Tom Skilling | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | February 20, 1952 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Occupation | Meteorologist |
| Years active | 1966–2024 |
| Notable credit(s) | WGN-TV, WITI |
| Family | Jeffrey Skilling (brother) |
Thomas E. Skilling III (born February 20, 1952) is a former American television meteorologist. From 1978 to his retirement in 2024, he worked as a meteorologist at WGN-TV in Chicago. [1]
The oldest of four children, Tom Skilling was born at Magee Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Thomas Jr. and Betty (Clarke) Skilling. His early years were spent in Westfield, New Jersey. The family moved to the Chicago suburb of Aurora, Illinois, where he attended West Aurora High School. While in high school Tom began his career in broadcasting at age 14, working for WKKD and WKKD-FM. [2] Skilling observed that WKKD's forecasts were inaccurate because they were for Chicago and not Aurora, so he approached WKKD and offered to forecast the weather for several days, with the condition that if his forecasts were accurate he would be hired to host his own weather program. [3] Skilling's forecasts were accurate, and he was hired to forecast Aurora's weather three times a day. [3] At age 18, he began working at WLXT-TV in Aurora. [2]
Skilling attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison to study meteorology and journalism. While attending the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he worked at WKOW-TV and WTSO radio, both in Madison. [2] In 1975 Skilling took his first major-market television position, becoming the lead forecaster at WITI-TV in Milwaukee. [2] At WITI, he delivered his forecasts with the "help" of the station's resident sock puppet mascot, Albert the Alley Cat. [4]
Skilling returned to the Chicago area and joined WGN-TV on August 13, 1978. [2] He was WGN-TV's chief meteorologist and was rumored to be the highest-paid local broadcast meteorologist in the United States. [5] He also had written the daily weather column for the Chicago Tribune . That feature, Ask Tom, ceased in August 2022 with a redesign of the weather page. [6]
His weather broadcasts have always featured the latest technology in computer imagery and animation techniques. He has long been hailed for his in-depth reports and striking accuracy, perhaps best highlighted by his correctly predicting the Groundhog Day blizzard in 2011 almost two weeks before it paralyzed the Chicago area. "Skillful", as his late WGN-TV colleague Bob Collins called him, was consulted for the movie The Weather Man , which was set in Skilling's hometown of Chicago at a fictionalized version of WGN-TV.
He also narrated the documentaries It Sounded Like a Freight Train and When Lightning Strikes for the station, about the science and dangers of tornadoes (the documentary also includes the Chicago area's history of tornadoes) and lightning.
Skilling announced on October 12, 2023 that he would be retiring from WGN-TV on February 28, 2024. [7] On February 1, 2024, WGN announced that the WGN Weather Center will be renamed the Tom Skilling Weather Center. [8]
Skilling is a member of the American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association. He hosted annual tornado and severe weather seminars at the Fermi National Accelerator Lab (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois. 2013 marked the 32nd year of the seminar and the first that featured presentations specifically on climate change. [9] [10] In 2018, he announced he would stop hosting these seminars because of scheduling conflicts. [11]
In January 1995, Tom received an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois. [12]
Asteroid 91888 Tomskilling, discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey in 1999, was named in his honor. [1] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on October 8, 2014 (M.P.C. 90379). [13] [ failed verification ] A statement honoring his career was read into the Congressional record on November 1, 2023. [14]
On May 2, 2024, Skilling was announced as the Grand Marshall of the 2024 Woodstock (IL) Pridefest [15]
Tom is the older brother of Jeffrey Skilling, the disgraced former chief executive officer of Enron Corporation. [16]
WGN-TV is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is sister to the company's sole radio property, news/talk/sports station WGN. WGN-TV's studios are located on West Bradley Place in Chicago's North Center community; as such, it is the only major commercial television station in Chicago which bases its main studio outside the Loop. Its transmitter is located atop the Willis Tower in the Loop.
The 1990 Plainfield tornado was a devastating tornado that occurred on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 28, 1990. The violent tornado killed 29 people and injured 353. It is the only F5/EF5 rated tornado ever officially recorded in August in the United States, and the only F5 tornado to strike the Chicago area. There are no known videos or photographs of the tornado itself; however, in 2011, a video surfaced online showing the supercell that spawned the tornado. The Plainfield tornado was part of a small outbreak that produced several tornadoes in the Northern United States, specifically Kansas, and the Canadian province of Ontario.
This article lists various tornado records. The most "extreme" tornado in recorded history was the Tri-State tornado, which spread through parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana on March 18, 1925. It is considered an F5 on the Fujita Scale, holds records for longest path length at 219 miles (352 km) and longest duration at about 3+1⁄2 hours. The 1974 Guin tornado had the highest forward speed ever recorded in a violent tornado, at 75 mph (121 km/h). The deadliest tornado in world history was the Daulatpur–Saturia tornado in Bangladesh on April 26, 1989, which killed approximately 1,300 people. In the history of Bangladesh, at least 19 tornadoes killed more than 100 people each, almost half of the total for the world. The most extensive tornado outbreak on record was the 2011 Super Outbreak, which resulted in 367 tornadoes and 324 tornadic fatalities, whereas the 1974 Super Outbreak was the most intense tornado outbreak on tornado expert Thomas P. Grazulis's outbreak intensity score with 578, as opposed to the 2011 outbreak's 378.
WGN is a commercial AM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring a talk radio format. WGN's studios are in the Chicago Loop, while the transmitter is in Elk Grove Village. WGN also features broadcasts of Chicago Blackhawks hockey and Northwestern University football and basketball.
Chicagoland Television was an American regional cable news television channel located in Chicago, Illinois. The channel served the Chicago metropolitan area.
The WGN Morning News is an American morning television news program airing on WGN-TV, a CW owned-and-operated television station and former national superstation in Chicago, Illinois owned by Nexstar Media Group. The program is broadcast each weekday from 4:00 to 10:00 a.m. Central Time; weekend editions are broadcast on Saturdays from 7:00 to 10:00 a.m. and Sundays from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. Central Time.
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John Stewart Coleman was an American television weatherman. Along with Frank Batten, he co-founded The Weather Channel and briefly served as its chief executive officer and president. He retired from broadcasting in 2014 after nearly 61 years, having worked the last 20 years at KUSI-TV in San Diego.
WERV-FM is a commercial radio station, licensed to Aurora, Illinois, and serving the western suburbs of Chicago. It is owned by Alpha Media, through licensee Alpha Media Licensee LLC. WERV-FM has a classic alternative radio format.
West Aurora High School, or WAHS, is a public four-year high school located in Aurora, Illinois. It is part of West Aurora Public School District 129. The school is also referred to as "West," and "West High,".
Harry Volkman was an American meteorologist and the first weatherman to issue a televised tornado warning.
Keenan Smith is an American television broadcaster who is a reporter/anchor for the morning and noon newscasts at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. Smith joined the network around September 2010 and served as the morning and noon meteorologist until March 2018. WXYZ-TV meteorologist Kevin Jeanes succeeded him with this role in the same time frame. Prior to his employment at WXYZ-TV, he was at WPTV in West Palm Beach, Florida, from 2008 to 2010 and WGN-TV and CLTV in Chicago, Illinois, before that.
Jerry Taft was an American meteorologist and weather presenter who served as chief meteorologist for WLS-TV in Chicago. He worked for 34 years with WLS, and for 42 years as a broadcast meteorologist in the Chicago media market.
John Coughlin was a longtime meteorologist for WBBM-TV in Chicago, during the station's No. 1 position in the television news market in Chicago in the 1970s.
The Chicago blizzard of 1967 struck northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana on January 26–27, 1967, with a record-setting 23 inches (58 cm) snow fall in Chicago and its suburbs before the storm abated the next morning. As of 2024, it remains the greatest snowfall in one storm in Chicago history. As the blizzard was a surprise during the day with people already at work or school, it stopped the city for a few days as people dug out. "The storm was a full-blown blizzard, with 50 mph-plus northeast wind gusts creating drifts as high as 15 feet."
WKKD was a radio station licensed to Aurora, Illinois. The station's studios, transmitter and towers were at 1880 Plain Avenue in Aurora.
Throughout the evening hours of April 9, 2015, an extremely violent and long-lived multiple-vortex tornado tore through the communities near Rochelle and in Fairdale, Illinois. Part of a larger severe weather event that impacted the Central United States, the tornado first touched down in Lee County at 6:39 p.m. CDT (23:39 UTC). It progressed through the counties of Ogle, DeKalb, and Boone before finally dissipating at 7:20 p.m. CDT. Along the tornado's 30.14-mile (48.51 km) path, numerous structures were heavily damaged or destroyed, especially in the small town of Fairdale where two fatalities and eleven injuries were recorded. A few well-constructed homes were swept completely away, indicative of peak winds near 200 mph (320 km/h), the upper bounds of an EF4 tornado. In the aftermath of the event, hundreds of citizens assisted in cleanup and recovery efforts. Economic losses from the tornado reached $19 million.
WLXT-TV, UHF analog channel 60, was an independent television station that was licensed to Aurora, Illinois, from 1969 to 1970. It was owned by the South Kane-Kendall Broadcasting Company and was an independent station. WLXT ceased operating in July 1970; channel 60 would not return to air in Chicago for another 12 years.
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