Paul Douglas

Paul Douglas (aka Douglas Paul Kruhoeffer) is a nationally-respected meteorologist, with 32 years of broadcast television and 36 years of radio experience. In high school Kruhoeffer adopted a stage name, after being told his real name was too difficult for the station’s DJ’s to pronounce. Douglas graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Meteorology from the Pennsylvania State University in 1980. While a senior at Penn State University he broadcast weekend weather for WNEP-TV in Wilkes Barre/Scranton - where he was promoted to the weekday position in 1980. In 1982-1983 he worked at Satellite News Channel in Stamford, Connecticut, delivering 21 national weather shows daily. He was also tapped for appearances with Ted Koppel on ABC News Nightline. From 1983 to 1994 Douglas was employed by KARE-TV in Minneapolis. While there he began a daily weather column in the Star Tribune newspaper. He authored a book, “Prairie Skies, the Minnesota Weather Book”, and taught a broadcast meteorology class at the Saint Cloud State University in 1992-93. His most recent weather-related book, “Restless Skies, the Ultimate Weather Book”, was released nationwide by Barnes and Noble in late 2004, now coming out of its second printing (Sterling Publishing). He taught broadcast meteorology at St. Cloud State University in 1992.

In 1989 Douglas founded a software venture called EarthWatch Communications. Hundreds of television stations in the United States and 20 other countries licensed EarthWatch’s three-dimensional weather graphics technology. In addition to applications for television, Steven Spielberg employed the special 3-D effects in the movies Jurassic Park and Twister.

From 1994 to 1997 Douglas worked at WBBM-TV in Chicago, where he made occasional appearances on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather. Douglas received a Seal of Approval from the AMS, The American Meteorological Society. In 2005 he passed a rigorous exam to become Minnesota’s first CBM, or Certified Broadcast Meteorologist, recognized by the AMS in Boston. He served as Chief Meteorologist for WCCO-TV in the Twin Cities from 1997 to 2008. He makes monthly appearances on Public Television’s Almanac program where he discusses current weather trends and issues. He currently provides daily weather reports (print, video and web) for the Star Tribune, additional daily blogs for the St. Cloud Times, Conservation Minnesota, and “WeatherNation”.

In 1998 Douglas founded Digital Cyclone, Inc (DCI), which personalized the weather forecasting experience for consumers on the web, e-mail and cell phones. His goal: create personal weather channels for every consumer on a new generation of data-enabled cell phones. The service, Mobile My-Cast, is currently available on iTunes and Android platforms, enabling consumers to see location-based weather alerts and hourly weather reports and even see custom weather graphics, including Doppler radar, lightning and severe storm tracking, on cell phones, making the weather experience unique for every user. In January, 2007 Douglas sold DCI to Garmin, Inc, the leader in global navigation systems, for $45 million. There were over 100 local, Minnesota investors in Digital Cyclone.

Chairman, Co-Founder and President of the Media Logic Group LLC, a holding company comprised of multiple business units. Douglas and a team of 11 on-air meteorologists at Broadcast Weather are producing and disseminating daily weather reports for web sites, newspapers, cable channels, and TV broadcasters from HD studios. In the summer of 2011 a new, national weather channel, “WeatherNation” was launched, with offices and studios in Denver and Minneapolis. A separate subsidiary, Ham Weather, provides custom data and graphics services to nearly 1,000 web sites, nationwide. Alerts Broadcaster is an alerting service for weather-sensitive companies as diverse as Wells Fargo, Sprint and Home Depot. Polaris, among others cutting-edge companies, is tapping Ham Weather’s a new generation of location-specific apps, tying in with social media to enhance consumer engagement and satisfaction.

Douglas is co-founder of Singular Logic, a separate technology and patent-holding company, attempting to reinvent advertising by allowing consumers to choose the categories of ads they have to watch on their PC’s, TV sets, cable systems and mobile.

Another company, Smart Energy, is focused on fine-tuning forecasts for wind farms, utilities and energy traders, with optimization algorithms extending into the HVAC and irrigation markets. Teaming with La Cross Technology, another business subsidiary, Data Direct, launched in 2012, providing data and support for a new generation of consumer and corporate weather sensors – deployed to maximize efficiencies, save money and personalize alerting services.

Born in 1958, Douglas became interested in weather and public service at a young age. After suffering through a devastating tropical storm (Agnes) in 1972, which flooded much of his hometown of Lancaster, PA, he developed a network of flood gauges, which were monitored by ham radio operators during flash flood situations. At the age of 16 he became Weather Officer for Lancaster Country Civil Defense. An Eagle Scout, Douglas still teaches weather and astronomy merit badge to fellow scouts. He’s actively involved with the Northern Star Council of the Boy Scouts, as well as the Smartkey Corporation, which has created a revolutionary device for vehicles that may someday make DUI’s a thing of the past.

He is the spokesperson and public face of SAVE, Suicide Awareness, Voices of Education, a non-profit company based in Bloomington, which counsels people suffering from depression, educates the public about warning signs, and helps to identify at-risk people nationwide.

Douglas continues to volunteer his time for school talks, charitable fund-raisers and speaking engagements on such topics as his entrepreneurial career, tornado chasing and climate change. He serves on the Climate Science Rapid Response Team (CSRRT), providing meteorological input along with 130+ climate scientists delivering highly accurate science information to media and government representatives.

Today Douglas appears on the air, locally, and nationwide via WeatherNation. He is Chief Meteorologist for the Star Tribune, where he files daily print columns. He also writes a daily blog focused on weather and climate for the Star Tribune, Conservation Minnesota, the St. Cloud Times newspaper and WeatherNation.

His wife of 28 years, Laurie, is a professional architect. They have two boys: Walt graduated from Penn State and is a budding musician when he’s not working as a producer at Broadcast Weather; Brett graduates from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2012, and will fly fixed wing jets or helicopters for the Navy. Douglas and his wife live in the Excelsior, Minnesota area; his offices nearby, in Shorewood.