Dallas Raines recalls the first time he was mesmerized by the weather.
A tornado watch had been issued in his hometown of Thomaston, Ga., and Raines and all the other sixth-graders had been ordered to shelter in a school basement. But he hid in a closet, lingering just long enough to see the funnel cloud and, later, giant pecan trees knocked over like saplings.
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“Something just changed for me,” Raines said. “I thought, ‘How can nature do this?’“
Raines is still asking those sorts of questions today and still with a child-like wonder, about six decades later. Granted, he has more answers now, as the chief meteorologist at ABC7 in Los Angeles, where he has spent more than 41 years forecasting the weather.
That puts the perpetually tanned and fit weatherman in rare company. A Texas weathercaster also put in 41 years at a single station before retiring in 1991. The reigning endurance champion for weathercasting in one locale appears to be Dick Goddard, who spent 51 years at WJW Channel 8 in Cleveland before his 2016 retirement.
“I still love it,” Raines, 72, said in an interview at the ABC7 studio in Glendale on Wednesday. “At this point in my career, it’s kind of like I’ll do whatever I can, if it helps the station.”
A fixture in the L.A. weather scene
When Raines (his real name) hit the 40-year mark in 2024, the station held an on-air celebration. It became clear from the array of celebrities who participated in a tribute reel that Raines had become a fixture, like Jack Nicholson sitting courtside at Lakers games.
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel recounted how he contacted Raines when a thunderstorm threatened to interrupt his wedding in Ojai.
“I called Dallas and I said, ‘Dallas, please, is there anything you could do?’ And Dallas went outside on this front lawn,” Kimmel said. “He looked up at the sky and he shouted at the thunderclouds, ‘Go away! I beseech thee!’ And the sky cleared, we had a beautiful wedding thanks to the power of Mr. Dallas Raines.”
Colleagues like to mimic his fist pump and the way he crouches down to get just the right angle on the maps flowing behind him on a green screen. He appears weekdays on newscasts at 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. There can be as many as 13 on-air appearances across those four newscasts, with only a couple of hours at home in La Cañada Flintridge to regroup before driving back to Glendale for the late news.
“You are Los Angeles weather,” Lisa Ann Walter of television’s “Abbott Elementary” said in the tribute video. “You’re mostly sunny and sometimes a little windy.”
Replacing Dr. Fischbeck
Raines recalls coming home from that childhood twister to pore over encyclopedia entries on meteorology. When he went to Florida State University (where he also walked on as a football quarterback) he studied broadcasting, with meteorology as a minor.
Dr. George Fischbeck served for years before Raines at KABC. The mustachioed weatherman, with his heavy-rimmed glasses, could have passed for Groucho Marx. He practically burst through the screen with excitement about seemingly every forecast. “Those shows were incredibly compelling,” Raines said. “And that’s what I’ve tried to carry through all of these years.”
Raines, a married father of three grown children, has heard all the jokes about the superfluousness of a meteorologist in mild L.A. “No, we don’t have hurricanes, or only two in recorded history,” Raines said, noting one hit in 1858 in San Diego and the other in 1939 in Long Beach (though, by landfall, it was downgraded to a tropical storm.) “But we have all these microclimates. People have completely different ideas once they’ve lived here and seen it.”
He recalled how deadly serious weather can become, as when mudslides in Montecito after a 2018 deluge killed 23 people and when a wind-driven fire calamity destroyed broad sections of Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Malibu this year. Make no mistake, Raines said: “The weather is really a big deal.”
Today’s top stories 
Rashi Kaslow on the docks in Marina del Rey near where he lives on a boat after he lost his home in the Palisades fire.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
After the fires, through personal lensesReiner murder investigationMore than $10 million for L.A. homeless preventionOn Wednesday, the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency voted unanimously to approve the funding, the largest single allocation for the agency.Of the nearly $11.5 million in funding, $7.6 million will go to direct rental subsidies and flexible financial assistance to people at risk of homelessness, while an additional $3.8 million will go toward facilitating the effort.Oscars will move to YouTube from ABCStarting in 2029, Hollywood’s biggest night will switch to streaming live and for free on the video platform.The deal between YouTube and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will begin with the 101st ceremony and run through 2033, ending a five-decade partnership with ABC.AI in HollywoodWhat else is going onCommentary and opinionsThis morning’s must readFor your downtime 
Former Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist Will Butler composed the music for the Tony-winning play “Stereophonic,” which is being performed at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre through Jan. 2.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Going outStaying inA question for you: What is your favorite Rob Reiner movie?
Rachel Valdez said, “There are so many. ‘When Harry Met Sally,’ I’ll go with that one.”
Denise Wasko said, “Easily, ‘This Is Spinal Tap.’ Freaking hilarious. And I was quite pleased to see that ‘Spinal Tap II: The End Continues’ was just as self-aware and hilarious. Even though one could likely predict the ending, the portrayal was balletic and riveting (much like falling with your hand in your pockets). RIP, Rob and Michele.”
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And finally … from our archives 
Hours before he would be impeached in 2019, President Trump leaves the White House for a campaign event in Battle Creek, Mich.
(Mark Wilson / Getty Images)
On Dec. 18, 2019, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The vote split the then-Democratic-controlled House, with every Republican voting no.
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
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