KPIX (CBS5) apparently has hired a new chief meteorologist — and it’s no one you know.
Rather than stay in-house, or raid another Bay Area station, KPIX has chosen to give the job to Paul Heggen, who has been working as a weekday morning weatherman for a CBS affiliate in Raleigh, North Carolina.
KPIX has yet to publicly announce the hiring, but Heggen revealed the news via his Twitter feed, writing that “… I look forward to predicting the vagaries of @KarlTheFog & all of the Bay Area micro-climates, and forecasting on the front lines of climate change.”
BIG NEWS! I'm thrilled to announce I'll be joining the team at @KPIXtv in San Francisco in March, as their new Chief Meteorologist. I look forward to predicting the vagaries of @KarlTheFog & all of the Bay Area micro-climates, and forecasting on the front lines of climate change. pic.twitter.com/K4Xinn63sT
— Paul Heggen @paulkpix.bsky.social (@PaulKPIX) February 11, 2020
The hiring of Heggen may come as somewhat of a surprise. Just this week, Bay Area media blogger Rich Lieberman was speculating that KPIX would stay in-house and go with either Darren Peck or Brian Hackney. “My money is on Peck,” he wrote.
The chief meteorologist position at KPIX came open in October when Paul Deanno left the San Francisco station for a similar position at Chicago’s NBC affiliate WMAQ. Deanno spent seven years as KPIX’s chief meteorologist, replacing longtime Channel 5 fixture Roberta Gonzales.
Heggen, who grew up in South St. Paul, Minnesota, earned a master’s degree in meteorology from Texas A&M University. Before arriving in Raleigh in the fall of 2017, he worked for stations in Nashville, Tennessee, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Huntington, West Virginia, Duluth, Minnesota, and Beaumont, Texas.
Heggen must be regarded as a rising star among the CBS television group. For his work during Hurricane Florence, he was named “Weathercaster of the Year” by the Radio, Television and Digital News Association of the Carolinas. The Bay Area is his biggest market by far.
Heggen is known in part for one of his dogs, Dagny, who served as the CBS 17 “Weather Dog,” appearing with Heggen on air Friday mornings. (Dagny has announced through social media that she is retiring from being an official TV weather dog.)
