JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – George Winterling spent time as a meteorologist with the Air Force, earned his degree at Florida State University and worked five years with the National Weather Service before joining Channel 4 in 1962. Yes, 1962. He was already a beloved member of the community and a legend among television meteorologists when I came to the station two decades later.
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What cemented George’s reputation more than anything else was his accurate prediction in 1964 that Hurricane Dora would make landfall near St. Augustine and have a devastating impact on Jacksonville and beyond. Other meteorologists and the National Weather Service were saying Dora would hit farther south, near Cape Canaveral, or skirt the First Coast -- as so many do.
“I didn’t pay that much attention to what others were saying,” George told a reporter years later. “I was just concerned with making my own forecast.”
Forecasting changed dramatically over George’s half-century in broadcasting. In the early years, there were no satellite images or live radar, so he improvised and innovated with hand-made graphics and stop-frame animations to explain weather fronts so viewers would know what to expect. Later, he had to master constantly evolving computer technology to always have the most accurate and useful displays to illustrate his forecasts.
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George always wanted to make sure families were safe in any storm and worked tirelessly, using whatever tools he could find, to have the best forecast.
While many of us turned to George every night for the latest on the weather, others wanted to see what was going on in George’s Garden. His green thumb was well known, and so was his love for our community. He always enjoyed meeting viewers and their children. In 2002, thousands braved a scorching July day to meet George for his Garden Party.
Although we all saw George’s love for his work, what most didn’t see was his love for his family. He is survived by his wife Virginia, their daughter, Wendy, sons, Steve and Frank, grandchildren and even a great-grandchild. George has called Virginia the love of his life.
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His other great love was forecasting the weather. Even when George “retired” in 2009, he didn’t give up following the weather and helping our viewers understand the story. As our meteorologist emeritus, he was on the air occasionally for several more years. Even in his 80s, he would send in temperatures and rainfall totals from instruments in the backyard of his Beauclerc home.
While George hadn’t made it to the station as much recently, our Channel 4 family thinks of him every time we enter our studio named for him or pull into the station on “Winterling Way.”
Dear friend, you will always be remembered.