Meteorologist Jacob Montesano started at TMJ4 News in April 2026. Originally from the Chicagoland area, Jacob is very excited to be working close to home while covering all the types of weather that he grew up with.
Before working in Milwaukee, Jacob spent 3 years working in Madison, WI at News 3 Now (WISC), and 2 years working in Rapid City, South Dakota at KOTA Territory News. During his time in Rapid City, Jacob covered hailstorms, droughts, and winter storms, including a 4-day blizzard that dropped nearly 5 FEET of snow in parts of the Black Hills. Jacob’s coverage of this blizzard in 2022 won him an Eric Sevareid Award for Best Weathercast for Small Market Television. Tornadoes in Western South Dakota are rare, so when Jacob arrived in Madison, he was introduced to wall-to-wall tornado coverage on several different occasions, sometimes lasting as long as 3 hours! While working in Madison, Jacob was part of the certified most accurate forecast team for the Madison area all 3 years he was there.
Jacob graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology and a Minor in Journalism from Northern Illinois University. His passion for meteorology initially stemmed from a childhood fear of thunderstorms after a microburst caused damage across his neighborhood. From there, he would constantly watch the weather channel for fun and track the storms himself, despite not having much knowledge on the subject at the time. Even as a child, family and friends would ask him what the weather was going to be like on any given day!
Beyond the weather, Jacob spends his free time walking his dog, Summer, and playing golf. He greatly enjoys TV shows, video games, and most importantly, sports. He loves watching football, baseball, March Madness basketball, but no other sport is quite as important to him as NASCAR, with every NASCAR Raceday becoming the number one thing on his mind for the day.
Despite all of his interests, the number one thing for Jacob is and always will be his family.
