George Winterling

George Alfred Winterling (September 1, 1931 – June 21, 2023) was an American television meteorologist and the creator of the "heat index". Chief meteorologist for television station WJXT in Jacksonville, Florida for almost 50 years, Winterling helped develop modern forecasting.

Education Winterling was born in New Jersey, but moved with his family to Jacksonville at age 10. He graduated from Robert E. Lee High School in 1949 and joined the United States Air Force. After discovering that cadet training required two years of college, he chose meteorology and was sent to Weather Observers School at Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, Illinois. He was stationed for a year at Turner Air Force Base in Albany, Georgia, then attended Intermediate Meteorology School at Oklahoma A&M in Stillwater. He was posted to Shemya Air Force Base in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska where he observed storms in the Pacific Ocean.

Broadcasting In 1962, Winterling approached WJXT management with a new idea: add a meteorologist to the news broadcast to present a weather forecast. The idea was accepted and he was hired for the job. Less than two years later, Winterling was the only local forecaster to warn Jacksonville residents that Hurricane Dora would make landfall on the First Coast.

Winterling had been a member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) since 1963 and his broadcasts carried their Seal of Approval.

Before satellite pictures were available, he created and copyrighted the space-view maps to portray weather systems across the country, and began the practice of calculating rainfall probability. In 1969, Winterling was appointed to the Board of Radio and Television Weathercasting and redesigned the AMS Seal of Approval during 1973. He was employed by Jacksonville University as an adjunct professor beginning in 1975, teaching meteorology through 1994. To account for the combination of summer heat and humidity, he created the "humiture" calculation in 1978, which the National Weather Service adopted as heat index the following year.

Winterling received an outstanding service award from the AMS in 1984 for his use of animation to enable viewers to better understand weather phenomenon. He became a Certified Consulting Meteorologist after passing the AMS exam in 1989.

Garden Winterling was also known for his gardening skills. His interest in gardening began with his mother's victory garden during World War II. He maintained a garden at his home, and shared pictures and produce with other employees. WJXT's station manager suggested that he begin a garden at the station in 1991 and they created a weekly segment called George's Garden, which offered advice on when to plant, what to grow, watering, and fertilization.