Max Lagano living out childhood dream as TV weather reporter
“It’s really a lot of fun. I basically get to do what I’ve always been interested in for a living.”
Max Lagano
GREENWICH — Max Lagano learned to read by watching The Weather Channel — at least, that’s what his mother has always believed.
When Max, now 23, was just a toddler, the channel was frequently on in his house: “They would show the sevenday forecast and they would also read it out,” explained Judith Lagano, a Greenwich resident. “It’s the same words over and over again and it’s written and spoken. He used just sit and watch that.”
Then, she said, one day she and young Max were out and about, and he read a store name off one of the storefronts.
“It occurred to me ‘Oh, he knows how to read,” she said.
Judith Lagano knew she didn’t teach her son how to read. She eventually figured out that he learned it from watching the repetitive forecasts on The Weather Channel. And the reason he was always watching the Weather Channel is that he was endlessly fascinated by the weather.
Now Max Lagano has turned that passion into a career. In July, he was hired as a meteorologist with KPLC News in Lake Charles, La. The Greenwich High School alum was on staff mere months after graduating from the University of Miami in Florida. It’s a dream job, Max Lagano said, and one he’s basically been working for all his life.
“It’s really a lot of fun,” he said. “I basically get to do what I’ve always been
interested in for a living.”
Though he’s loved weather his whole life, it was Superstorm Sandy, which hit Connecticut in 2012, that really left a lasting impression on him, he said.
“That still is the biggest weather event I’ve ever experienced in my whole life,” he said. “That really got me interested in tropical cyclones and hurricanes.”
The middle child of
three, with a younger brother and older sister, Lagano said he also enjoys going boating and fishing on Long Island Sound.
“You need to know what the weather’s going to be and where the wind’s coming from,” he explained.
His father, Chris Lagano, said Max could always be counted on to find out whether the weather was right for boating or other outdoor activities.
“Any time we did anything outside, he was always the one the let us know what was going on,” Chris Lagano said.
Eventually, Max Lagano decided that he wanted to deal with weather for a living. He picked the University of Miami for its meteorology program, Chris Lagano said. While there, he did a stint as both on-air talent and production assistant for the CanesCast, the university’s weather show.
After graduating, he looked for professional meteorology work, and it was difficult at first: “He didn’t really have the experience most places wanted,” Chris Lagano said.
But he eventually applied for and got the KPLC job. Max Lagano said it’s been going well so far, and he believes his future is in the weather.
“I really could see myself doing anything that involved weather,” he said. “I really think I could see myself continuing on in a broadcast path.”
His parents said they’re proud of how far he’s come already.
“We were so excited,” Chris Lagano said. “He seems to really love it. He seems to really enjoy doing what he’s doing.”