Jared Leighton is a Senior Forensic Meteorologist with Haag, a Salas O’Brien Company. Based near Kansas City, Jared Leighton has over 17 years of experience in meteorology. He has spent the last decade as Senior Forecaster for NOAA National Weather Service in Kansas City, Missouri, and as a General Forecaster and Meteorological Intern prior to that position.

Mr. Leighton has extensive, comprehensive experience in NWS forecast operations across multiple geographic areas, including frequent supervision of severe and winter weather watch and warning operations. He regularly conducted storm surveys, both solo and as storm survey team lead, including multiple tornadoes in Kansas and Missouri, as well as the severe weather event on September 15, 2010, in which 7.75 inch hail occurred in Wichita, Kansas (the second largest certified hailstone recorded in the US). Mr. Leighton led and participated in several research teams, resulting in five peer-reviewed formal publications as well as presentations at local, regional, and national conferences. He also organized local storm spotter training in coordination with emergency management and led the Storm Ready community preparedness program.

Mr. Leighton earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of California Davis. He is an American Meteorological Society Certified Consulting Meteorologist (CCM #783).