Meteorologist John Ghiorse Was A Providence TV Rock Star

Long before there was a Weather Channel or Jim Cantore made big business out of chasing storms up and down the East Coast, there were local weather forecasters. Some, through presentation, personality and accuracy, became local legends.

Don Kent, Dick Albert and Barry Burbank were just a few of the legendary Boston media forecasters to gain notoriety in a society increasingly fascinated by weather.

In the Providence television market, Art Lake left his imprint.

But perhaps no area meteorologist was as beloved and trusted as John Ghiorse. Trust is a big thing when you are making decisions about canceling or going ahead with outdoor plans or calling off school ahead of an anticipated snowstorm.

John Ghiorse was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, on May 6, 1939. Ghiorise graduated from Braintree High School in 1957 and Harvard College with a chemistry degree four years later.

According to the Rhode Island Radio & TV Hall of Fame, of which he is a member, Ghiorse served in the Air Force, with tours of duty that included Thailand and Vietnam, and studied meteorology at Pennsylvania University.

Following a stint at WITC-TV Channel 3 in Hartford, Connecticut, Ghiorse became the first professional meteorologist in the Providence television market when he joined WJAR-TV Channel 10 in 1968.

Ghiorse was with Channel 10 for one of the region's most significant weather stories in modern times, the Blizzard of '78.

Ghiorse jumped ship in 1983, signing with rival WLNE-TV Channel 6, but returned to Channel 10 in 1998, where he stayed until his retirement in 2009.

John and his wife Connie, who raised four children, retired to The Villages, Florida. He told The Villages Daily Sun, "I was always intrigued by the weather, snowstorms, the change of seasons and the like."

Ghiorse's "Ghiorse Factor" always helped his viewers to plan for the day ahead. The 1-10 ranking gave viewers a quick sense of it was going to be a bad weather day (the lower end of the ranking) or a great weather day (the higher end).