Florida News Center

(from BroadcastingCable.com) – Meteorologists from across the country will compete against each other for charity on Thursday, Nov. 8, on Warner Bros.’ Let’s Ask America, which currently airs on 14 Scripps-owned TV stations.

WMGH Denver’s Lisa Hidalgo, WFTS Tampa’s Denis Phillips, WCPO Cincinnati’s Steve Raleigh and WRTV Indianapolis’ Ashley Brown all will play to raise money for the American Red Cross and those in need due to Hurricane Sandy.

Hosted by Kevin Pereira, Let’s Ask America airs weekdays and weekends in Tampa and Cincinnati and on weekends in Denver and Indianapolis. The show features contestants playing from home via Skype. To win, players have to correctly predict the majority response to various poll topics….

Tampa’s WTVT gets a bit futuristic, with their new weather promo (below). Watch as station chief meteorologist Paul Dellegatto uses some magical finger technology to promote the weather department and Tampa Bay landmark, Sky Tower Radar. My favorite part is the expression on the faces of the other hologram weather staff (unfortunately, not easily seen in this video).

On a completely unrelated note, (yet comical and quite fitting) WFTS chief meteorologist Denis Phillips posted this (below) on his Facebook page today. I found his commentary to be an appropriate side dish to the dramatic WTVT promo above.

WFTS chief meteorologist Denis Phillips experienced the reality of the weather that he covers, during a severe weather front that rolled through the Tampa Bay area today. A bolt of lightning struck Phillips’ Palm Harbor home, frying electronics and bursting pipes throughout the house. Phillips wrote on Facebook:

Ok, anyone know a good electrician and plumber? You won’t believe this…talk about irony. House got hit by lightning today! Two big black holes in the front of the house where the bolt went in, then came out. Suffice to say, electronics pretty much fried and pipes burst. See, it CAN happen to you! Ok, maybe not you, but certainly ME!

(from TampaBay.com) - The question comes at Denis Phillips several times a day, delivered by e-mail from curious viewers struggling with the longest cold snap the Tampa Bay area has seen in a while.

From their end of the send button, it’s a simple inquiry. But Phillips, chief meteorologist at Tampa ABC affiliate WFTS-Ch. 28, knows there is no such thing when the question involves whether global warming actually exists.

“The thing I typically say is, there’s a lot of people who are passionate on both sides of the argument, but nobody knows yet,” said Phillips, estimating he gets about five e-mails a day on the topic. “You can look at what’s going into the atmosphere and we see it’s having an effect on components of the atmosphere. But there’s nobody….Cont….