PANAMA CITY— A celebrity hurricane chaser legend stopped through town on May 28, and it might not be who you think.
He doesn’t create quite the stir of the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore when he’s in town. But every hurricane season, millions of eyes are glued to the screen of one weather nerd turned social media influencer, Mike’s Weather Page.
Mike Boylan popped into the studios of 90.7 WKGC Public Media, the public radio station at Gulf Coast State College in Panama City, for an interview. Station management invited a reporter from the News Herald to sit in on the conversation.
Mike Boylan, founder of Mike’s Weather Page, sits in for an interview with 90.7 WKGC Public Media at Gulf Coast State College in Panama City, Florida, on May 28, 2025.
“I love Panama City Beach, it’s kind of my new home away from home,” Boylan said.
WKGC’s Karen Morris wanted a deep dive on the popular hurricane hunter’s background, and Boylan obliged.
“I’m a native Floridian, which is rare at my age, but we had a busy 2004 Hurricane Season, and I was going to school at the University of South Florida for marketing and taking a website class,” Boylan said. “And it just made sense, you know, to make a project of putting together spaghetti models.”
There was a hurricane barreling toward Tampa, and before Google it was a bit harder to find good information, Boylan said. So he put all the information in one place, on his website SpaghettiModels.com.
He says that originally the website was just for him, but over time it continued to grow, and when social media came around, it just blew up. As of May 28, 2025, he has 2.3 million followers on Facebook.
Boylan then got into the details of where he gets his information, talking about the different models and ensembles he uses.
Karen Morris of 90.7 WKGC Public Media interviews Mike Boylan, creator of Mike’s Weather Page, at Gulf Coast State College in Panama City, Florida, on May 28, 2025.
“You kind of recognize weather patterns, and that’s what I do with the tropics, you know, high pressures, low pressures, history,” Boylan said. “Even the best get it wrong. I think for me, it’s just putting all the possibilities out there.”
He built up quite a reputation in Panama City when he anticipated Hurricane Michael’s dire conditions in 2018. The storm went from a Category 3 to a Category 5 in just 24 hours.
“It was totally against the official forecast at the time, but I’m like, man, you know, if I lived in that area, I’d be really paying attention,” Boylan said. “I think it comes down to the way you message and having some consistency where people then end up (trusting you).”
Part of maintaining that trust, is not overexaggerating storm potential, Boylan said. There’s a new wave of weather personalities on social media who know running the most extreme forecasts will get them the most clicks. He has had to dial back some of his own messaging, being more careful with what he puts out there.
He told Morris that part of his struggle as someone who is nerdy about the weather is to not come off as excited about storms, because they do sometimes result in tragedy and struggle. While he believes he’s fair in his forecasting, he advises people to always go to the authorities on the subject.
Mike Boylan, founder of Mike’s Weather Page, sits in for an interview with 90.7 WKGC Public Media at Gulf Coast State College in Panama City, Florida, on May 28, 2025.
“Always go to your local meteorologist and (the) National Weather Service,” Boylan said. “And if you’re ever confused, I always tell everybody, have that local meteorologist you trust, they’re going to get you through it.”
Boylan also wants everyone to know that all storms are different. He told Morris that he had seen a Category 1 storm in Texas do just as much damage as a Category 4 storm in some other places.
“I think my scariest moment was storm chasing Hurricane Ian down in South Florida because it was a never-ending eye wall,” Boylan said.
He said the water started coming up, causing him some panic because there was no escape. It was nighttime and the road they were on had started to flood. There was water all the way to the tree line and he couldn’t see where they were.
“Locals told me they’ll never ride out a storm again,” Boylan said. “I tell people if you’re not prepared for 10 hours of an eye wall and feeling helpless, and you know, a lot of folks tell me they wish they would have evacuated.”
He talked about the shifting forecasts ahead of Hurricane Michael and how many local residents were completely unprepared. Boylan encouraged people to be weather aware and not to make assumptions.
“Hit that reset button every hurricane season because every storm is different,” Boylan said. “Just because this storm turned, the next one might not, you know. So we just have to always be ready.”
A Gulf Coast State College weather truck sits outside on May 28, 2025 in Panama City, Florida.
He chatted a little bit about his family, their time in town for Gulf Coast Jam and his daughters. Boylan said his wife isn’t a huge fan of the storm chasing, and will often be watching hospital dramas while he’s out in some crazy weather. While she’s not huge on that aspect, she has been helping out with the channel, Boylan said.
Boylan doesn’t have a ton of new plans for Mike’s Weather Page, although he said the new Starlink means he can do more remotely. He is excited to maybe plan trips to some other countries in the Caribbean that often get hit by these storms.
Since the interview, he’s been doing some gallivanting around Bay County. Boylan was live on Mike’s Weather Page the morning of May 29 chasing some bad thunderstorms in Mexico Beach. He also had Panhandle Helicopter giving his family a tour of Panama City Beach and rocked some balloon hats at Margaritaville.
The only thing certain ahead of what’s expected to be an active season, is that Mike will be there with us, probably not wearing the balloon hat.
This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Creator of popular Mike’s Weather Page makes landfall in Bay County