R.I.P.: Weather Channel Meterologist Nicholas Wiltgen

Nicholas Wiltgen

1/26/16 3PM Update: The Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office, has ruled Wiltgen's death a suicide.

Earlier Posting...

A longtime meteorologist with The Weather Channel died Sunday after crashing a Volkswagen into a parking garage at Midtown’s Colony Square Mall, the the Atlanta-based network said Monday.

The victim, identified by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office as 39-year-old Nicholas Wiltgen of Atlanta, was a senior digital meteorologist, said Cameron Clayton, president of product and technology at The Weather Channel.

Clayton emailed a statement to employees:

It is with a heavy heart that we have to share some very sad news - we have lost a treasured member of The Weather Channel family. Nick Wiltgen, senior digital meteorologist and integral member of our content team, died last night in a car accident. 

Nick was part of The Weather Channel family for more than 15 years. He joined Weather as a senior radio broadcast meteorologist in October 2001, where he stayed for almost 11 years, delivering on-air forecasts for our radio affiliates. He then moved to the digital side in May 2012, producing and delivering a wide range of weather- and nature-related content for our digital platforms. He was promoted to senior digital meteorologist in December 2014, where he led and supervised the digital met team. He was also a familiar face on air, appearing on The Weather Channel from time to time to discuss a story featured in a digital package. 

At The Weather Channel, there are a lot of people who love weather. And Nick was certainly one of those, but Nick really loved this job because he cared about people. No one took the mission of keeping people safe from big storms more to heart than Nick. At all hours of the night and day, he would track weather in as many as eight languages. He would work around the clock to make sure we had the latest and most accurate updates to every event. And he would fight tooth and nail to make sure we did everything we could to explain the dangers of bad weather to our viewers. 

Millions read his work every week. And were better for it. He was the beating heart of our digital weather team. And he will be deeply missed. 

Nick was not only a dedicated, passionate member of our family, his Casey Kasem long-distance dedications, his love for ‘90s pop music and encyclopedic knowledge of Nebraska – and Japan – always made the digital team laugh. He never would admit it, but we knew he spent much of his free time learning languages. He could translate international weather bulletins without Google Translate. In short, he loved his job and made us better.  

Please keep Nick’s family in your thoughts and prayers. 

—Cameron Clayton, President of Product and Technology, Neil Katz, Editor in Chief, and Patty Cox, Managing Editor