Joseph Thomas Furey Jr. aka Joe, or @StormFurey on Twitter, joined News 8 in October 2017.
Furey grew up in Norwalk, Connecticut where he attended Central Catholic High School and worked most of his high school/early college years at Stew Leonard’s in Norwalk.
Furey is a graduate of Villanova University and also did a Graduate studies in Meteorology at Western Connecticut State University. He then moved to become a Graduate Assistant/Teacher and eventually Assistant Director of the Western Connecticut State University Weather Center in Danbury under Dr. Mel Goldstein.
Furey then moved on to becoming the Director of The New England Weather Service in Hartford doing daily weather forecasting to such clients as Northeast Utilities.
As for TV, Furey started at NEWS12 Connecticut while doing numerous radio stations like KC101, WAVZ and WICC. He then moved on to Hartford.
Furey has four amazing daughters, a wonderful wife and his only boy JAKE, an 85 pound Golden/Husky Mix.
Furey played competitive baseball all the way to age 50!! While he’s a big Yankee fan, his wife loves the Red Sox!
As for Furey’s hobby, it’s weather! One of his favorite weather stories is when Dr. Mel put him in charge of setting-up their big-brand new weather data recording station on the roof above the weather office at WCSU. A few weeks later Hurricane Gloria showed up. They were all excited when the anemometer registered an 83 mph wind gust and then the weather station flew past the window they were looking out of and smashed on the ground. Furey had forgotten to secure it to the roof! Ever see Dr. Mel mad??
Another one of Furey’s favorite stories is when he forecasted 1 inch of snow and we got 1 foot. The next day on-air a bucket of snow landed on his head while he was doing the weather live on TV.
Furey also loves going out to schools across Connecticut and talking about weather and other stuff.
Furey says it was probably his grandparents who inspired his love for weather. They came from Newfoundland, Canada and would sleep with a window open during the winter. They talked about icebergs that went by their house in St John’s, Newfoundland. They even had stories about times in winter when the snow was so deep and drifted so the only way out of their house was from a second floor window.
When it comes to favorites, Furey doesn’t know his favorite restaurant in New Haven yet but he is willing to go with anyone who wants to go and show him your favorites…he’ll pay!
He does know that his best dish is firestorm nachos.
While Furey’s favorite musician is Billy Joel, his best concert was at the Yale Bowl in 1978 for the Eagles/Little River Band and Heart. His second favorite concert was Chicago at the Garden State Music Fair in New Jersey.
When it comes to travel, Newfoundland, Canada, Iceland, Ireland, Alaska and Hawaii are next on his list of must places to visit. Over the last four years he has been to all lower 48 states with the wife and kids!
Lastly, Furey says he’s a pretty good baseball player and for his size, he can run/sprint pretty fast.
