John Bolaris

John Bolaris (born June 27, 1957) is the former chief meteorologist for WTXF, the Fox affiliate in Philadelphia. He began working for the station in January 2008 after a five year stint as meteorologist at WCBS in New York, which was his second stint at the station. Bolaris also worked at Philadelphia's WCAU-TV NBC 10 after his first stint at WCBS-TV.

A 1975 graduate of Connetquot High School, Bolaris started his career in 1982 at Metro Weather Service where he worked as a syndicated meteorologist until 1987, when he joined News 12 Long Island. Later that year, he was hired by WCBS to be their weekend meteorologist and stayed there until 1990.

After leaving WCBS the first time Bolaris relocated to Philadelphia, where he went to work for then-CBS affiliate WCAU-TV. He remained at the station for 13 years, departing in 2003 to return to WCBS as its chief meteorologist. Toward the end of his second time at the station Bolaris was taken off the nightly newscasts, working mornings and weekends until his departure. While at WCBS, he also occasionally filled in for Dave Price on CBS' The Early Show.

On November 1, 2007, it was announced that he would move back to Philadelphia to become the chief weatherman for WTXF-TV, for their 5 p.m and 10 p.m. newscasts. His first broadcast upon his return to Philadelphia was on January 8, 2008.

On December 22, 2011, Bolaris was suspended indefinitely from WTXF. He was released from this contract on January 10, 2012.

He has an associate's degree in applied science from Suffolk County Community College and studied meteorology at the U.S. Air Force Weather Technical School.

Bolaris has won four Emmy awards—three for Best Weathercaster and one for Best Entertainment Host for "Time Out," a show he co-hosted for five years on NBC 10.

He has one daughter, Reina Sofia with Tiffany McElroy formerly of New York station WPIX, who also worked with Bolaris at WCAU in Philadelphia.

Storm of the Century, and departure from WCAU

In March 2001, John Bolaris became infamous in Philadelphia at WCAU (NBC10) in Philadelphia for predicting the "Storm of the Century". That storm stayed north of the area.

By comparing the upcoming storm to a past storm, Bolaris made a prediction on a Wednesday that scared viewers into staying home and preparing for a major storm. Bolaris insisted that a "Breaking News" crawl be put up during Law and Order. It was the last night of the February sweeps ratings period and Bolaris was accused of hyping the storm for ratings. It was forecast to hit on Monday of the following week, but it missed Philadelphia. Bolaris's last broadcast was that Friday and he stuck with his forecast, even though others backed off. Bolaris, as chief meteorologist, never took the opportunity to change the forecast over the weekend. The lead meteorologists at every other station in town came into work and changed the forecast before Wednesday.

During the week leading up to the storm, Bolaris urged viewers to stay home and make alternate arrangements for an impending Monday storm that was to dump snowfall similar to the Blizzard of 1996 that hit Philadelphia. The storm only resulted in a couple of inches of snow for the area. Following the storm that wasn't, Bolaris was booed when his face was shown on the video screen at a Philadelphia Flyers game and Bolaris claims that he even received death threats from viewers. Bolaris told Philadelphia Magazine in 2007 that the incident still haunts him and played a role in his departure from WCAU to return to New York, but refused to accept the full blame for his forecast because no one believed the path of the storm would change as drastically as it did. At the time of the blown forecast, Bolaris did accept full responsibility and apologized in a cover story in the Philadelphia Daily News.

Bolaris would be later phased out from WCAU and would rejoin New York's WCBS Channel 2 for a second stint between 2002-2008. He would be replaced at channel 2 with Lonnie Quinn.

South Beach scam, suspension and departure from WTXF

In March 2010, Bolaris was the victim of a "Bar Girls" scam run by an international crime ring. He was drugged and his American Express card was charged for $43,000. AMEX did not believe his story of being scammed and sent his account to collection. In April 2011, with the help of Bolaris' testimony, the FBI busted the crime ring and arrested 17 people.

"Listen really want to be back at FOX(29), bunch of great peeps there, front and behind camera , hopefully it all works out , love your support !"

A message from John Bolaris on Twitter on January 4th, 2012. He tweeted this prior to the announcement that he would not return to WTXF

Bolaris's Miami Beach experience was the subject of an article in the January/February 2012 issue of Playboy magazine and he was quoted throughout the story. Shortly after the issue was released (in early December 2011), Bolaris was suspended indefinitely from FOX 29. It was reported that station management was unhappy with the way Bolaris came across in the article.

On January 4th, 2012, Bolaris tweeted that he would like to return to work at Fox 29. However, a few days later on the 11th, a WTXF spokesperson confirmed to the Philadelphia Daily News that he and WTXF mutually agreed to part ways. Philly.com also reported that on January 5th, a Fox 29 employee emailed the Daily News asking to remove Bolaris’ photo from the Fox weather forecasts on Page 2 of the Daily News.