CPS Energy is hiring meteorologists

SAN ANTONIO – CPS Energy is about to hire its first weather forecaster after a Defenders investigation found the public utility used a college student to provide forecasts ahead of last year’s deadly winter storm.

A spokeswoman for the utility confirmed this week that the position will be full-time. She did not release any further details about the hiring.

Last year, CPS Energy officials confirmed to KSAT that they source their meteorology services from a Minnesota-based subscription weather service and local contractor.

The contractor was referred to as both meteorologist data intern and meteorologist data analyst and earned no more than $716 in a single week for the period October 2019 to the end of January 2021.

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CPS officials previously declined to say how many hours the forecaster had worked in a given pay period after his employer, a third-party company, objected to the release of that information.

The decision to use a local contractor to do the forecasting was in contrast to many other large Texas utilities, the Defenders investigation found.

REFER TO KSAT.COM

CPS Energy uses a college student for weather forecasting. That’s not how other big Texas utilities work.

After spending hundreds of thousands on the weather platform, CPS Energy hired a student to do the forecasting