Derek Beasley
Derek Beasley joined the WJZ First Alert Weather Team in March 2022. He was promoted in March 2023 to become WJZ's first-ever Chief Meteorologist.
Originally from Rochester, New York, Derek also spent part of his childhood in Arkansas and Mississippi. He is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma School Of Meteorology and he obtained his B.S. degree in Meteorology in 2001. He also received a M.S. in Geosciences from Mississippi State University in 2004. Derek started his career in television as a freelance meteorologist during his second year of graduate school at WCBI-TV in Columbus, Mississippi.
After graduating from MSU, he got his first full-time job as weekend meteorologist at KHBS-KHOG in Northwest Arkansas. He then moved to Cincinnati in late 2005 to become morning and noon meteorologist at WLWT-TV in Cincinnati. Within a year of arriving in Cincinnati, he was promoted to chief meteorologist in January 2007 and served in that capacity until August 2009. Derek's passion for tropical weather led him to make a move to the Gulf Coast, where he became chief meteorologist at WPMI-TV in Mobile, Alabama through September 2015. During that time, he covered many storms including Hurricane Isaac, the super outbreak of tornadoes in April 2011 and a rare Gulf Coast winter storm in January 2014. The opportunity then presented itself to move to Southwest Florida in December 2015 where he became chief meteorologist at WFTX-TV in Cape Coral/Ft. Myers. It was there that he covered historic Hurricanes Irma, Matthew and Dorian. He also traveled to Wilmington, North Carolina to deliver live reports during Hurricane Florence's landfall in 2018.
Derek holds the Television Seal Of Approval from the National Weather Association and the Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) seal from the American Meteorological Society. Derek was one of the first 100 television meteorologists in the country to obtain the CBM seal. He is a self-proclaimed weather geek and has always been fascinated with nature and science. During his years in Oklahoma and the Deep South, he was an avid storm chaser and witnessed several historic storms including the May 3, 1999, F-5 Tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, and Hurricanes Isabel, Irene, Ivan, Irma, Katrina and Florence. In his spare time, Derek enjoys exploring nature, sampling local craft beer and working on vintage European cars. He is an avid Oklahoma Sooners fan and has been an Orioles fan for many years. He also enjoys spending quality time with his wife Lauren, who is a Montgomery County native, and his son Xaiden.
