Trying to predict the future is one of his favorite challenges, but educating people about science is his passion. That’s what makes meteorologist Rob Eicher such an asset to the Spectrum News 13 Weather Experts.

Rob originally started at News 13 on the Monday after Hurricane Charley hit in August 2004. Here, he met his wife and started his family. After five years away from Central Florida, Rob returned and rejoined the Spectrum News team as a fill-in meteorologist in September 2018.

Rob loves teaching about weather because as a child, he wanted to learn as much as he could about it. As a kid, thunderstorms scared him, so Rob wanted to know more about them. By understanding the storms, he alleviated his own anxiety.  

Now, Rob continues his own education as he works toward a doctorate in strategic communications at the University of Central Florida. Rob knows the power and physical impact of a hurricane or tropical storm as it makes landfall. That’s why he is studying weather messaging. Rob’s research is focusing on how best to convey the danger that these tropical systems pose to the public.

It's Rob’s fundamental belief in education that influences his impressive accomplishments outside of a TV studio. In 2005, Rob launched the broadcast meteorology program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where he also worked as an adjunct professor while at News 13. He is still amazed at how that program has grown and finds the number of former graduates now working as broadcast meteorologists to be truly gratifying. In 2018, Rob also returned to Embry-Riddle as an assistant professor of meteorology, where he was granted the 2019-2020 Outstanding Performance Award for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Department of Applied Aviation Sciences. 

Rob is both an American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association certified meteorologist. He is the former chair for the AMS Board on Best Practices as well as former chair for the AMS Board on Broadcast Meteorology. In fact, while at News 13, Rob was the first meteorologist in the Orlando market and only the fifth in the state to get AMS-certified (2005).

Rob’s mantra is "work smarter, not harder." When he's not in the weather studio or school, you can find him spending time with his wife, two children, and cats. He also enjoys the abundance of natural parks around the area.