What's next for Samantha Augeri after leaving News 12?

As a TV meteorologist, Samantha Augeri — "Sam" to longtime News 12 viewers — is what you might call a weekend specialist. She specialized in holidays too: Christmas, New Year's and Thanksgiving, in particular. Over the past 15 years, the last six for News 12 Long Island, Augeri could be found in front of a weather monitor and TV camera during almost all of them.

You don't need a calendar to realize that's a lot of time away from home and family. Augeri, 42, the mother of three young boys, certainly didn't.

In a recent phone interview she said, "My contract was up this month, and this was my dream job. I thought I'd stay here and retire here. But I have three boys — twins who are 8 and the little guy who is 3. I work the night hours, then see them in the morning and it's off to school — that's it! It's been very difficult missing out on everything [and] I'm not a present mother."

Last month, the dream job came to an end. In a Facebook post announcing her resignation, Augeri wrote, "My sweet boys are growing at rocket speed, and now it’s time for me to spend more evenings with them — family dinners, bedtime hugs, and the little moments that matter most." She added, "This isn’t goodbye, just the start of a new chapter. I can’t wait to share my love of weather and science with you in a different way."

In a very different way: Augeri, who lives in Rockville Centre, said she's returning to college to earn a master's degree in earth sciences at SUNY Empire State in Selden. She plans to start teaching high school earth sciences by next fall. In addition, she launched her own company Monday, "Sam's Weather School," an educational venture in which she travels to various elementary schools "to do weather lessons and explain how we forecast, along with weather experiments — all hands-on." Augeri juggled a version of this kind of outreach while working at News 12.

Her departure is both consequential and unusual. TV meteorologists typically don't go back to school — hardly ever to high school. Augeri grew up in Malverne, then moved to Locust Valley, where she went to Hicksville's Holy Trinity High School. She graduated from the University of Scranton, then got another degree in broadcast meteorology from the University at Albany. After a couple of years at a Binghamton station, she joined News 12, then jumped to WNYW/5. She returned to News 12 in 2019.

Augeri was also part of an elite crew at News 12. Craig Allen, the dean of LI meteorologists who's reported on the weather for over 40 years (including frequent appearances on News 12), said, "All the people who work there have important jobs, no doubt, but weather is the most important driver to bring viewers to the station. Weather becomes the top story almost no matter what else is going on."

Augeri, he said, was a core part of the team led by Rich Hoffman and that includes Alex Calamia, Julian Seawright and Addison Green. "There's no denying Sam was really good at what she did," Allen said. "She was levelheaded — never too excited, never dull, but just told it like it was. She was a meteorologist."

Augeri said her departure is amicable ("I loved News 12") but also necessary (those three little guys).

"I'll miss putting my forecasts together every day, and building my graphics, and telling that [weather] story to everyone," she said. "I still pay attention everyday but I do miss sharing. I still plan to share, but in a little bit different way."