KSTU’s Brek Bolton ‘Signs’ His Weather Forecasts

The hearing-impaired community in Salt Lake City can feel included in the weather forecast thanks to Brek Bolton, weekend meteorologist at KSTU, Scripps’ Fox affiliate there.

Bolton has been providing a sign language forecast on Facebook for the past five years. “There was a need,” he says.

Bolton says closed captioning is good, “but it is not 100%  accurate especially when there is severe weather.”

(Here’s an example of one of Bolton’s sign language forecasts from Facebook.)

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1209790979040361

Before Bolton became a meteorologist, he learned sign language in college, and was a sign language interpreter for about five years in Salt Lake City.

He says Facebook is the right platform for his sign language forecasts because he can “still serve the need and have it connected with the TV stations’ websites or their social media accounts. so social media made it more feasible to reach a broader audience.”

Darcy Stapleford, KSTU’s senior news promotions producer, who wrote and produced a promo about Bolton’s skills, says Bolton will usually do a Facebook Live between the station’s 5 and 9 p.m. newscasts.

As to promoting Bolton’s sign language forecasts, Stapleford says, “I thought it was a great way to promote our team, but also show that we take inclusion very seriously and we want to reach as many people as we can.”

So now, not only do the hearing-impaired know when and where to get Bolton’s weather forecast in sign language, everybody in the community knows that he does it.

Here’s a video of Bolton providing a station tour to students from the Utah State School for The Deaf.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10154476995000586

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