Have you ever woken up minutes before your class, rushed to throw on the clothes nearest you, then walk outside and immediately regret not checking the weather first? NCSU sophomore in meteorology Katherine McCuiston has a solution.
McCuiston runs the twitter page NCSU Weather Girl under the twitter handle @NCSUwx.
Her twitter bio reads, “NC weather can get pretty crazy, but I’m here to help. Meteorology student at NCSU (with a love for fashion) telling you how to dress based on the weather.”
Her weather reports are brief, easy to understand and even provide followers with a little fashion advice, according to Shannon Conroy, a sophomore in biochemistry.
Tuesday, Sept 23, she tweeted, “Wear jeans, ankle boots, & cozy shirt. Sweater weather is near!”
According to McCuiston, seeing students dressed ill-preparedly for the weather, as well as hearing their complaints inspired her to start the account.
“I saw a girl walking around campus in November last year, she was wearing a tank top and jean shorts and Uggs and gloves and I was like, ‘what are you doing?’” said McCuiston. “All you hear people say is ‘oh my gosh it’s so cold!’ I thought I could fix that or at least attempt to try it.”
Twitter’s popularity, especially with college students, attracted McCuiston to create NCSU Weather Girl.
“The hardest part about having the website is having to shorten the posts. Every week I’m missing one or two characters because of the limit and I have to edit words to fit as much as I can,” McCuiston said.
Conroy said she stops scrolling down her Twitter timeline whenever she sees a tweet from @NCSUwx.
“When I looked at it today, she said something about cold weather, so I grabbed a jacket,” said Conroy.
According to McCuiston, she’s doing NCSU students a favor by tweeting brief weather updates.
“My goal in life is to make the world a more fabulous place,” said McCuiston. “I’m here to help them out.”
According to McCuiston, both fashion and weather have been interests of hers from a very young age. McCuiston recalls shopping with her mother and trying on her high heels as a child, but also being fascinated by math and science.
“When I was in fifth grade or so, I could start naming all the Chanel shows and what seasons they were,” said McCuiston.
Though McCuiston is pursuing a career in meteorology, she still considers fashion a love of hers that will always be present in her life.
“The fashion business is something that would be awesome to go into, but I think it becomes less fun, and you can still dress fashionably every day,” says McCuiston. “Meteorology is really the only science career where you’re not shoved behind a desk and looking at numbers all day.”
McCuiston is also involved with reporting for NCSU Weather and blogging for Pack Fashion, the College of Textiles’ fashion blog.
“They are of course geared towards meteorology,” said McCuiston about her Pack Fashion posts. “The next one coming up is about how to look fabulous even when it’s raining.”
According to McCuiston, there is one essential article of clothing that is a must- have for fall.
“A nice peacoat,” McCuiston said. “And the big color that I think is very in right now is pink; anything pink. I’m not usually a pink kind of person at all, but I see it done and it looks pretty cool.”
