Weather Icon Passes Away

[ThunderJay27 45]

Jim Giles, former KOTV (Tulsa, OK) chief meteorologist passed away nearly a month after retiring. He died of congestional heart disease. He started in weather in the military in the 1950's and has been KOTV's chief for more than 25 years. He's also responsible for the start of the "Pathfinder" radar feature used commonly in most live radars today. Here's the link and you can see all videos here. It was also nice to see that KJRH, a rival station in town, was sensical enough to put rivalry aside and honor Jim. Dan Threlkeld, KJRH's Chief has a tribute to him as well. He will be missed and condolances go out his family, KOTV, and my 2nd home of Tulsa, OK.

 

http://kotv.com/special/Jim-Giles/

http://2worksforyou.com/video/jimgiles.asx

http://2worksforyou.com/weather/askdan.shtml

[jdcnow 14]

One of the greats of the weather forecasting profession. He will be truly missed.

[West Texas 0]

Indeed. He reminds me of the late John Hope of The Weather Channel.

[TexasTVNews 1377]

I went to Tulsa last year to watch Jim, I've admire his work in Tulsa over the years

but he's a wonderful man and he'll truly be missed. Our hearts and our prayers are

with Jim's family and his colleagues at KOTV - The News 0 6.

[CDubya87 0]

Working for KSNF in Joplin, our coverage area overlaps with part of Tulsa's, so both Joplin and Tulsa stations are offered on basic cable (and can be picked up over the air) in certain parts of Northeast Oklahoma. While storm chasing during the March 12, 2006 outbreak in our viewing area, a reporter and I were just to the southwest of Independence, Kansas, in a small rural community that had suffered damage. While we were getting maps to damage reports, another wave of severe storms rolled through, causing us to seek refuge in the fire station. While there, the station they were watching was KOTV. I remember the announcer coming on and say "Now, A News On 6 Severe Weather Alert" and up popped Jim Giles, he sounded so confident, so assured, and was very reassuring in his tone and descriptions of the exact storm that was affecting the small town we were in. Although I only caught a few minutes of this man, I could tell then that he was a great Meteorologist, and I know for those who saw him regularly and trusted his voice and forecasts, he will be truly missed. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, those who worked with him at KOTV, and all those who looked to him for confidence during our worst storms.

[tvpirate05 1]

RIP. My condolences go out to his family.