Growing up, Massachusetts native John Bernier was always on the move. He was, as he describes it, the “wild child running through the house.”
But, when longtime meteorologist Don Kent of WBZ TV in Boston would come on television, that wild child would stop whatever he was doing to watch. “I was enraptured by him,” Bernier says.
He credits Kent with sparking his interest in meteorology and leading him to a career that spanned decades, including 41 years at WRIC-TV8 here in Richmond. In April, Bernier retired from WRIC to take some well-deserved time off and start life anew.
His Place in Front of the Camera
Bernier knew he wanted to be a broadcast meteorologist when he was in high school. “My career goal was to replace Don Kent at WBZ,” he says.
By the time he got to college, Bernier, who graduated from University of Massachusetts (UMass Lowell), Magna Cum Laude, was embracing the entire aspect of the weather, always intrigued by the changes in the weather and how everything comes together in a forecast.
“You make your forecast, and you get the results of whether you were right or wrong the next day,” he says. “You get instant gratification or punishment.”
He’s always loved the public facing part of weather forecasting, working in front of the camera.
“You are doing your job and talking with people every day. The unfortunate part is they can’t talk back to you. You don’t get the interaction that you do in person-to-person conversation,” he says. “It’s kind of an education thing. You are educating people on the weather.”
Today, however, with social media always at hand, people can “talk back and sometimes in colorful language,” he adds.
That can be especially true when severe weather is in the forecast and emails start pouring in. People may be upset that a tornado warning interrupted their television program or may comment when six inches of snow was forecasted and their location only got four.
“Everybody goes into wish-casting. They go and look for the weather forecast that is closest to what they are wishing for and that’s not what the reality is,” Bernier says. “That’s the biggest thing with snowstorms.”
Joining the WRIC-TV Team
Bernier worked at several television stations around the country before settling into his job at WRIC in 1984. He felt that Richmond was a “good place to put down roots,” he says.
At work, he enjoyed the camaraderie that existed at the station and the ways “in which we adapted when things didn’t go right. We had to become very creative,” he says.
For example, on one occasion the system that controls the lighting in the studio went out. Everyone had to scramble to move things around so the newscast could go on. “That was a big come-together moment for the staff,” he says.
Over the years, issues have arisen but, he says, “That’s everywhere. It’s how you overcome that matters.”
What can’t be controlled is the weather. Bernier has seen some odd weather patterns that often surprise everyone, even meteorologists. That happened one day 35 years ago. “We had a dry thunderstorm come through. There was no rain, but the winds started gusting to 60 miles an hour. It knocked down trees,” he says. “It was the most interesting event. We thought, ‘How did that happen?’”
The winner of numerous awards, including the 1993 Emmy for best weathercaster in the mid-Atlantic region, Bernier has covered hurricanes, tornados, ice storms, tropical storms and much more. He vividly remembers the June 2012 derecho — straight line windstorm — which barreled through the southwestern part of Virginia, particularly the Roanoke Valley.
Someone came into the station telling everyone, “It looks like World War III out there,” Bernier says.
The 1998 ice storm on Super Bowl Sunday knocked WRIC off the air. “People were calling the television station upset,” Bernier says. But, thanks to Dominion Energy, a transformer was restored, and WRIC went back on the air.
Teaching the Younger Generation and Looking Toward the Future
Bernier wants the next generation to find the same joy in the world of weather as he does. For more than 20 years, he has served as an adjunct faculty member at the VCU Center for Environmental Studies where he teaches an introductory class on meteorology and climatology.
He enjoys teaching because he gets “a lot of interaction with the younger generation,” he says. “I have a mix of majors in my class.”
He remembers one art major that took his class. The student’s natural disaster project explained how dust bowl air was preserved in photography. “The student had pictures and explained each one of them,” he recalls.
Now that Bernier is retired, he still wants to teach. The father of two adult children, he is also planning to spend more time with his family, which includes his three grandchildren.
“I’ll do some hiking and outdoor recreation and maybe still dabble in the weather,” he says of his new lifestyle.
Since leaving WRIC, he’s definitely had a change in routine, he adds. “It’s a big change, but change is a constant.”
