Derek joined the First Alert Weather team on June 28 2021. Prior to joining the team, Derek was the weekday morning meteorologist at KMID ABC Big 2 News/Fox 24 News in Odessa, Texas from April 2019 to May 2021. During his time in West Texas, Derek experienced and forecasted a handful of severe weather and winter weather. While with KMID, Derek was also a storm chaser for their Storm Interceptor vehicle and chased multiple severe thunderstorms and winter storms in West Texas.
Before his time at KMID, Derek was a meteorologist for WeatherWorks in Hackettstown, New Jersey during the 2018-2019 winter season. During his time at WeatherWorks, Derek issued daily weather forecasts and weather alerts to many different clients across the east, northeast, and midwestern U.S.
Derek is a graduate from the University of South Alabama where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in meteorology and a minor in mathematics. He graduated in May of 2018.
Before attending school, Derek interned at the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida. Here he gained knowledge from experienced meteorologists and hurricane specialists. During his time with the National Weather Service, Derek collected weather data on frontal boundary passages through South Florida and shadowed the meteorologists. At the National Hurricane Center, he archived tropical cyclone information.
Growing up in South Florida, Derek experienced a lot of meteorological phenomena. From sea breeze thunderstorms, to low pressure systems, to tropical weather, and even the occasional squall line from a cold front. However, it was the tropical storms and hurricanes that significantly elevated his interest into meteorology. During the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, Florida was a hurricane landfall target. During that span, the state had received 6 direct landfalls. While growing up in South Florida, Derek experienced 2 of those hurricanes that were a direct hit to his home. Hurricane Katrina was the first direct hit as a category 1 with winds of 75 mph on August 25 2005. Hurricane Wilma was the second direct hit as a category 2 on October 24 2005. After experiencing 2 record breaking hurricane seasons back-to-back, Derek fell in love with tropical meteorology and developed a passion for it. A passion so strong that he enjoys chasing hurricanes. Since then, Derek has chased some of nature’s most incredible hurricanes, including Matthew, Florence, Irma, and Michael, just to name a few. Hurricane Michael was Derek’s first category 5 hurricane which was in broad daylight, and a storm that he will never forget. You can check out Derek’s playlist of hurricane chasing here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVFOwFGv5sR8t6F3vckB4HdRQKqxrgqNn. Derek also runs hurricaneconnect.com which is a website that is dedicated to the Atlantic Hurricane Season.
Derek also enjoys chasing severe weather including tornadoes during the spring season. He’s chased in the central U.S. during the spring of 2012, 2016, and 2017. It was May 16 2016 when Derek filmed his first tornado near Felt, Oklahoma. You can check out his severe weather footage here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1BA9EE73496A8C43
Aside from his life of weather and storm chasing, Derek enjoys going for long walks, swimming, playing video games, hanging out with friends, dining at restaurants, and of course, watching his Miami Dolphins.
You can catch Derek weekday mornings on News Channel 8 Monday-Friday from 5am-7am and from 12pm-12:30pm. Be sure to follow Derek on his social media pages at Meteorologist Derek Sibley on Facebook and @SibleyDerek on Twitter. You can also send Derek an email at dsibley@wkbt.com
