MOLINE – A 2000 Mendota High School graduate will be moving to a new position within the National Weather Service. Matt Friedlein will be the new Science and Operations Officer at the Quad Cities office, and will be responsible for training forecasters.
“I’m thrilled about it” Friedlein said, “it’s a position I have seen myself in over the years, and to be able to give back with forecasting for a long time, but know to train forecasters and to help with the efficiency of operations.”
The territory of the office includes Bureau and Putnam Counties.
Friedlein received his Bachelor’s Degree in Meteorology from Northern Illinois University in 2004. He was the Lead Forecaster for 11 years at NWS Chicago in Romeoville, IL, and prior to that he worked at NWS offices in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Paducah, Kentucky.
Over his nearly 20 year career, Friedlein has had the opportunity to study high impact weather events locally, including the hot and dry summer of 2012 (hottest in decades), the Nov 17, 2013 tornado outbreak (included the town of Washington being struck), the Winter of 2013-2014 (coldest and snowiest since the late 70s), the Rochelle/Fairdale EF4 tornado of April 9, 2015, the June 22, 2015 tornadoes (Woodhaven Lakes, Mendota, Coal City), and the Naperville-Woodridge nocturnal EF3 tornado of June 21, 2020.
