N.S. woman shares her passion for weather with weekly YouTube reports

Michelina Dibacco started her own YouTube channel – and delivers weather forecasts for Prescott News.

Michelina DiBacco has had a passion for weather since she was in Grade 7. But it was in high school that she gained her love for broadcast and presenting.

“When I was going to summer camps, I would write down the weather on a piece of paper and then show it to the camp counselors,” she says.

Her dream has always been consistent: to become a weather presenter. And that’s exactly what she’s been working towards, by creating her own YouTube channel and creating “Prescott News.”

DiBacco, who has been member of the Prescott Group in Halifax for the past 10 years, has been perfecting her craft with her weekly weather reports.

“In fall of 2021, I started doing the weather on the PA system, first at the old Prescott centre. And then with the green screen and then without the green screen on the virtual backdrop on the computer,” she says.

DiBacco has come a long way since joining the Prescott Group. The charity helps people with intellectual and developmental disabilities find friendship, community and success in Halifax.

The team say they couldn’t be prouder of her hard work and look for ways to teach her new skills to help open doors.

“We try to encourage Michelina to do as much learning and skill development as possible for her weather,” says Charlene Kuhn, Prescott Group’s community engagement and employment manager.

DiBacco presents her forecasts to the other members at Prescott once a week and posts her report to her YouTube channel every Monday.

“Any opportunity that she has, she’s either teaching our participants, her co-workers and friends and staff about the clouds and everything in the sky,” says Kuhn.

DiBacco gathers her information from Environment Canada and records herself over a background of her choice using the Canva software.

“If there is a warning then I will first talk about what the warning is and then I will get on with the seven-day forecast,” adds DiBacco.

She says she uses intro and outro music to make it sound more professional.

“The music goes, dada da dun da dooo and then I start talking and it shows the Prescott logo on the bottom corner just like on TV you see the CTV symbol,” DiBacco says.

DiBacco has a support worker that helps her piece it all together and teaches her skills as they work on the project.

“She has great support staff, Hannah, that does it with her, so they work on the effects and the digital side of things and editing, so that’s a whole other skill development that’s coming along with it,” says Kuhn.

Currently, Michelina’s YouTube channel has 17 subscribers, and she says the views range anywhere from four to 10. The first thing she does after she posts her weekly forecasts is check the views.

“It’s a good start. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of people watching it. I want to get more viewers to watch it, just like they do with TV, but it’s better than nothing. I have some way to be included,” says DiBacco.

Her dream is to grow her following on her YouTube channel and share Prescott News with the world.

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