What excites a TV weatherman? A tornado? Hurricane? Tropical storm? How about a thunderstorm? No? What then?
A city. One that he’s lived in for 37 years. A city in Florida born out of nothing where 400+ miles of canals were built by the Army Corps of Engineers and, according to Jim, is the 8th Wonder of the World.
Jim Farrell is WINK-TV’s chief meteorologist and a proud Cape Coral resident. But, for all of us who watch him every night (and that’s a lot of us here in the Cape,) we think he can predict where a hurricane is going with uncanny accuracy. After all, he did just that in 2004 AND 2017.
Jim came to Ft. Myers in 1981 after stints as a school science teacher and a radio broadcaster in Miami. He’s originally from Philadelphia and a graduate of Westchester State College. He loves broadcasting and came to the realization that there weren’t a whole lot of radio personalities over the age of 50. When a buddy suggested be look into a place called Fort Myers that had a job opening at the local TV station, he jumped at the chance. Thirty-seven years later, he still wonders how, with not one home sold, a city could spring out of nowhere and become Florida’s largest city (land mass wise) and, as he says, “get it right.”
When he’s not forecasting our weather, Jim loves boating, fishing, biking, the family dog, a Shetland Shelty, and anything outdoors. His family and his church keep him grounded (that’s a weather term.) This personable gentleman loves his privacy, although he’s all over the TV screen every night. “It’s the weather here in Southwest Florida,” he says, that brought him here, but it’s the city of Cape Coral that he loves so much.
We’re glad you do, Jim, because when we need to plan our next days’ activities, it’s you we count on. You, WINK-TV, and our hometown weatherman, Jim Farrell.
