Wayne Neely is a noted international speaker, best-selling author, lecturer on hurricanes, educator, and meteorologist. Traveling extensively throughout the region and the world, Wayne addresses critical issues affecting all aspects of hurricanes, especially Bahamian Hurricanes, one of his central areas of expertise. The main themes of his books are always on hurricanes in general and the impact of hurricanes on all aspects of humanity’s ever-expanding society. He’s a meteorologist in Nassau, Bahamas, and has been there for over 32 years. He has a great passion for writing and does it in his spare time when he is not working at his primary job as a Weather Forecaster at the Department of Meteorology.

    Wayne Neely is a certified Meteorologist working at the Department of Meteorology in Nassau, Bahamas-prior to that; he majored in Geography, History, and Environmental Science at the University of The Bahamas (UB) in Nassau. He then attended the Caribbean Meteorological Institute in Barbados, where he majored and specialized in weather forecasting and earned his Forecaster’s Degree (Class II). His love for hurricanes and the weather came about while growing up on the island of Andros, where he regularly listened to his parents, grandparents, and other older residents within the community talking about a major hurricane that occurred in 1929 and devastated The Bahamas. That piqued his interest in hurricanes, and he started writing his first book,’ The Great Bahamas Hurricane of 1929.’ He has written 14 best-selling books on hurricanes and is used as textbooks in many universities and colleges around the region and worldwide (as far away as Japan, the USA, Canada, The Caribbean, China, Pakistan, and Australia). In addition, he held two major exhibitions on all the major hurricanes to affect The Bahamas at the East Hill Post Office in Nassau, Bahamas. These exhibitions were attended by most of the government and private school students throughout Nassau and the Family Islands. Many went on field trips to the East Hill Post Office to view these exhibitions.

    Over the years, Wayne has written or contributed to several articles on hurricanes and other severe weather events for some of the major local and international newspapers and magazines, including National Geographic, Weather-Wise Magazine, Weather Brains, Hurricane-City, The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, People, Huffingpost, The Washington Post, The Nassau Guardian, The Tribune, and the American Meteorological Society. He regularly speaks to schools, colleges, and universities worldwide. He speaks to the environmental sciences classes at the University of The Bahamas every semester. He has talked to Peking and Nanjing Universities in China about climate change and hurricanes impacting this region and worldwide on noted hurricanes. He regularly speaks to Colorado State University, MIT, Penn State University, University of Miami, Florida International University, and other USA-based universities about hurricanes and climate change.   

The National Hurricane Center uses his books, research materials, and weather information for research purposes, for use in their computer models to predict past, present, and future hurricanes, study the various tracks on hurricanes impacting the North Atlantic region and have used by books to help them document these past hurricanes activities impacting the region and store them in the hurricane database (often called HURDAT for short) for future references. He frequently does radio and television interviews locally and abroad about the history and impact of Bahamian, American, and Caribbean hurricanes and hurricanes in general. He has been a hurricane advisor for both “Jeopardy” and “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” on several occasions. His book The Great Okeechobee Hurricane was featured in National Geographic and several US Newspapers when it was released. Locally, he speaks to many schools, University of the Bahamas, and private organizations like the Rotary Club about climate change, hurricanes, and their impact on The Bahamas, the region, and worldwide. He contributed to and was featured in the very popular PBS/NOVA Documentaries called 1) “Killer Hurricanes,” 2) Hurricane Dorian, and 3) MyRadar-Climate Series,…and others…