Media

‘One of the all-time greats in Boston TV history’: How WBZ’s Terry Eliasen is remembering Mish Michaels

“I can’t stop thinking about how blessed we were in the meteorological community that she chose us.”

Mish Michaels in the WBZ-TV studio in 2005. Janet Knott/Globe Staff

WBZ meteorologist Terry Eliasen penned a moving tribute on Wednesday remembering his former colleague Mish Michaels, a longtime broadcast meteorologist in Boston who died earlier this week.

“It seems anything I say about Mish Michaels just isn’t enough,” Eliasen wrote.

Michaels’ career included stints at MUR-TV in Manchester, N.H., WHDH-TV and WBZ-TV in Boston, and the Weather Channel, according to The Boston Globe

Her family released a statement announcing her passing on Wednesday but did not disclose her cause of death. She was 53 years old. 

Eliasen, an executive weather producer at WBZ, worked with Michaels for nearly 15 years and said in his remembrance that her death, for the first time in his 20 years at WBZ, left him not knowing what to write. He went on to pay tribute to Michaels, recounting her impact, determination, and their friendship. 

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“In a field dominated by men for decades, Mish was determined to pave the way for women meteorologists, not just here in Boston, but throughout the country,” Eliasen wrote. “She was the most prepared, diligent, and dedicated meteorologist that I have ever worked with. She elevated and inspired those around her. Mish could have done anything she wanted.”

He went on to share how Michaels first became fascinated by the weather: when a tornado tore through her apartment complex when she was in kindergarten. 

Michaels might have ended up a famous artist, author, or equestrian (all some of her hobbies) had that storm not happened, wrote Eliasen.

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“I can’t stop thinking about how blessed we were in the meteorological community that she chose us,” Eliasen said. “She went on to be, in my mind, one of the all-time greats in Boston TV history and perhaps the most influential woman of her day in broadcast science.”

The WBZ meteorologist said he is just one of the “countless people” who were lucky to have Michaels in their life and “call her her a friend.”

“The stories of the people she touched along her journey and the lives she enriched could fill thousands of pages,” he wrote.

Read Eliasen’s full piece on WBZ’s website.

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