Thoughts on Greg Fishel
Thoughts on Greg Fishel
I was absolutely shocked to read the news that WRAL had parted ways with longtime meteorologist, Greg Fishel. The legal speak reads he resigned on his own accord, but would have been fired otherwise. Fishel is about as close as you can come to a local celebrity in the Triangle area. He's been doing weather on-air at WRAL since 1981. That's almost 40 years of being an on-air meteorologist for the Triangle viewing community.
As someone that's always had a deep fascination with meteorology I've always gravitated towards Greg Fishel. Jim Cantore was my guy at the Weather Channel, but on a local level you couldn't get better than Greg Fishel. There was a super nerdy, but honest quality about him that I found so deeply engrossing. He was someone that LOVED weather. I've also met most of the local meteorologists like Bill Reh and Chris Hohmann through various circumstances, I never got a chance to personally meet Greg Fishel. Even when I worked at WRAL, he was the one person there I wanted to meet, but never did. I talked to him a couple times over mics, but sadly never got to actually meet him. I even had a momentary crisis in my meteorologist hero worship of him when I learned he was at one point a climate change denier, but had quickly turned his back on that world and was now really championing education on climate change and what we could do on a local level to prevent it.
It was truly disheartening to read that he'd essentially been let go from WRAL. For what reason? Nothing's been officially made clear. There's fair assumptions that you can piece together from local rumors, compiled with a recent leave of absence from his typical evening broadcasts before he was officially let go. When you read enough into of those things there's a clear throughline. He's a man with some demons that he's fighting and they might have finally got the best of him. For now we have the corporate press statement that really seems to ring hollow for someone that's been doing weather for close to 40 years at the same station, and someone that a lot of people look to as a calming presence on the evening news.
I have a lot of anxiety about weather situations. Hurricanes, thunderstorms, particularly tornadoes... but having it all explained on a very scientific level always put me at ease. The more you know about something the less scary it actually is. In fact it can even be fascinating too. I always found the scientific factors of weather being explained in detail as one of the best ways to relieve and cope with my anxiety. A lot of on-air meteorologists like to sensationalize their forecasts and predictions. I always found Greg Fishel as someone that would tell you just the facts, and he might throw in a really bad dad-pun while he's at it. He's comes across a goofy dude, but there's a sincerity to him that really shines through in his work.
Will Greg show back up on air in a few years on a different local network affiliate, i'd like to think so. I'm not gonna lie, going into tornado season 2019 without Greg Fishel is going to be a really strange thing for me, and i'd imagine i'm not the only one in the Triangle area that feels that way. I'm in a point in my life where things that have been constants for a very long time are suddenly not there. People are dead. People are gone. Things that i've accepted as permanent fixtures of my world are just no longer there anymore. My favorite local meteorologist is gone (not dead) but gone. I'll admit it's a very unusual thing to get emotional over. I've been watching Greg Fishel since I can remember so it's almost like removing a weatherperson weighted blanket. Most of the time you turn on the local news you see a new weatherperson most of the time. Some stay. Some go onto other markets. Greg Fishel kind of felt like a permanent fixture of WRAL and the shared Raleigh/Durham community, and it's a real bummer that he's gone now. I hope he finds peace in his life and is able to get back being their for his family, friends and himself. I didn't start out this piece thinking i'd get emotional about a local weather person and unintentionally writing what seems to be a eulogy for someone that's not actually dead. That's where this ended up. Emotions are weird y'all.
