Nick Wiltgen, a senior digital meteorologist at The Weather Channel, was killed in a car crash inside an Atlanta mall parking garage on Sunday evening.
He was 39 years old.
According to the police report, Wiltgen drove his Volkswagen convertible “at a high rate of speed” through the wall of this garage, passing away at 5:30 p.m. of cranial trauma.
Tami Sedivy-Schroder of the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office says that “evidence gathered in the investigation indicated it was a suicide.”
Wiltgen became a part of The Weather Channel team as a radio forecaster in 2001 after graduating from the University of Nebraska.
Fellow meteorologist and Weather Channel colleague Jim Cantore mourned Wiltgen’s passing on Twitter last night.
“We lost part of our TWC family,” Cantore wrote, referring to Wiltgen as “a wonderful man and one of the best meteorologists I’ve ever known.”
Al Roker of The Today Show also chimed in via Twitter with a message of shock and grief, writing:
“Thoughts and prayers to Nick Wiltgen’s family. Such a part of @weatherchannel His smile, expertise and camaraderie will be missed.”
In his final professional act, Wiltgen helped write a roundup of snowstorm news published Sunday morning.
Cameron Clayton, the president of product and technology at The Weather Company, said in a statement that Wiltgen was a “treasured member” of the channel’s staff.
We send our condolences to his friends, family members and loved ones.
