Dallas Raines, chief meteorologist for KABC-TV in Los Angeles, reportedly makes $500,000 per year with a net worth of $3 million. Granted, L.A. is the second largest TV market in the USA, but that’s still pretty damn good for only having to say “Sunny, 72” for nine months out of the year.
Plus the fist pump. It isn’t a Dallas Raines weather teaser without the fist pump.
This is equally true for the sports guys. They’re not telling me anything I can’t find on the internet right now.
Atlanta Pregnancy Cult.
“Next weather report in four days.” Harris Telemacher made “in the low 50s” in LA in 1991. 
An interesting question.
I looked for the salary of WGN-TV’s long-time chief meteorologist, Tom Skilling. In 2012, he signed a 10-year contract reportedly paying a million dollars a year. WGN has the fourth rated local newscasts in Chicago. Every source I’ve checked says he “studied” meteorology and journalism at the University of Wisconsin, but none state what, if any, degree he attained.
In contrast, the main weather-forecaster for Chicago’s top rated local news station WLS-TV reportedly makes $136,000 a year. WLS-TV stole her from another Chicago station in 2014 and promoted her to the position on their most-watched newscasts in 2016. She has a degree in Geological Science from Brown University and a certificate in broadcast meteorology from Mississippi State.
So, even in the same market, the salaries are all over the place.
By the way, Tom Skilling is the older brother of disgraced Enron CEO Jefferey Skilling. Tom has nothing to do with Enron.
WGN was the first national cable channel, and Skilling was on the team from the beginning. He’s a huge national name. And I do believe he is a degreed meteorologist from Wisconsin, maybe the best Meteorology department in the country.
LM, BS Meteorology, University of Wisconsin
The national cable channel is called “WGN America.” I just looked at their schedule for the next couple of days and I don’t see any news or weather on the WGN America schedule.
Correct. WGN America was split off from WGN-TV a few years ago. They dropped all WGN-TV programming, and stopped carrying the Cubs, as well.
But it does seem thatwhen bad weather hits, Chicagoland viewers watch WGN-TV.
You think with a financial statement like this you can have the duck?
He’s got his own TV station it’s called Fox News!
Tom Skilling knows the weather. Like, in a “sold his soul to Satan” for special information kind of way. I think if there is one unifying thing in Chicago, it would be that everybody likes Tom Skilling, weather god.
As kunilou notes, the cable channel WGN America no longer runs any of the local programming from WGN, including the news. That said, the Chicago WGN feed runs something like 10 hours of news broadcasting a day, and speaking as a weather nerd, Skilling is definitely the dean of meteorologists in this city. (Also, part of the reason that WGN’s evening news ranks fourth is that it runs at 9pm, while the ABC, NBC, and CBS stations are running prime-time entertainment programming.)
(And, to Lamar Mundane: I went to Wisconsin, initially intending on a Meteorology degree. But, the amount of math and physics required quickly led me to redirect into the business school. 
)
That three dimension equation of motion in polar coordinates was a son of a bitch.
Ottawa’s a small market in Canada, so they’re probably about $75,000-$100,000, since they’ve been there for decades.
I doubt they get paid for the charity work. The contracts in my city require on-air talent to do a certain amount of visible charity work each year (such as hosting an event).
And yes, EVERYONE gets their weather from the internet. But you’re not watching them for the actual weather – you’re watching them because they’re friends, they’re companions, and they’re that little bit of hometown reliability.
And the trend in Canada for several decades has been to downgrade meteorological training. While the people on camera have taken courses and - if they’ve been there for years - know the vagaries of the microclimates in your city, outside companies (including Environment Canada provide the ‘base’ forecast, and the local people tweak it.
Watch around the 6:00 minute part for a good laugh