Phillyist Interviews... John Bolaris – Part 1: The Storm of the Century

The next day, everyone is talking about a big storm. They caught up to the models. I looked at the computer models then and it was really indicating there was going to be a major storm. All other stations the next day, it was going to be a storm of unprecedented proportions.

My last broadcast on that Friday night before the storm, I made an analogy with the 1888 blizzard and I said, “The infamous 1888 blizzard, I am comparing this storm to that. And with that storm, Philadelphia only picked up two inches of snow, but the heaviest snow went through northeast Pennsylvania into the Hudson Valley of New York with forty to fifty inches of snow there. So as for snow amounts it could be a little bit or we could get buried.” I said someone was going to get buried.

Whether it is in the Delaware Valley, don’t know, or whether it is up the pike quite a bit, don’t know. It is something that is still early yet and this storm isn’t there yet and we’re watching closely over the weekend.

Saturday, I am not on the air. Every station is leading with, even The Weather Channel – I remember watching Jim Cantori, this will be a hurricane with snow. Now that is Saturday, twenty-four hours before the storm is to hit, I am watching now and looking at the computer models and it does look like it is going to be this super intense storm. However, I also noticed as I talked to High Pressure Harry, he works with me and been with me for twelve years he is a meteorologist as well, I said, “If I was going on the air tonight at eleven I’d be trending back. There is some drying in the upper levels of the atmosphere and I would start trending back and say if this trend continues we’d bring down the priority of this storm.”

Sunday, I am coming in to work. They didn’t want me to come in on Saturday. I wanted to come in and they would not allow me to come in. God’s honest truth. The news director said, “Nope, you’re staying home. I need to promote my weekend person, Kathy Orr.” I said, “This is not about promotion, this is about what could be a significant storm. A very bad storm and I need to be on top of it.” Nope, come in Sunday.

I come in Sunday, walk in the studio and I am not thinking the same thing the National Weather Service is thinking. They are going with blizzard warning, blah, blah, blah. I am with Harry and we are looking at it and I am saying that I would trend back. News director comes in and we are doing teases and goes, “Why aren’t you reading the teases?” I said, “Because I don’t believe in this forecast. I am not reading this. I am doing this.” He goes, “Well the National Weather Service. . .” I said, “I don’t care what the National Weather Service is saying.” You will read this. I didn’t.

I go on the air. [The news director said,] “I want Kathy to throw to you she is going to tell us about the blizzard and you are going to tell us about the history, why this storm is going to be so big.” I said, “No I am not because I am not on the same page.” On air, if anyone watched that Sunday broadcast, when they threw it to me I walked off the set. I didn’t say anything. They went back to Kathy and they said it was a technical difficulty. Because I knew I was not on the same page.

At 9:20, I am looking at the computer models. I tell the EP [executive producer], this isn’t going to happen. We need to break into primetime and say this is not going to happen and that is the end of it. I break into primetime at 9:30 on that Sunday night and said we are not going to get this blizzard.

So everyone remembers me breaking into primetime saying it is not going to happen, when everything was set a sail that Wednesday when I gave the heads up. So I was the first one to give the heads up of a major storm. And the thing that really I think that did it to me was, as far as being the one targeted for it was a gossip columnist, Stu Bykofsky.

On the Thursday, the day after I predicted the potential storm on air, he goes, “Congratulations, you are number one, but I didn’t think you would sell out your credibility.” So what are you taking about? He goes, “Well you are talking about this major storm maybe for a Sunday and I watched your guy this morning, Bill Henley, and he didn’t mention anything about it. He mentioned a couple of showers.” I said, “He’s not looking at the same stuff I am looking at.” So I go, “Well Stu, we are going to have a major storm. I don’t know exactly where it is going to hit. I can tell you this.”

He goes, “I’ll make you a bet that we don’t get more than six inches of snow.” I said, “Stu, it is beyond forecasting skill to predict snow at this stage. You could be right. I am not forecasting snow just yet. I don’t know. I’ll give you this – I bet you your headlines on Monday will be weather related in The Daily News. We’ll bet it to our favorite charity, a hundred dollars.” He bet it towards his pets and I bet towards a children’s hospital.

Sure enough, we didn’t get all the snow. So he put up the headlines in The Daily News with “King of Hype, John got his storm” and targeted me like I messed up the forecast. He never put in print that I said it was beyond our forecasting skill with snow. And I called Stu on it and I go, “Stu, what are you doing? I told you that I never forecast snow. I said snow was impossible to forecast at that stage.” Ah well, where is the snow? I said, “I never said we were going to the snow. That was the bet.”

It was a severe storm. There was severe beach erosion. They got buried up in New England, heavy snow. The main impact was off shore. I know eastern Long Island picked up twelve inches, but a heck of a lot more as you went through the capes much more east.

But that is what happened with that storm and it continued to snowball. I left Philadelphia because I got run out of town because of the "Storm of the Century." If anyone ever looked at the dates, it was two and a half years later I left Philadelphia. I am in a Hurricane Hunter going on a mission and a captain comes up to me and goes, “Yeah, there was this weatherman in Philadelphia that predicted like forty-eight inches of snow and they ran him out of town.” And I said, “That would be me and I did not predict forty-eight inches of snow.” So it continued to snowball.

So it has taken on urban legend status?
Urban legend status as far as the “Storm of the Century,” but if I had to forecast it again, I would have done the same exact thing I did that Wednesday night, the same exact thing I did Thursday, and the same exact thing I did Friday.