TAMPA -- TV weather pioneer Roy Leep, whose forecasts got Tampa Bay through hurricanes, tropical storms, freezes and even snow, has passed away at the age of 88, according to his former station, WTVT (Fox 13), which reports that he died on the first day of the 2021 hurricane season.
Leep joined WTVT, then a CBS affiliate, in the 1950s, soon became chief meteorologist, and promoted a scientific approach to weather. Leep carried the seal of approval of the American Meteorological Society (#10) at a time when many weather "forecasters" on TV had no formal training and simply read the forecasts from the U.S. Weather Bureau, forerunner to the National Weather Service.
Leep installed the first TV radar in Florida in 1959 and the first color radar in Florida (and the second in the nation) by a TV station in 1976. At the time, he was, along with news anchor Hugh Smith and sports anchor Andy Hardy, that dominated Tampa TV news in the 1970s.
The longtime forecaster is remembered for being the first to predict that Hurricane Elena, poised in the Gulf less than 100 miles from Tampa Bay, would turn north and keep its eye offshore, in 1985.
In later years, Leep was joined on his weather segments by Scud, his cairn terrier, known as "Scud the Weather Dog". Leep retired in 1997.
Read more about Leep's career at this link:
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