CBC Toronto and CBC Windsor are welcoming a new weather specialist to the team Tuesday.

Karen Johnson spent the majority of her career as an anchor with The Weather Network. Most recently she was at CHCH Hamilton, and worked stints at CTV's Canada AM and A-Channel in Edmonton. This is the first time Johnson has worked with CBC.

"I'm sitting on top of the world. I feel like I won the lottery," Johnson told CBC Toronto.

Johnson, who is certified by the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, says the weather fascinates her. Two weeks ago, she jumped in her car with her husband and two sons and drove down to Nashville, Tenn. to be in the path of totality during the eclipse of the sun.

"It was very spontaneous. It was so worth the 17-hour drive there and back with two children," she laughed.

Johnson took time off to raise her two sons, but says the focus is shifting at this time in her life.

"Now it's about me, and that's OK."

She is a political science graduate from York University and Humber College's broadcast journalism program.

A native of Toronto, Johnson is well known in the city's South Asian Community. In 2001, she began hosting an entertainment show about the Indian film industry for Omni Television, called Bollywood Boulevard. She also had her own cooking show called The Veggie Table.

Johnson is replacing Meteorologist Jay Scotland who left for CBC PEI at the end of July.