The Good Life – March-April 2021

HAVING A BEER WITH
ROB KUPEC
Born in Willimantic, Conn., an old
mill town on the eastern part of the
state, Rob Kupec knew he wanted to
be a weatherman by second grade.
Years later, he went to school for
meteorology in Albany, N.Y. But
before he started working in the
industry he worked other jobs, like
as a coffee salesman and an assistant
restaurant manager.
For nearly 19 years, Kupec has been
a recognizable face in the Fargo-
Moorhead area, bringing the forecast
to thousands of homes. At KVRR
FOX, Kupec has been the chief
meteorologist for 8 years, fulfilling
his lifelong dream of tracking the
weather for a living.
On a perfectly appropriate day of
fluffy flurries, Kupec and I met at
Drekker to chat about his life. Read
WRITTEN BY: MEGHAN FEIR
PHOTOS BY: URBAN TOAD MEDIA
on to find out if he’s ever had a ghostly
encounter and whether or not circus
peanuts candy should survive the
year.
Good Life: Are farmer’s almanacs
legit or a bunch of malarkey?
Rob Kupec: They’re a bunch of
malarkey. There’s some interesting
data and good weather history,
but the predictions
are not very good.
GL: Why did
you want to be a
meteorologist as a
kid?
RK: In second grade
we did a unit on
weather and you had
to keep a weather diary.
When the month ended,
I made a new one, and
I just kept going. My mom took a
map of the U.S. and laminated it for
me. I’d take a dry erase marker and
make the daily weather map in my
room. Then we had a huge blizzard
in 1978. Nobody saw it coming. We
were in school and all of sudden we
were going home. I was like, wow,
how did nobody see this coming?
GL: Who was your
meteorological hero?
RK: When I’m presenting the
weather, I can identify things
I do that I totally ripped
off from my youth.
Growing up, there
was this guy on the
radio station named
Norm McDonald. He
would occasionally do
the weather in different
voices. He’d be like,
THE GOOD LIFE / 27