TVSpy

Chicago’s WFLD has hired weathercaster Bill Bellis to bolster its dwindling weather team. Bellis comes to WFLD from Phoenix’s KNXV and will fill a hole left by the recent departure of WFLD’s weekend meteorologist Chris Sowers, whose contract with the station expired in October.

Bellis had been KNXV’s chief meteorologist since 2003 and the Chicago Tribune speculates that he may eventually assume the same role at WFLD. According to the Tribune, the contract of Amy Freeze, WFLD’s current lead weathercaster, expires in February and has not yet been renewed.

Bellis has a degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of Arizona in Tucson. Although much of his meteorology experience has come in the arid southwestern climate, Bellis is no stranger to the brutal winters he will likely face in Chicago. He grew up in Long Island, New York and his family often vacationed in snowy Vermont during the winter. In a way, Chicago’s chilly atmosphere is a return to Bellis’s roots.