Beloved TV anchor tries giving SC weather forecast before retiring. Here’s how it went
A TV news anchor is retiring after decades on the air — but not before trying his hand at the South Carolina weather forecast.
“This is like surrendering the aircraft to a 12-year-old at 36,000 feet,” said Michael Cogdill, a longtime fixture on the anchor desk at the Greenville-based station WYFF.
The station, an NBC affiliate, said colleague “Parella Lewis threw him a curve ball and had him do the weather.”
Video shows Cogdill standing in front of a South Carolina map as forecast-related graphics cross the screen on Monday, Nov. 22.
“This is what’s to come,” he told viewers about one of the graphics. “I have no idea what it is, but it’s coming.”
The laughter-filled segment aired one day before Cogdill was set to retire from WYFF. After working for the station since 1989, he plans to publish a book and launch a company, McClatchy News reported.
“Tomorrow is my last night here at WYFF 4 — emphasis: night,” Cogdill said during the Nov. 22 forecast. “I am a nocturnal sort of chap.”
Instead, he was up at 6:39 a.m. to share the forecast on live TV. And he said he didn’t like the colder temperatures he saw in the days ahead.
“Oh my goodness, no,” he said as he pointed at Nov. 23’s predicted low of 29 degrees. “Get me to Aruba.”
It turns out, it’s not Cogdill’s first time doing the weather. He said he had given the forecast “like a generation ago, by accident.”
This time around, viewers praised his effort on social media.
“Michael was hilarious, while still managing to give us a good idea of the upcoming weather,” one Facebook user wrote. “Bravo, sir!”
Another person commented: “I loved this !! Michael Cogdill you can do it all. Trying for sports next??”
