R.I.P.: Doug Hill, Beloved Washington D-C Meteorologist

Doug Hill (1950-2021)

For 33 years, Washington meteorologist Doug Hill stepped in front of the green screen to help viewers plan around the weather, guiding them through days of sunshine, rain and seemingly never-ending snow, including during storms with names like Snowpocalypse and Snowmageddon.

With his silver hair, baritone voice and unflappable demeanor, he was a soothing fixture of CBS affiliate WUSA Channel 9 and of WJLA ABC7, where he served as chief meteorologist before retiring in 2017. He also appeared regularly on WTOP-FM, sometimes calling in while he was driving to provide live weather updates. 

Hill was so devoted to the job — and so enamored with the weather, even if he never really loved the cold — that despite having the flu during the Snowzilla blizzard of 2016, when one to three feet fell across the region, “he was on for like 12 hours straight,” said Alex Liggitt, the weekend morning meteorologist at ABC7.

The Washington Post reports Hill was 71 when he died Nov. 22 at his home in Leland, N.C. His daughter, Maggie Hill, confirmed the death but did not cite a cause.

Hill developed a profound interest in both meteorology and Christianity — “I got fed science from my father and the Bible from my mother,” he said — and worked in recent years at a Christian radio station, WGTS-FM. Decades earlier, its music had offered him solace after the death of his 3-year-old son, Michael, from a heart attack, which Hill called “the worst” moment of his life.

For some viewers, his own broadcasts were a balm of sorts, even if they were usually limited to discussions of precipitation totals or high and low temperatures. He said that he fielded calls from viewers each day, including parents who asked him to help their children with science homework, and at least one woman who wanted to ask about a mysterious object she saw in the night sky. (It was probably Venus, he told her.)