Janis FontaineThe retiring weatherman sits down with Stet News for an exit interview.
When chief meteorologist Steve Weagle announced he was retiring from WPTV-Channel 5, after 27 years, you could almost hear the collective gasp from his television audience.
The weatherman who talked Palm Beach County residents through at least 10 major storms will sign off Friday, two days after a community party in Lantana in his honor.
“There’s a special bond with hurricane coverage because people still come and say, ‘You got me through the storm,’” Weagle, 59, said after receiving a proclamation last week from Palm Beach County commissioners, “and that’s a bond that can never be taken away.”
Even people who don’t follow TV news watch the local weather. After all, the threat of a storm is never far away, and viewers want to know if it’s going to rain on their parade.
Guided by ‘Broadcast News’
Weagle was born and raised in Canada. He said he fell in love with the Florida lifestyle when his family drove down to Walt Disney World from Toronto in the 1970s.
“Space Mountain had just opened up. When I saw the palm trees, I just knew this is a place that I would end up someday.”
After earning a bachelor’s degree in math and physics from the University of New Brunswick and another in atmospheric sciences and meteorology from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Weagle was working for the Canadian Weather Service when he saw a job listing online for an on-air weather personality in West Palm Beach.
In 1998, with just four years of experience with CTV in Nova Scotia, Weagle became the new face at Channel 5.
“I’m the last person that should be on TV,” Weagle told Stet News last week. “I’m the kid in school who sat in the back of the class and didn’t talk to anyone for years. I was painfully shy, and I wanted to use the TV to get over the shyness. TV brought me out of my shell.”
Weagle is known for his calm in a storm. He said he modeled his modulated tone after actor William Hurt’s character in the 1987 movie “Broadcast News.”
“I must have watched that movie 50 times,” Weagle said, “and he has this very calming voice. I picked up on that, and it just started to work.”
Another hurdle was his Canadian accent.
Weagle would pronounce “about” like “a-boat” and it’s getting “cold out” like “cold oat.” He worried his accent would keep people from hearing his message. The station sent him to a speech pathologist.
“I call her an accent reduction specialist, and we would just sit there and watch the weathercast, and she’d tell me the words I needed to work on.”
Beloved on Facebook
After the retirement announcement, Weagle’s personal Facebook page exploded with more than 1,600 comments. Lori Smith of Stuart wrote, “Thank you for doing more than reporting the weather. Thank you for caring!”
Cristina Dukes who now lives in Seattle penned, “‘What is Steve saying?’ is how decades of hurricane discussions have started in my family. The trust (and trauma bond) built over the years will not be forgotten.”
Sandy Malagon from Greenacres wrote: “As you prepare to retire, my heart is full — grateful, emotional, and honestly, a little overwhelmed. You’ve gotten me through every storm, every hurricane scare, every unpredictable sky. Your calm voice and steady presence have brought me comfort on days when I felt anxious, and hope on days when the weather felt impossible. You were never just delivering the forecast — you were reassuring us, guiding us, and reminding us that we could make it through whatever was coming. And we did. I did. Because of you.”
Weagle responded, “The fact that it was my voice that helped you through the storms will forever be in my mind, and made this career more rewarding than I could have ever imagined.”
Weagle’s not sure why people like him.
“If I have a gift, it’s just keeping people calm. My boss said, ‘You have this unique ability to be urgent but calming at the same time. That’s what makes you different from most other weather people.’ But day-to-day, there’s a thousand guys who are better than I am.”
More than his voice, people who were afraid could feel his compassion, he said.
“I tried to put myself with the person in their closet. That’s where the empathy comes in. I’m like the pilot and you hit turbulence, and all you want is for the captain to come on and say it’s going to last this long. I’m telling them the bad stuff is only going to last 30 or 40 minutes and then that feeder band moves away.”
In the weeks after 2004’s Hurricane Frances, Weagle realized his impact.
That storm stalled off the coast before making U.S. landfall near Sewall’s Point in Martin County on Sept. 5, 2004. Weagle recalled that the weather team was on the air for about 67 straight hours.
“I could tell from the feedback that I had done a good job, and that’s probably my proudest moment.”
And for those who judge success by awards, Weagle helped his team there, too. WPTV took home nine Suncoast Regional Emmy Awards, including one for News Excellence for “Newscast: After the Tornado,” its coverage of tornadoes in April 2023.
Tornadoes were the focus again when WPTV’s news team won two regional Edward R. Murrow Awards in May.
Both awards were tied to its coverage of the deadly tornado outbreak in October 2024 that was spawned by Hurricane Milton.
Stand by for a Snuggle Alert
But Weagle’s bond with viewers stretched beyond severe weather alerts to the lighthearted.
Viewers joked about gauging the storm’s intensity by the chief meteorologist’s attire. Did Steve take his jacket off? Roll up his sleeves? Does he still have his tie on?
“I’ve become a meme,” Weagle laughs. “By the end of (last year’s Hurricane) Milton, I don’t even know if I had a shirt on!”
Fans also love Weagle’s Snuggle Alert. Up north, when temperatures dropped, weather stations had “cuddle alerts.” Weagle’s wife, Karen, encouraged him to “snuggle.”
“She said people will like it. I said it’s not my personality, but I decided to use it one day. And it was this overwhelming response,” he said. “Then someone said, you need a flag, so my wife, who’s crafty, made a flag and I would hoist the flag.”
Weagle laughs that the station spent lots of money on branding and finding ways to connect with viewers, and his little flag is what caught on. “I think more people know that than anything else.”
People also appreciate his approachability.
He’s known to happily answer science questions standing in line at Starbucks, and every year, he spoke to hundreds of students about his job and his love of science.
It wasn’t easy at first. “I would get sent to talk to first-graders and be so nervous that I could barely talk. Now I won’t shut up.”
On the road for the Red Cross
Weagle also lent his influence to support the American Red Cross with his annual bike ride. Beginning in 1998 on Memorial Day, Weagle hopped on a bicycle and rode 125 miles from Sebastian to Boca Raton over five days. The ride raised money for the Red Cross and reminded everyone that hurricane season was approaching.
The ride raised nearly $2 million for the local Red Cross over the years.
“It started out very slow,” Weagle said, “but we had some great support. There was a guy — he always wanted to stay anonymous, but he passed away a few years ago — Gary Bailey, who lived on Jupiter Island and owned Miami Elevator. The first three or four years, we auctioned off the bicycle at the end and gave that money to the Red Cross. The bids would be $500, and then he’d bid $10,000. So, it brought more credibility to it, and it made more of an impact.”
The Red Cross agrees. Tiffany Gonzalez, spokesperson for the American Red Cross South Florida Region, said: “Steve has helped bring hope, awareness, and lifesaving support to our community. We are so thankful for his dedication and service.”
The last ride took place in 2022 after going virtual in 2020 and 2021. Weagle said a new station manager wanted to go in another direction.
“I miss the ride, but at the same time, I almost felt like it had run its course. Or maybe it was more of my body,” he joked.
It’s hard to surprise a trained observer like Weagle, but on Nov. 26, the Florida Panthers did it by giving Weagle a team jersey with the number 27 to commemorate his 27 years on the air.
He and Karen have long supported the Panthers and they have season tickets at Amerant Bank Arena in Broward County. Karen attended most of the games with a friend because of Weagle’s work schedule. She was in Nova Scotia for the week, so Weagle went solo.
“She asked if she should fly down, and I said I think I’m just broadcasting outside the arena. When they gave me the jersey, I sent (her) a photo, and she said, ‘I’m watching it on my laptop right now.’ She was annoyed because she’s a bigger fan than I am!” Weagle said.
What’s next: travel and walks on the beach
An important non-weather moment came when Weagle became a U.S. citizen in 2014.
“I would put that in one of the top 10 highlights of my life. I wanted to really feel like I was totally connected to the community, and that’s the biggest reason that I decided to get the citizenship,” he said. “Talking to students in classrooms, for whatever reason, kind of triggered me.”
Retired federal immigration Judge Rex Ford also encouraged Weagle, who was here on an H-1B visa.
“He said, ‘You just never know when they could cancel your visa.’ I thought to myself, that’s never going to happen, but here we are in 2025,” Weagle said.
Now the Weagles are preparing for their next chapter. He and Karen sold their house in Tequesta and downsized to a place closer to the beach, where Weagle can walk every day.
“I need to get outside and see the sun,” he said, saying he probably suffers from a mild form seasonal affective disorder, a type of mood change related to the changing seasons.
The future will include spending time with his granddaughter, who was born in 2020, and traveling with Karen to make up for vacations that were interrupted.
“I have flown back from other countries six times to cover hurricanes. I’d get on a plane at 6 am and be back on TV around 4 pm.”
But that’s the job, he said, and he loved it.
“What’s overwhelming to me,” Weagle said, “is I owe viewers everything because they’re the ones who made my career. Even if I’m not reporting the weather, we have a bond, a lifetime bond.”
Celebrate Steve!
Palm Beach County commissioners signed a proclamation declaring Dec. 12 as Steve Weagle Day. Celebrate Steve by eating all the snacks in your hurricane preparedness kit! Or if you’re in the area, the community is invited to celebrate Weagle at 4:30 pm Wednesday, Dec. 10, at Old Key Lime House, 300 E. Ocean Ave., Lantana.
