Jill Szwed is a weekend-morning meteorologist at WTAE-TV, Pittsburgh’s Action News 4. She grew up in Butler, studied meteorology at Saint Louis University, and moved back to Pittsburgh in February 2024 after stints in West Virginia, Kentucky and upstate New York. She’s in her mid-30s. Her marriage, family life, salary and net worth are not public. This page separates what is documented from what other sites guess.
Quick timeline
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2010 | Graduates from Saint Joseph High School, Natrona Heights |
| 2016 | Returns to her high school as guest speaker at its awards banquet |
| Before Albany | Morning forecaster and traffic anchor at WDTV (West Virginia), then afternoon and weekend-evening meteorologist at WLEX-TV (Kentucky) |
| About 3.5 years up to Jan. 2024 | Weekday morning meteorologist at WTEN/WXXA, Albany, N.Y. Her last day there was Jan. 26, 2024 |
| Week of Feb. 5, 2024 | Starts at WTAE-TV as a weekend-morning meteorologist |
| Summer 2026 | Covers a tornado that tracks near her family’s community |
| Sept. 2026 | Profiled by the Butler Eagle; severe storms hit southwestern Pennsylvania |
Her college graduation year (likely 2014) is an estimate and is not shown above because no major outlet has stated it.
How old is Jill Szwed?
She’s in her mid-30s, most likely 34 or 35. Her exact birthday isn’t confirmed by a reliable outlet. Some low-quality sites list September 24, 1991, but that date is unverified. It does fit the record: TribLive reported that she graduated from Saint Joseph High School in 2010, which points to a 1991 or 1992 birth year. Anyone who gives you an exact age with total confidence is repeating the same unsourced date.
Hometown and early life
Szwed grew up in Butler Township, north of Pittsburgh. Her interest in weather started early. In sixth grade at Butler Catholic School, she was assigned a single day of weather data and chose to keep a journal for a whole month instead. Some of her science projects continued into high school.
She went on to Saint Joseph High School in Natrona Heights. The big February snow of 2010 hit during her senior year, and she says it pushed her further toward meteorology. The school has kept in touch with her. It posted about her return to Pittsburgh, and it notes that she came back in 2016 as guest speaker at its awards banquet.
As a kid she also danced at the SheLor School of Dance, where ballet was her favorite. She links it to her job: solo performances taught her precision and calm under pressure, and she says standing in front of studio lights feels similar. She compares it to athletes visualizing before a game.
In her WTEN bio she said snowstorms, flooding and the 1998 tornado over Mt. Washington sparked her interest in weather in middle school.
Education
Szwed has a bachelor of science in meteorology with a communications minor from Saint Louis University in Missouri. She told the Butler Eagle that the school’s small size appealed to her after growing up in Butler. She is a member of the American Meteorological Society.
She also had mentors early on, interning with Jeff Verszyla at KDKA-TV and Stephen Cropper at WPXI-TV, two of Pittsburgh’s best-known forecasters.
Career path
| Station | Where | Role |
|---|---|---|
| WDTV | Clarksburg, West Virginia | Morning forecaster and traffic anchor |
| WLEX-TV | Lexington, Kentucky | Afternoon and weekend-evening meteorologist (about four years, per aggregators) |
| WTEN / WXXA | Albany, New York | Weekday morning meteorologist for roughly 3.5 years, until Jan. 26, 2024 |
| WTAE-TV | Pittsburgh | Weekend mornings and fill-in; started the week of Feb. 5, 2024 |
The WTAE job came a couple of months after weekend-morning meteorologist Kasey Reigner left, which had put the weather team back at five forecasters. When she announced the move on Instagram, Szwed described her new colleagues as a “rock star weather team” and said it was humbling to serve the community she grew up in.
Along the way she broadcast from the Kentucky Derby while in Lexington, and she says she cheers for the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates. The Butler Eagle reports that she has worked as a meteorologist for more than 10 years.
A day at WTAE
The Butler Eagle spent a morning at WTAE’s Wilkinsburg newsroom in early September 2026. A few details from that visit are rarely covered elsewhere.
She builds her own forecast. Viewers sometimes assume there’s a script, but she says there isn’t. She advances the graphics with a clicker and works from her own prep. Beyond forecasting and delivering it, she also promotes it on social media and the station’s website, which she calls being a “one-stop shop.”
She starts hours early. Her desk sits right behind the set with several monitors. Radar is her most important tool, but she also tracks air pressure, dew point and wind direction. She says the goal is to read the whole column of air, not just conditions at ground level.
She’s on the severe weather call list. She says she’s the first person the station phones when dangerous weather looks possible, which has put her outdoors in snowstorms, thunderstorms and flood watches.
Colleagues have noticed. After the severe storms that hit southwestern Pennsylvania in early September 2026, WTAE assistant news director Tanner Flowers said she helped the newsroom quickly identify the hardest-hit areas. Anchor Shannon Perrine praised both her scientific skill and her care for people, and executive producer Gabby Barrett said the cheerful on-air Jill is the same person in the newsroom.
The most personal moment came earlier in summer 2026. A tornado tracked through Portersville, and her family’s community was along the path. On air she had to keep her emotions in check while wanting to step away and call home. She describes balancing her love of watching storms develop on radar with the knowledge that real neighbors were in their way.
Is Jill Szwed married? Husband and children
There is no credible public information about a husband, marriage or children. In the reporting we reviewed, Szwed talks about her job, her hometown, her dance background and her sports teams, but not a spouse or kids. Even aggregator pages that stuff their headings with “husband” and “children” mostly say in the body that her marital status isn’t public.
We’re not filling that gap with guesses. If she shares it someday, this section will be the first to change.
Family
What’s on the record is small and we’re keeping it that way. Her parents live in Butler County, according to TribLive and the Butler Eagle. At the time of her hire, TribLive noted that she has a sister and grandparents in the region. Some sites name her sister or give her age, but we couldn’t find a reliable source, so we left that out.
Salary and net worth: what we can’t confirm
Neither number has been disclosed, and that’s the key fact. Local TV stations don’t publish what their on-air staff earn, and Szwed hasn’t said.
What exists online is a handful of figures from content sites that don’t explain their methods. Net worth claims range from about $1 million to $8 million, and salary claims from about $40,000 to $120,000. The ranges barely overlap, and no public home purchase, business or investment backs any of them. All of these are unverified estimates.
For realistic context, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay data for atmospheric scientists. That covers the profession, not Szwed, but it’s a better anchor than a random “net worth” widget.
Where is Jill Szwed now?
As of our last check on October 15, 2026, we found no report that she has left WTAE. The most recent detailed coverage is the Butler Eagle’s profile of September 15, 2026 (updated Sept. 18), which describes her as forecasting on weekend mornings and appearing on some other broadcasts during the week. She was on the noon show on Sept. 4, 2026. We could not find a newer report or an official WTAE staff page, so confirm her current schedule with the station.
To catch her forecast, watch Action News 4 on weekend mornings or check WTAE’s website for current show times. Other people share her name, so adding “WTAE” or “meteorologist” to your search helps.
FAQs
Is Jill Szwed leaving WTAE?
No credible report says so. She left WTEN in Albany for WTAE in early 2024 and was at WTAE as of September 2026.
Is she certified?
Her social profile lists the AMS’s Certified Broadcast Meteorologist seal. You can confirm it in the AMS directory.
Did she grow up in Pittsburgh?
In the Pittsburgh area. She’s from Butler Township, north of the city.
Does she have a Wikipedia page?
We didn’t find one. Many pages that look like wikis are scraped bio sites with no editing standards. The best sources are the Butler Eagle profile and TribLive’s hire announcement.
Why do sites disagree on her age and net worth?
They copy each other, and none of them has a verified source.
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Shahzad is the founder and lead writer at WorthRada. He writes about celebrity net worth, biographies, careers, income, and success stories, with a focus on providing clear, well-researched, and reliable information.
