Weekend Setup And Warmup

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Hi, this is Biddy Roger, Steve Pelletier, and I am the Weatherman. Thanks for checking into the WeathermanPod.com on your Saturday. It's the seventh day, the month of March 2026. Seven days, one week down, almost already on the Saturday. And uh it looks like our weather situation is gonna be warming up over the next several days. As a matter of fact, we're going to have some really mild conditions across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Tuesday and Wednesday. So by Wednesday, we have another frontal system, an area of low pressure arriving, and probably gonna have some rainfall. Got some much needed rainfall last evening in the most areas around the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. We did have uh model amounts from between one and a quarter to one and three quarters inches of much needed rainfall. That along with melting snow is adding quite a bit to the water table and to the river, streams, and tributaries across the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. So they're going to be running high for the next several days, as they typically do during the month of March and late winter. Now, the month of March is also Women's History Month. Now, our friend Jeff Morrison has written some very interesting information about uh weather girls. And uh if it's appropriate because it's uh Women's History Month. Now, Jeff Morrison, first a little bit of a bio there. He's always been interested in weather since he was a small kid, and he's also been collecting New Jersey weather data for over 50 years, as I have as well. Uh, and has been providing local observations to us here at Ion Weather since 1979. Jeff has been a longtime member and friend of the North Jersey Weather Observers, the NJWO, along with being a local Coker Rosh Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network Observer. You can be there too. Just go to Kokorosh.org and you can sign up there and uh get some information on how to take observations. Back to Jeff, though. He's an observer in Somerset County and provides valuable precipitation data to this nationwide network. And he has a full weather station at his home and enjoys writing articles on a variety of weather topics for the general audience. And his topic for this month of March was women in weather. In recognition of Women's History Month, we will look at two pioneering women who played important roles as weather presenters on television. Now, in the early decades of television, weather forecasting was as much about presentation as it was about weather forecasting. Again, weather forecasting was really tough back then. We didn't have the models and the information and the technology that we have today. So as a result, many television stations hired personable, camera-friendly women to deliver the forecast. And at that time, these women were often referred to as weather girls and became familiar faces on local broadcasting areas. Those of you from the New York City region may remember Mary Walther O'Hara, better known by her professional name, Carol Reed, who began her career in radio and television in 1949. In 1952, she became a weather presenter for WCBS TV in New York and on a nightly weather segment, Rain or Shine, as part of the local newscast. Carol did not have any degree in meteorology nor prior experience in weather reporting. She was hired purely for her presentation style and partly as an attempt by WCBS TV to pull viewers from WNBC TV, the forerunner of WNBC. That was WNBT, Nancy Boyd Thomas, TV for the forerunner of WNBC Channel 4. And his popular weather presenter, Tex Antoine, with his cartoon character, Uncle Wedby. Carl Reed's forecast were simple, conversational, and visually engaging, typically using hand-drawn maps and basic graphics with her distinctive delivery, as she was very positively received by the local viewers, and she became to be identified by her nightly sound off of Have a Happy at the end of her segment. When once asked what that phase really meant, she said, Whatever you're doing, have it happy. Carol Reed stayed on the air and WCBS TV until 1964, when the station decided to make a weather more integral part of the news reporting, and the Rain or Shine segment was dropped. That was 1964. However, because of the popularity of Carol Reed, she was given her own syndicated radio show, the Carol Reed Show on WCBS, where she conducted interviews. During her career, Carol Reed received six Emmy Award nominations and receiving one as most popular female personality. About the same time in New York City, a second woman, Eloise McHome, was seen doing weather segments in the 1950s on WPIX TV. That's the Channel 11. Eloise presented another path into early television weather as she was a model, actress, and already as a radio and television personality. She had been a regular panelist on the show, Leave It to the Girls on a Mutual Broadcasting System from 1945 to 1949. Now, her weather duties on WPX TV were part of a broader set of on-air responsibilities, which included hosting programs, appearing in commercials, and performing community announcements beginning in 1953. Hey, that was a good year. For example, she hosted the Eloise McHone Show, weekday afternoons, which included talking about women and girls' fashion. Now, like Carol Reed, Eloise McComb's work showed that with charm and personality, weather reports could be visually engaging and conversational without any real technical elements. Like my note, nowadays they talk about the models and this, that, and the other all types of technical stuff. But back then, it was just uh personality, charm, and visually engaging conversation. Both Carol Reed and Elvis McClone were part of the transitional era in broadcasting. Their work became, their work came at a time when weather forecasts were largely produced behind the scenes by the U.S. Weather Bureau. Today we call that the National Weather Service, or male meteorologists, while women served as the on-camera interpreters. However, both Reed and McHorn did play key roles in familiarizing audiences with the daily television forecast and established a format that today's weather broadcasters still use and follow. By the late 1960s and 70s, expectations about weather catchers began to change with greater emphasis on actual training in meteorology, called meteorologists, and being credentialed. June Bacon Berkeley became the first woman in the U.S. with a formal meteorological training to forecast weather and television at WGRTV, the NBC affiliate in Buffalo, New York. And they really need experts up in Buffalo, New York, let me tell you, but all that lake effect snow squalls they got. In 1972, she was the first woman to be awarded the American Meteorological Society's prestigious seal of approval. These women laid the groundwork for all those that came after them, like Janice Huff of Denville, New Jersey. Guess where I'm in? Danville, New Jersey. Janice Huff is there. Never met her, but I heard that her husband played softball with the softball group that we had. But hey, time will tell. Anyhow, who's the longest tenured female meteorologist on air in New York, having started at WNBC in January 1995? So that's the information from Jeff Marson. Thanks, Jeff, for sharing that information. Weather-wise, lots of clouds for your Saturday, maybe some afternoon sun temperatures in the 50s, lots of melting, maybe some shower, or even a thunderstorm. That's a warm front moving through Saturday night. Sunday, it looks like clouds and sun after early showers and temperatures warming back into the upper 50s to near 60. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, all looking generally fair and warm. Except by later Wednesday, you're going to have some rain moving in. Temperatures are expected to range close to 70 both later on Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday, though, with some increasing clouds. Then a return to probably near normal conditions towards the end of next week. If you're traveling by air today, it does look like decent weather in the New York area airport, so no problems weather-wise for New York. Boston also looking good after some morning fog, so IFR conditions, maybe some slight delays. D.C. and Baltimore also looking at the possibility of some showers at night. Warm front moves through, could be some thunderstorms at night. Atlanta with scattered showers and some low clouds in Charlotte. That could slow things down there. Heavy weather in Houston and Dallas Fort Worth, so expect some delays going into there, some locally severe weather in Louisiana and central Mississippi, southern Arkansas. Central and South Florida is just some scattered showers, but nothing major. Dry weather, but uh looks like fair conditions from San Diego, LA, and San Francisco. And it does look like rain still. It's been going on forever up there in Portland and Seattle today. I'm in your model, Steve Pellethiery, and I am the weatherman. Thanks for Jeff Morris and for sharing that information about uh weather girls in the New York area and their role in weather forecasting during Women's History Month. And hope you have a good day today. We'll talk to you first thing on Sunday. Again, thanks, Jeff, and thanks everyone. See you later.