JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Not many people can say they’ve impacted generations of people living in and around Jacksonville, but George Winterling could.
George was the man we trusted for decades. He was the authority when there were storms and our friendly neighbor when the weather was nice.
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George grew up in Jacksonville, graduated from Lee High School, got some meteorological training in the Air Force, then got his degree from Florida State University. He brought his weather expertise to WJXT in 1962.
“I started watching Channel 4 when I worked with the National Weather Service at the airport. Weather programs didn’t tell me much. They didn’t explain what was going on with the weather. It was basically where are the fronts now, lots of things people had to understand for the boaters, the fishermen, tropical storms and things like that,” George said. “When the storms came, (the station) had to call us to find out what was going on. I thought it would be better if the meteorologist was at the TV station.”
As long-time viewers remember, George was the only meteorologist to predict that Hurricane Dora would hit the North Florida coast in 1964.
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“That was an interesting thing. (It) was way out in the Atlantic in a spot where most of them will miss us,” George said. “I woke up one Monday morning, it was moving straight toward the west, which was toward Central Florida or some part of the East Coast. All the attention was on Cape Canaveral and no mention of Northeast Florida. I knew most of them curve a little bit to the north and I said that puts us right in the bullseye. Two days before the storm hit, I predicted that 100 mph winds would be hitting our part of the state.”
Dora made landfall on Sept. 10, 1964, about 6 miles north of St. Augustine with sustained winds of 115 mph.
The technology changed repeatedly and dramatically over the years. Back in the 1960s, there were no satellite images.
“We painted the clouds on with white paint,” George remembered.
Besides his vast weather knowledge, George always brought humor to his weather reporting, like a turkey chasing contest on the old Midday show. One time in the early 70s when we went two months with no rain and people panicked as their lawns turned brown, George took action.
“Going to Florida State, I was very familiar with the Seminoles, so we got out to the front of the station around the flagpole and did a rain dance -- an attempt to make the rain come out of sky," George said.
And, yes, it did rain.
George had a great sense of humor and there was always a twinkle in his eye, especially when he was asked about his last name, which really was Winterling.
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“I got some suggestions. One said, ‘You should change it with the seasons.’ Springling? Wouldn’t want to be Falling.”
I once asked George’s wife, Virginia, if there are things we don’t need to know about the man we saw every day for decades on our televisions.
“I don’t think there’s too much that people don’t know after all these years. He’s just a real sweet, nice guy,” she said.
George was always a friend to our community and people loved meeting him.
“I’ve talked to people all over the place. I’ve gone to Brunswick and Waycross and Lake City, Live Oak, down to Palatka, St. Augustine. (I talked to) a lot of youngsters and they enjoyed me talking about tornadoes and hurricanes,” George said. “Their eyes would light up. Now, this is 30 years, 40 years later, and adults would say, ‘You came to my school.’”
George was truly a friend to generations and touched tens of thousands of lives over his nearly 50-year career at WJXT.