Dr. Frank Field, Storm Field and 6 more local TV meteorologists to remember

New York TV has had many colorful, talented and unforgettable meteorologists who were part of our lives for decades. In this cruelest of months, weather-wise, let's take a moment to celebrate eight from years past:

TEX ANTOINE

One of New York TV's first weather forecasters, Antoine demolished his career in 1976 while at Ch. 7. Following a news story about the rape of a child, he said, " ... it is well to remember the words of Confucius: 'If rape is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it.'" He was fired after a huge viewer backlash. During his years at Ch. 4, and for a time at Ch. 7, he drew the weather on an easel while wearing a smock and chatting with his cartoon sidekick, Uncle Wethbee. He died in 1983.

SPENCER CHRISTIAN

This key member of WABC/7's "Eyewitness News" from 1977 to 1986 worked two big jobs there — weather at 5, sports at 6 and 11. He left for "Good Morning America" ('86-'98) where he did weather and more. uBut personal problems (a gambling addiction) nearly toppled him. His career (continues at San Francisco's KGO.

NORM DVOSKIN

If mixing forecasts with puns and jokes was how you liked your weather served, then Norm was your guy. Upon retiring from News 12 after a 30-year run in 2016, he said the puns began while "I was doing the weather on a Thanksgiving morning at a turkey farm in Huntington ... and there were these two kittens at my feet. One of them crawled up my leg and crawled under my coat, and I reached in and pulled the cat out, and said, ‘Now for the furcast.’ It was probably the best thing that ever happened to me." And to his fans. He died in 2024 at the age of 93.

DR. FRANK FIELD

The dean of TV meteorologists (who died in 2023 at 100) Field began at WRCA (now WNBC/4) in 1958, went to WCBS/2 in 1984, then wrapped his career at WWOR/9 in the mid-'90s. He became an ophthalmologist after returning from World War II (1st lieutenant/meteorologist with the 8th Air Force). But while living in Bellmore (and later Massapequa), he went into TV where he carved out beats in weather and health (he was an influential proponent of the then-unknown Heimlich maneuver). 

STORM FIELD

Once a New York TV weather sex symbol — if you can imagine such a thing — Storm was son of Frank, with whom he worked during two different stints (at Ch. 2, from '92 to '97, then at Ch. 9, where he was chief meteorologist, until leaving in 2007). He began at Ch. 7 in 1976, replacing Antoine. About that sex symbol business, he told Newsday,"I never had time to be a sex symbol ... I never thought of myself as being any more than anybody else in terms of an on-air person. I got schooled with the people I worked with, like Gloria Rojas, who had a really tough life story." He retired to race cars in Florida. 

IRA JOE FISHER

This fascinating figure, now retired, almost seemed to do TV weather as a side gig (over decades at Chs. 4, 7 and 2). He was a published poet, writer and stage actor, who played one of the lead roles in "The Fantasticks" for years. Among his many other talents: He could write backward on a Plexiglas, so that viewers could read his weather reports.

CAROL REED

A true pioneer, this Ch. 2 "weathergirl" — as she was called back then — from 1952 to '64 is believed to be the first female TV forecaster (and for years after, the only one in New York too.) Wrapping her forecast, she'd say "have a happy" — a phrase that entered the language. She died of cancer in 1970 at just 44. Her brief obit in the Times reported that she was "well-known" for "her rapid fire, bouncy delivery and her chic apparel."

LLOYD LINDSAY YOUNG

Cupping his ear, then leaning back, out came the yodel — "Hellooooooo!"  — followed by an even louder shoutout to some tristate town. A showman as much as a weather forecaster, he picked up the " trick as a young TV meteorologist in Wyoming to see if anyone was paying attention. (They were; how could they not?) WWOR/9 dropped him after a dozen years, in 1995 (shortly after his son, George Lindsay Young — also a TV weather forecaster — was fired.) "Double L" is retired, but still turns up on the occasional podcast.