Weather is a topic foremost in many people's minds following the onslaught of snow and cool temperatures that hit the Lower Mainland this weekend.

But weather has remained a topic of conversation for weeks now, for dozens of Grade 4 students from St. Patrick's School.

The hype began in preparation for, and continued ever since, celebrity meteorologist Mark Madryga visited the Maple Ridge private school.

Madryga is well known as a weather forecaster on Global TV, as well as several major radio stations - including CKNW. And under the guidance of teacher Anna Kravjanski, her Grade 4 class of 26 students had a two-hour visit with this well-known weatherman.

"Many students had been watching Mark on the morning news, and were so excited when he walked in that they cheered," Kravjanski said.

"Mark had a lot of energy and shocked the students after telling them that his day starts at 3 a.m. His enthusiasm and genuine love of meteorology kept the students' interest throughout the talk and inspired several of them to do more research about weather on their own," the teacher explained.

Even though the rain fell outside during his visit, it was a very sunny morning in the St Patrick's Grade 4 classroom; at least during the time Madryga was there, Kravjanski said.

"His passion for weather shone through during his presentation."

He engaged the students, asking them weather-related questions and showing them various weather instruments.

The teacher was particularly pleased by her students' reaction.

Student Jenna Tokaryk for instance was beaming after the visit.

"It was really fun to learn about weather and how you can predict and measure it. Mark Madryga was a really fun person and really nice," Kravjanski said.

"I was pleased to see them attentive throughout the talk and eager to answer his questions," she explained.

"Some students wanted to use the books we had in the class and their computer time later in the day to look up weather-related information."