Tom Skilling, the longtime WGN-TV chief meteorologist, announced his retirement Thursday during the evening news.
An always sunny presence, whatever the weather in Chicago, Skilling delivered a stormy fall forecast and then hit loyal viewers with the news that he had reached the end of a prodigious weathercasting career.
“I’ve watched people do this before and there’s no formula for this,” Skilling said. “I’m going to retire at the end of February, after a marvelous 45 years at this incredible television station.”
Skilling, 71, who started at WGN-Ch. 9 on August 13, 1978, has been a familiar and congenial presence on the Chicago airwaves for decades, expertly and calmly navigating the city’s often unpredictable weather situations for generations of TV viewers.
On Thursday, he discussed the decision with a montage of clips tracing his career in the background, from a fresh-faced and hirsute rookie weatherman delivering a forecast in a Channel 9 blazer to a beloved personality hamming it up with Bozo, the station’s longtime star clown.
“It’s been a great career,” Skilling said.
More to come.