Less than three weeks after he swore he was quitting, former weatherman John Bolaris is back to tweeting forecasts for Philly winter storms.
“Might need to enter weather rehab,” Bolaris posted Monday night, “as you all know I’m a weather junkie.”
And with that, the current real estate professional and onetime TV meteorologist for NBC10, CBS New York and Fox29 — whose name was splashed on tabloids nationwide after the story about him getting scammed by “hookers” in Miami went viral — began a stream of weather predictions for the the fourth nor’easter to hit the region this season.
“I’m not forecasting,” he maintained, “just studying analysis.”
What does Bolaris think will happen? A “bomb” of a storm.
As of mid-afternoon on Tuesday, he was calling for 6 to 10 inches of snow, and possibly more just east of the I-95 corridor. That’s enough for what he’s terming a “historical” March storm. (It does have the potential to be historic; last time 11 inches of snow fell in Philadelphia this time of year was back in 1961, per PMN.)
The guess of a big hit is a 180-degree flip from his prediction for the one at the beginning of the month, which he said would bring just “two slushy inches.”
That’s the one that had him claiming retirement, because it looked like a bust of a forecast. If you recall, the entire city shut down in anticipation of the expected dump. But in the end, there wasn’t that much accumulation, and Bolaris’ guess turned out to be one of the closest.
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Whether or not his calls end up being accurate, one thing is certain — they’re never boring.
“Truth be told,” he wrote Tuesday morning, “March storms are a crapshoot when it comes to getting amounts right. Not a computer model on earth that can do this.”
But maybe Bolaris can. He did take the step of naming Wednesday’s storm after himself.
Whether or not it’s a #BolarisBomb or a #BolarisBust, the man swears he won’t be back after this one. We definitely don’t think that’s an accurate prediction.