James L. Franklin is a weather forecaster with the National Hurricane Center

National Hurricane Center

The National Hurricane Center , located at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, is the division of the National Weather Service responsible for tracking and predicting weather systems within the tropics between the Prime Meridian and the 140th meridian west poleward to the 30th...

 and its current branch chief. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

 and of Ransom Everglades School in 1976 in Miami, where he was a co-valedictorian

Valedictorian

Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...

.

Franklin likes to add his wit to many of his forecasts, much like his counterpart Dr. Lixion Avila and in contrast with the often dry commentary of other forecasters. For example:

• In forecasting 2002 Atlantic hurricane season
  2002 Atlantic hurricane season
  The 2002 Atlantic hurricane season was an average Atlantic hurricane season, officially starting on June 1, 2002 and ending on November 30, dates which conventionally limit the period of each year when tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean tend to form...
  
  's Hurricane Kyle
  Hurricane Kyle (2002)
  Hurricane Kyle was the fourth longest-lived Atlantic tropical or subtropical cyclone on record. The eleventh named storm and third hurricane of the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season, Kyle developed as a subtropical cyclone on September 20 to the east-southeast of Bermuda. Looping westward, it...
  
  , Franklin noted "for fun, [a] long-range run of the GFS [model
  Tropical cyclone prediction model
  A tropical cyclone forecast model is a computer program that uses meteorological data to forecast aspects of the future state of tropical cyclones. There are three types of models: statistical, dynamical, or combined statistical-dynamic...
  
  ] has Kyle — its decayed remnants actually — reaching south Florida
  Florida
  Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
  
   just in time for the kickoff of the Miami
  University of Miami
  The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
  
  /Florida State
  Florida State University
  The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
  
   game
  College football
  College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
  
  , one week from tomorrow." Later, as the storm deteriorated, Franklin started his forecast discussion with the line from the Bee Gees
  Bee Gees
  The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
  
  ' song "OH...OH...OH...OH...STAYIN ALIVE
  Stayin' Alive
  "Stayin' Alive" is a song by the pop group Bee Gees from the Saturday Night Fever motion picture soundtrack. The song was written by the Bee Gees and produced by the Bee Gees, Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson. It was released on 13 December 1977, as the second single from the Saturday Night Fever...
  
  ...STAYIN ALIVE".

• When forecasting Tropical Storm Franklin in 2005, Franklin said "Franklin — the storm, not the forecaster — has become a little better organized overnight. [...] It is quite possible that little or nothing will be left of Franklin — the storm, not the forecaster — in 2–3 days."

• In the Tropical Cyclone Report for Hurricane Vince
  Hurricane Vince (2005)
  Hurricane Vince was an unusual hurricane that developed in the northeastern Atlantic basin. Forming in October during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, the waters over which it developed were considered too cold for tropical development...
  
   in 2005, Franklin alluded to My Fair Lady
  My Fair Lady
  My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...
  
  when he quipped "The rain in Spain
  The Rain in Spain
  "The Rain in Spain" is a song from the musical My Fair Lady, with music by Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. The song was published in 1956....
  
   was mainly less than 2 inches, although 3.30 inches fell in the plain at Cordoba."

• In a discussion for Tropical Depression Ana, Franklin noted that "[t]he intensity forecast is complicated by the uncertain existence of an actual tropical cyclone..."