Rob Guarino Defeats Cecily Tynan In Meteorologist Poll

The former FOX 29 personality is the subject of a massive write-in campaign.

On Friday, we decided to have a little fun with a poll asking you to vote for Philadelphia’s most reliable meteorologist. Well, it appears that many of you weren’t happy with our list of candidates, which included representatives of all of the major television stations in the city, as well as an honorary slot for John Bolaris, who is planning a major comeback. In the end, we received far more write-in votes than we did votes for any one individual listed on the poll.

The big winner is Rob Guarino. If that name rings a bell here in the Philadelphia area, it is because Guarino was once the lead meteorologist on Fox 29 before he was let go in 2008 to make way for the Second Coming of John Bolaris. Guarino was most recently on television in Arizona but left that job earlier this year after he was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving. But he’s back in the Philadelphia area and still predicting the weather via his (apparently popular) site, liveweatherblogs.com, where he posted a banner ad encouraging readers to vote for him in our poll.

“I want to be back on TV in Philly,” says Guarino, who runs Storm Surge LLC, his 6-year-old local company that provides customized forecasts to everyone from plow companies to brides (ask for the My Wedding Weatherman package). Guarino adds that he’s fighting the DUI charge. “I only blew a .081, and it was a hundred feet from my house,” he says. “It was a random stop, and I had no prior record. This is just a misdemeanor in Arizona.” (Upon hearing that Guarino spoke with Philadelphia magazine, his New York-based agent, who also represents Alycia Lane, called and asked that Guarino be removed from the polling altogether.)

Whatever his future in television or in the Arizona courts, Guarino received 31.8 percent of the 6,455 votes cast. Cecily Tynan placed a strong second, absolutely trouncing NBC 10’s Glenn “Hurricane” Schwartz and Sheena Parveen. But Tynan was quick to note (via Twitter) that any comparison between her and newcomer Parveen is unfair: “Thanks, but not really a fair comparison. I’ve been at #ActionNews for 18 years now.” Tynan also commented on the overall poll, writing, “The only poll I count: nightly ratings #ActionNews viewers r the best.”

Some novel write-in candidates:

• Captain Kangaroo
• my dog
• Don Tollfeson’s nose predicts snow
• me looking out the window
• I should go back to Minnesota where real weather exists
• God
• dartboard (more reliable and doesn’t know it’s a quasi-celebrity)
• Obama
• Peter Jackmeoff
• Rick James
• a fortune cookie
• Honestly do you have anything else better to do than trash these people? The science of Meterology is ever changing to the point that perhaps no one can really keep up with it except for Jesus Christ who dictates the weather in the first place!

And, yes, beloved weatherman Jim O’Brien, who died in a skydiving accident in 1983, received four write-in votes.

Below, the official results. An asterisk denotes a write-in candidate.

Candidate% of Vote
Rob Guarino*31.8
Cecily Tynan (ABC 6)26.8
Glenn Schwartz (NBC 10)10.4
Kate Bilo* (CBS 3)9.0
None of Them Have a Clue8.2
EPAWAblogs.com*4.0
Kathy Orr (CBS 3)2.3
Sheena Parveen (NBC 10)2.0
Caitlin Roth* (FOX 29)1.9
John Bolaris (TBD)1.4
Other0.7
Adam Joseph* (ABC 6)0.7
Scott Williams (FOX 29)0.4
Sue Serio* (FOX 29)0.3
Bill Henley* (NBC 10)0.06