FSU | EOAS

Meteorologist George Winterling Remembered for Pioneering Career


George Winterling at the 2006 annual FSU student-alumni weathercasting workshop.	Image 2: Commemorative plaque honoring George Winterling in the departmental TV studio.

On 21 June 2023, pioneering TV meteorologist George Winterling (1931-2023, BS meteorology, FSU, 1957) passed away at age 91. He was one of the first degreed meteorologists on television. His career as chief meteorologist at WJXT in Jacksonville, Florida, spanned 47 years from 1962 to 2009. In the days before computer graphics, he mounted a TV camera looking down on a horizontal map. He drew weather features on a piece of clear glass on top of the map and slid the glass over the map to show motion. When Florida had wild fires, he squirted lighter fluid on the glass and lit it. In 1978, he created the “humiture” index to combine the effects of humidity and temperature to describe summer discomfort. The National Weather Service adopted its own “heat index” the following year. George was an ardent Seminole who aided FSU weathercasting with his expertise (first picture: George at the 2006 annual FSU student-alumni weathercasting workshop) and who included FSU weathercasting in his will. For years, even before moving into the new EOAS Building, our departmental TV studio has honored George Winterling with a commemorative plaque pictured above.

For more about his illustrious career, see:
https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2023/06/22/longtime-meteorologist-george-winterling-dies-at-91/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Winterling
https://www.iweathernet.com/educational/history-broadcast-meteorology