall and winter weather in Michigan, again focusing on how seasonal outlooks translate into practical expectations for listeners.
Taken together, his beat sits where atmosphere, Great Lakes ecosystems, and outdoor life meet, with each piece aiming to tell people not just what the weather is, but how it will shape their plans.
4 more environment journalists.
Alan Halaly
Alan Halaly is a water reporter at the Las Vegas Review-Journal who treats the Colorado River as a working system, not a backdrop, making its governance, infrastructure and risks central to his beat. He covers how policy decisions and infrastructure projects shape the region’s water future, linking high-level choices on the Colorado River, dams, mining and data centers to everyday consequences under mounting heat and growth pressures. He reports deeply on new laws, lawsuits and regulatory shifts, focusing on on-the-ground impacts. His coverage spans Colorado River cuts, Hoover Dam operations, extreme weather, heat and parks, septic system rules, workplace and public health risks, lithium and gold mines, protected landscapes, data centers, AI infrastructure and public funding. Previously he reported for metropolitan dailies, digital outlets and public media, including the Miami Herald, WUFT, The Daily Beast and Miami New Times, with work recognized by Hearst, ONA and the Society of Environmental Journalists.
Alejandra Borunda
Alejandra Borunda reports on how climate change affects human health for NPR. Her work treats global warming as a direct cause of physical and mental health risks. She covers extreme heat, including undercounted deaths, lost sleep and local efforts to track heat-related fatalities. She also reports on wildfire smoke, hurricanes, disease spread such as dengue fever, trauma, stress and unequal health impacts. Her stories examine how communities protect themselves and recover, as well as practical solutions involving climate-resilient crops, agriculture and diet. Before NPR, she wrote about climate science and environmental issues for National Geographic, including glacier retreat, shade and heat inequity, and shrinking ice-fishing seasons. A former climate scientist, she combines field reporting with scientific data to connect atmospheric research to everyday risks, choices and people’s lived experiences.
Alex Lubben
Alex Lubben is an environment reporter at The Times-Picayune/The Advocate who connects climate risk to policy, industry and community change. He covers Gulf warming, flood protection, coastal restoration, wetlands litigation, industrial projects such as SpaceX’s possible expansion, invasive species and local ecosystems. His reporting tracks how law, politics and corporate decisions shape levees, drainage, marshes and long-term resilience. He also examines climate relocation, housing and labor, showing how hurricanes, floods and wildfires displace vulnerable communities and expose gaps in government systems. He works on a small environment team and brings an investigative background to document work, data analysis, legal and policy research, and field reporting. His work has appeared in VICE News, The Center for Public Integrity, The Nation, Jewish Currents and NBC News.
Alex Wigglesworth
Alex Wigglesworth reports on how climate, land use and public policy shape California communities. She covers the Inland Empire and Mojave Desert for the Los Angeles Times and is part of its environment team. Her beat includes wildfires, megadrought, extreme weather, desert development, conservation, wildlife, industrial hazards, aging infrastructure and regulatory enforcement. She has covered Western Joshua trees, desert tortoises, beaver-led restoration, toxic lead pipes, air-quality concerns after industrial fires and the effects of nuclear war on food systems. Earlier, she was a general assignment reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com. She combines breaking news with detailed reporting grounded in scientific studies, modeling and expert interviews. Her work connects fires, drought and other hazards to climate change, while examining how agencies, companies and land-use decisions affect people and ecosystems.