Ben Cathey

You can catch Ben Cathey on the weekday evening news at 5, 6, 10, and 11 p.m. If you see him walking his dog Bolt around Knoxville, come say ‘hi!’

Ben is a four time recipient of an Emmy Award. In 2020 he was named “Best Weather Anchor” in the state of Tennessee by the Associated Press. He also carries the Certified Broadcast Meteorologist seal by the AMS, and the National Weather Association seal – the two highest certifications in the field.

When he’s not forecasting the challenging weather for Tennesseans and Kentuckians, Ben’s passion is personalizing science and climate reporting. That often takes him into the mountains he grew up next to as a child.

On to the fun stuff: Ben loves to cook, travel, read, and hike. From comfort food, to a managers’ special, you’ll find it coming out of Ben’s kitchen.

There’s a lot of great hiking around East Tennessee (LeConte, Gregory Bald, Big South Fork) but Ben’s also gotten blisters on glaciers in the Icelandic Highlands, and scrambling over cliffs in Tasmania. There’s a tall pile of books in his house that needs to be read; usually he’s reading on the back porch with his coffee.

One question meteorologists always get: “How do you get into weather?” For Ben it happened around the third grade, when Hurricane Fran hit his hometown off of I-40 in North Carolina. He even went as a meteorologist to career day in elementary school.

Fast forward a few years – still a long time ago – to when Ben studied meteorology and broadcast journalism at the University of Miami. Go Canes! Ben graduated with honors and was part of two honors programs. While he got to meet a lot of people, and interviewed the Dalai Lama and President Clinton, there was plenty of time spent outside in the Everglades. He saved baby ducks from a storm drain, using pipe cleaners and a colander.

All of Ben’s family still lives nearby. From Etowah to Alcoa, generations of Catheys lived and worked around here. Ben’s grandfather was a UT grad and worked for Alcoa for decades. On his mom’s side, everyone’s within a 2.5 hour drive of downtown Knoxville. Ben loves cheering on the Big Orange and exploring all the new things sprouting up around town.