Outlook is ‘more of the other stuff’; weatherman predicts retirement plans

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This article was published 30/10/2023 (1066 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The long-range forecast is for retirement with a good chance of leisure for CBC Manitoba meteorologist John Sauder.

Sauder, who has been advising listeners first, then viewers, about Manitoba’s ever-changing and frequently extreme weather conditions for nearly four decades, announced Monday that’s leaving the studio and heading, well… outside.

“It is simply time for me to do more of the other stuff, more golfing, more hiking, more travelling, more sailing, and way more relaxing. I’m looking forward to doing all of that with my wonderful wife, Kim, of course when the weather is perfect,” he said in a social media post to his 9,000 Facebook followers.

“I’m sad to leave but excited for the future.”

His original dream was to be a pilot. He got the chance when, after obtaining his private pilot’s licence in 1980, he was hired as “Captain John,” in 1984, simultaneously giving on-air traffic reports for Winnipeg’s KY-58/92 CITI-FM while piloting a Cessna 152 plane.

After 10 years in the air, he found himself on-screen in 1995 filling in for CTV Winnipeg’s Sylvia Kuzyk, before joining the network full-time in 2000. He went back to school to become a meteorologist in 2004, earning a certificate in broadcast meteorology from Mississippi State University. He left CTV and joined CBC in 2007, where he has been the face of the broadcaster’s nightly newscast weather reports.

He is set to leave the position in early January.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca