It is with great sadness that I announce this. John Coleman was a true hero of mine, and a great friend. He made gigantic contributions to television, to weather forecasting, and even to the National Weather Service who changed and upgraded many of their methods to accommodate the visionary ideas he had in founding the Weather Channel.
In 1983, Coleman won the American Meteorological Society award for Outstanding Service by a Broadcast Meteorologist. The organization credited Coleman for “his pioneering efforts in establishing a national cable weather channel,” according to the AMS website.
I last saw John Coleman a couple of months ago in Chicago at a gathering of TV meteorologists and climate skeptics. He was as jovial and as witty as ever.
To say “he will be missed”, is an understatement.
From NBC, San Diego,
John Coleman, the jovial and energetic meteorologist who delighted San Diego television viewers for two decades and angered scientists for insisting that climate change is a hoax, died Saturday. He was 83.
Coleman died at his home in Las Vegas, while surrounded by family, according to KUSI-TV, where he served as a forecaster from 1994 to 2014, when he retired.
His retirement capped a 60-year career during which Coleman co-founded the Weather Channel, which began as a little seen offering in the early days of cable television to a popular source of coverage of everything from blizzards and hurricanes to California’s wind-driven wildfires.
Alex Tardy, a forecaster at the National Weather Service, said Sunday,
“‘This is a big loss for the weather community. He brought a lot of energy and color and enthusiasm to forecasting. My kids loved watching him on TV.”
Tardy also said Coleman never tried to push his skepticism about climate change being man made.
“We had good talks,” Tardy said. “I enjoyed it.’
My condolences to his family, and to his extended professional family, and to his friends who worked along with him, especially his co-founding partner, Joe D’Aleo.
ADDED:
In his second to last comment on WUWT, back in September 2017, John said this in response to this story: Guardian: Climate Denial is the Fault of Old White People
I am old
I am white
I am a denier
Guess they are correct. I will die. So will the others. Then things will be settled.
Got it.
This was my all-time favorite comment from him, in response to WUWT’s 10 year milestone:
10 years. What is the big deal. I worked two of my several jobs for 20 plus years and no one even noted the tenth anniversary. Anthony, you have a great website, you are a great friend and a hero of mine. Now, cancel the celebration and get back to work. The next eight years (the Trump administration) will be super big for you and your website. Hundreds of thousands of people are going to become interested the skeptical view of global warming/ climate change. I have already noted an uptick for my essay. Your site is about to explode with new readers. Do your best work starting now and don’t stop until the victory is yours.
Thanks John, for everything.
UPDATE: I spoke with his wife Linda, who called me this morning with the news just after I had posted this. She said his death was “sudden and unexpected”, but was likely related to his COPD illness he had been battling. I also spoke to Joe D’Aleo, who was his TWC co-founder. My heart goes out to both of them.
Joe and John had been working on a book about the founding of the Weather Channel, the trials, and tribulations of it, and the successes of those early years. Joe said he will be finishing the book, and adding a final chapter.
No arrangements have been made yet. I’ll add an update when I know.
– Anthony
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I’m saddened for this great loss. Condolences to family, friends and like minded intellectuals.
He was a soldier for scientific truth and will be missed.
Safe home, John. An amazing guy who can’t help but leave a sad void upon his passing. To all who knew and loved him well, my condolences.
Will be dearly misses
Thanks for letting us know. I use some of his material when I give a Climate Change lecture (how it started in the US) and so he will live on in my class.
A calm, sane voice in this era of alarmism. He will be very much missed!v
So sad ….
The first time I have been sad reading this site. May he rest in peace.
Lovely guy what can I say John Colman is someone I will always miss. No cant no humbug John just told it the way it is. My sister in law died the same way Bronchiectasis but Doreen lived in Ringmer in Sussex and stop smoking at 24 though Doreen did not smoke heavily. So much for living in the country next door to a farm and open fields and dying age 70 from a complaint supposedly caused – if you listen to alarmists – by air pollution.
Genetics plays a role in such things. My father’s side of the family, males live to mid-80s. Meanwhile, a female cousin is soon to be 100. On her father’s side, males have mostly died at about 100.
Regardless of the circumstances, we grieve when a friend dies.
Nice tribute, Anthony.
Didn’t know him by name, but I’ve enjoyed the show he developed. Thanks for introducing us. I would have enjoyed his views.
He was an absolute legend in TV weather in Chicago during the 70s, funny and personable and entertaining as hell. ABC channel 7, 10pm, must see TV before that became a thing. Made up new words like “thorms” etc. One of a kind. RIP.
My condolences. COPD is tough, but often a consequence of past smoking. Bottom line is ‘suffocation’.
Anything that decreases oxygen in the blood has a detrimental effect on body organs. Heart damage or related issues will do that. Cardiologists will try to get patients to do what it takes to keep oxygen supplied to those organs. Ask my wife. She never smoked.
The term ‘COPD’ snuck up behind my back while I wasn’t paying attention. A quick google produces the following:
Apparently COPD can be caused by anything that irritates the lungs. Emphysema took my father-in-law, a farmer exposed to dust and chemicals, way too young.
Another cause of COPD is Alpha 1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (AATD), a genetic disorder caused by inheriting two defective genes. The gene which produces Alpha 1 Antitrypsin in the normal way is called M. The gene which causes AAT deficiency is called Z. Because everyone inherits two genes, there are three possible combinations of these genes: MM, MZ or ZZ. These combinations are called genotypes.
I am ZZ, My brother is MZ, as are my three sons. They are carriers & have sufficient Alpha 1 Antitrypsin to protect their lungs. I do not. With hindsight, I realise that from a young age I did not have the endurance of my friends. I became winded after running a quarter mile & when swimming underwater, I always came up for air first. I have never smoked & enjoyed many sports including weight training, cycling & dinghy sailing.
Now at 75 , the symptoms are severe. My heart & lungs are damaged & I doubt I’ll make it to the end of 2018.
It is believed that perhaps 1 in 25 of people with some Scandinavian ancestry are carriers. There is no routine testing for the condition in the UK, which means that as many as 20,000 people remain undiagnosed here.
There are many, many people in the USA with Scandinavian ancestry, so the numbers could be much higher. At present, it’s incurable. Augmentation therapy is a treatment where Alpha 1 Antitrypsin (AAT) is given into your veins to increase the levels in your body. The idea is to try and slow down the progression of COPD caused by AATD. It’s available in other countries, but not currently approved in the UK, because it is very expensive. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0221/4446/files/IS3_A1AD_2017_PDFdownload.pdf?2561858438333952516&_ga=2.150820661.2090967277.1516608086-1876370898.1516608086
Perry, while not on-topic I’m glad I heard on this.
Here’s a paper on the prevalence of the Z allele.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954611111000515
It seems the AATD allele frequency 1/25 in some parts of the Scandinavian peninsula is correct, which means this disease is not strictly a rarity there. There are very very many rare diseases with low frequency – rare is something that has insidence under 1/2000. Combined those rarities make up a large bulk of people with some illness.
Thank you Hugs.
Blast. A very good man. The world is a bit poorer today.
Onward and upward to better things, John. See ya ’round.
Very nice. Now, let’s hear, right here, from those scientists he is said to have ‘angered’. I’ll bet we hear more from those many more scientists who applauded him.
Thanks John.
I can only add my respects. We should ask ourselves what John would say, when we get a little intransigent…..Brett
Thank you, John Coleman, for having been a voice of reason. May you rest in peace.
My condolences to your family and friends.
So sad to hear the passing of a wonderful man. I enjoyed watching a video he did on you tube about climate. He did so much good for all of us and we should take a moment to reflect and be grateful for all he has done.
God speed John. Thank you for your dedication to our weather. I’ll never forget in the mid 80s getting cable TV with the Weather Channel and close to real time radar. I was awed to be able to go outside and match what was on the screen with my own eyes. Thank you.
Thanks for posting this Anthony.
Wow. Saddened to hear this. Condolences to his family and friends.
I remember John from many years ago on TV. He was always a great meteorologist and was absolutely correct about the climate change fraud. He will be missed more than most people understand because he was a powerful force behind the scenes. Condolences to his family and all his friends, especially Joe D’Aleo.
I first met John about 10 years ago at a Heartland Climate Conference, and saw him just a few months ago, also at a Heartland gathering. But somehow we would always talk about a mutual friend from 50 years ago that influenced both of our lives – the 1967 Big Snow in Chicago. John was always spunky, articulate, pithy, opinionated, and informed, an old style forecaster who preferred his experience and intuition over the models (both weather forecast and climate models, may I add). A brief chat with John would make your day.
We’ll miss him, but he had a very full life and I’m sure he enjoyed every second of it.
My hero!
What a loss.
John Coleman
Enthusiastic
(http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/01/14/john-colemans-tv-special-tonight-global-warming-the-other-side/#comment-290322 )
Encouraging
(https://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/02/21/joe-bastardi-resigns-at-accuweather-after-32-years/#comment-604469 )
(https://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/06/11/climate-skeptic-instructor-fired-from-oregon-state-university/#comment-1007161 )
Entrepreneurial
(https://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/05/02/30-years-ago-today-the-weather-channel-went-live/ )
Greathearted
(https://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/31/wuwt-and-weatherbell-help-kusi-tv-with-a-weather-forecasting-request-from-ice-trapped-ship-in-antarctica-akademik-shokalskiy/ )
(https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/04/23/hearing-restoration-with-gene-therapy-i-knew-this-day-would-come/#comment-1620124 )
(https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/05/19/congratulations-to-joe-doc-daleo/#comment-1640744 )
Bold Truth Teller
(https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/09/16/a-new-professional-society-for-meteorology-and-climatology-is-announced/ )
(See above article)
An Exhortation to Honor a True Champion of Truth and Liberty
Anthony: A lukewarm swamp with only an occasional rock of strongly argued, solid, CO2 science is not what John Coleman had in mind. It is time to re-group. Do as you did in the past, until around 2014, your best work to get the facts out about human CO2. Make – WUWT — great — again.
True gratitude will honor John Coleman.
There is a time for everything … a time to weep …
We mourn the loss of this fine man.
One More Day (Diamond Rio)
(youtube)
We also …
celebrate a life well-lived.
”It’s FRIDAAAAYYYY!!!!!” he shouts and leaps up into the air spinning around and runs out of the studio. …
… a time to dance …
(Ecclesiastes 3:4)
Well done, John Coleman. Well done.
A superlative eulogy, Janice….. of a generous life well lived.
Thanks, J Mac (hey, those Packers have been doing alright, huh? 🙂 ).
Janice, thank you.
Well said Janice. When meaningful words are called for, you can be counted on to supply them.
Thank you John Coleman for your wisdom, energy, enthusiasm, knowledge and perception. You will be very sadly missed. My sincere condolences to John’s family.