FAIR WINDS.

Long time Tribune Corporation meteorologist Tom Skilling announces his retirement, the day before Leap Day next year.

Skilling started his successful career at the unheard-of age of 14 in Aurora, while still in high school. He had a series of radio and TV jobs in Illinois and Wisconsin before coming to WGN-TV in August of 1978. Known for his in-depth and highly detailed weather segments, Tom has elevated the audience’s understanding of not just the weather, but the science behind it.

He was weather reporter for a Madison television station while I was in college, and he implemented some suggestions from flamboyant Wisconsin meteorology professor Frank Sechrist, including time lapse forecasts based on previous videotapes of what the next day was likely to be.

More recently, Second City Cop commended Mr Skilling as a crime fighter.  "We also jokingly named Skilling to assorted superintendents' offices as the single biggest reason crime was ever down. Rain, snow, wind or cold temps, if there was ever a weekend with lower stats, it was all Skilling's doing."

It's still hazardous to issue forecasts more than a day or two out.  I suspect those "extended outlook" slides the weather reporters put up are more out of a sense of obligation than out of any sense of accuracy.