Tom Skilling

About

Thomas Ethelbert Skilling III (born February 20, 1952) is a former American television meteorologist. From 1978 to his retirement in 2024, he worked as a meteorologist at WGN-TV in Chicago.

The oldest of four children, Tom Skilling was born at Magee Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Thomas Jr. and Betty (Clarke) Skilling. His early years were spent in Westfield, New Jersey. The family moved to the Chicago suburb of Aurora, Illinois, where he attended West Aurora High School. While in high school Skilling began his career in broadcasting at age 14, working for WKKD and WKKD-FM. Skilling observed that WKKD’s forecasts were inaccurate because they were for Chicago and not Aurora, so he approached WKKD and offered to forecast the weather for several days, with the condition that if his forecasts were accurate he would be hired to host his own weather program. Skilling’s forecasts were accurate, and he was hired to forecast Aurora’s weather three times a day. At age 18, he began working at WLXT-TV in Aurora.
Skilling attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison to study meteorology and journalism. While attending the University of Wisconsin–Madison…