Legendary meteorologist Harry Volkman dies

Harry Volkman was accurate, trusted, charismatic — qualities that made audiences tune into his weather reports for more than 50 years.

Volkman, 89, died Thursday at Oakton Pavillion nursing home in Des Plaines, his son, Eddie Volkman, told media blogger Robert Feder. He had spent several weeks at Edward Hines, Jr., VA Hospital west of Chicago for treatment of a respiratory ailment before he was released Aug. 14, Feder reported.

“It was a peaceful passing,” Eddie Volkman said. “Over the last several weeks, he said he was tired, he was ready, and he understood that he had lived longer than any of his older brothers, who all died before they were 80. He was very spiritual about it.”

Volkman's forecasts had flair. They were entertaining — he often interrupted forecasts with his famous “whoosh!” and songs — but also educational. In 1952, he was the first forecaster to issue a tornado warning on air.

A young Volkman ran a tiny radio station out of his home in a Boston suburb. After graduating from high school, he was drafted into the Army near the end of World War II.

He then studied meteorology at Spartan School of Aeronautics and broadcasting at the University of Tulsa. He got his start in radio and quickly graduated to television. He worked for a Tulsa TV station and two stations in Oklahoma City before coming to Chicago in 1959 to forecast weather on WNBQ, which later became WMAQ.

Volkman's Chicago career spanned all the major networks: going from WGN Channel 9, WMAQ Channel 5, back to WGN and then to WBBM Channel 2. The father of four retired as WFLD Channel 32 meteorologist in 2004.

“If you really love something,” Volkman told the Daily Herald three years later, “you don't get tired of it ever.”