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Harvey Leonard to retire from full-time weather forecasting

Harvey and Mike's Blizzard Warning forecast

Leonard and Mike Wankum forecast the first of the 2015 blizzards.

WCVB reports that Harvey Leonard is retiring from daily forecasting on May 25, but that this fall he will become the station's chief meteorologist emeritus, in which he will come back on air for severe-weather and climate coverage.

Leonard has been doing New England weather for some 50 years. He's been with Channel 5 for the last 20, but gained fame with his accurate prediction of, yes, the Blizzard of '78 (compare the weather map below with the one above):

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Comments

Now it will have to say "Harvey Leonard comes out of retirement ..."

I'm glad that he will be focusing on the climate mission, though.

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Right. I was just thinking that Harvey gets to come back for the fun stuff that I know he loves (storms!).

Weather people are going to be the rock in the climate mission. They can see the changes and all the data is right in front of them.

It'd be pretty hard to be a climate change denialist if you were a weather person.. (but then again, I see nurses who are against vaccines cuz of Q, so yeah.. maybe not so hard)

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Now to remember his name. I think he only did weather on the weekends.

He wound up on some station in Maine.

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.

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And did he have a run-in with the law at a Jimmy Buffett show in 2001?

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Although "missing" might not be the word here...

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He's showing up and talking about climate communication at academic and government adaptation/mitigation conferences as of late. https://niemanreports.org/sites/covering-climate-change/speakers-and-par...

Dude rocks it.

Climate is bigger than he is.

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EDIT: I know that Harvey Leonard is the French Toast bellwether; my suggestions are based what we see on TV when these storms come in.

1 Slice / Low: No storm predicted. Weather forecasters glum, talking about other topics, such as what they did on the weekend or their most recent school visit. Go about your daily business but consider buying second refrigerator for basement, diesel generator. Good time to replenish stocks of maple syrup, cinnamon.

2 Slices / Guarded: Light snow predicted. Weather forecasters slightly more animated, talk about flurries and potential light snow for a few towns. Check car fuel gauge, memorize quickest route to emergency supermarket should conditions change.

3 Slices / Elevated: Moderate, plowable snow predicted. Weather forecasters perked up, talking about "up to 6-8 inches of snow, with jackpots of a foot in isolated areas." Reporters strategically located at DPW depots, supermarkets and hardware stores. Empty your trunk to make room for milk, eggs and bread. Clear space in refrigerator and head to store for an extra gallon of milk, a spare dozen eggs and a new loaf of bread.

4 Slices / High: Heavy snow predicted. Weather forecasters go into "tag team" mode, with one talking right after the other, with spaghetti plots and predicting if the snow will go near "the benchmark." Reporters spread across the area, ready to go into "Brady Bunch" mode (nine or more reporters), including those who are at the coast. Jim Cantore has checked into his hotel and is on the scene, looking at charts for potential thundersnow. Proceed at speed limit before snow starts to nearest supermarket to pick up two gallons of milk, a couple dozen eggs and two loaves of bread - per person in household.

5 Slices / Severe: Nor'easter predicted. This is it, people, THE BIG ONE. Weather forecasters in full tag-team mode and talk about Blizzard of '78. Jim Cantore goes into a frenzy with thundersnow. Reporters pressed into "Super Brady Bunch" mode, with no less than 12 reporters talking about the huge snowstorm. RUSH to emergency supermarket NOW for multiple gallons of milk, cartons of eggs and loaves of bread. IGNORE cries of little old lady you've just trampled in mad rush to get last gallon of milk. Place pets in basement for use as emergency food supply if needed.

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I vote we keep the Harvey Leonard French Toast system as is. Anything else is sacrilege.

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Since Leonard will still be coming in for the big storms, you know, the French Toast Makers, for now he's still the go-to French Toast Scale guy for me.

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My thinking was to use all those winter weather clichés I see on New England TV (I even forgot Jim Cantore going bananas over thundersnow!), but you're right...maybe we should call it the Harvey Leonard French Toast Alert scale.

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