Weather Pro Chris Tomer Leaving Channel 2 Morning Show, but Not Station

Meteorologist Chris Tomer is among the best weather forecasters in Denver, as he's proven for eighteen years on partner stations Fox31 and KWGN/Channel 2, including the past ten-plus as a regular on Daybreak, Channel 2's popular morning show. But today, November 3, is slated to be Tomer's last on the program. Starting tomorrow, the prognostications will be delivered by Travis Michels.

The move makes Tomer the second local TV weather favorite to make a high-profile exit in two months, following Chris Spears, who recently split from CBS4 Denver to concentrate on running an Arvada shop he co-owns — and technically, he's the seventeenth on-air personality to leave the Fox31/Channel 2 news wing since early 2021. However, this potential market record comes with a big asterisk, since Tomer isn't actually cutting ties with Channel 2. Starting January 3, he'll return as the co-host of Great Day Colorado, the advertorial offering that airs weekdays at 9 a.m., immediately following Daybreak.

Tomer explains the transition in the simplest terms. "I've been doing the morning shift for too long. It's just exhausting," he says. "I need a change from the 2:30 a.m. wakeups."

At Great Day Colorado, "I'll be working with a great team of people," he notes, including co-host Spencer Thomas, "and lot of clients of the station, and doing some weather and some lifestyle reporting, which is perfect for me, since I'm an outdoors guy."

An affection for nature is a big reason that Tomer, an Ohio native, put down roots in Colorado. "My parents were huge skiers, and we would always come out here for long trips," he recalls. "I think that's how I was indoctrinated and fell in love with the place. I always wanted to work in Denver."

It took him a while to achieve his Mile High City ambitions. After earning a degree in meteorology from Valparaiso University, he landed weather gigs at stations in Grand Junction and Baltimore before being chosen to fill an opening at Fox31 during the early 2000s. In the years that followed, he's delivered weather predictions in a wide variety of slots at both stations, but by far his longest stint has been at Daybreak, which airs at a time of day when plenty of people actually watch live, as opposed to accessing material on their phone whenever the mood strikes.

"I've had a really good following over the years — a lot of people who regularly watch just for the weather," Tomer acknowledges. "That's always been meaningful to me, to know that even though I'm waking up in the middle of the night, people are actually watching."
Still, the demands of Daybreak began to wear on him. "It's brutal. I try to get to bed no later than eight o'clock at night, so the clock really runs your life," he admits. "I'm constantly worried about going to sleep, and constantly worried about waking up. So after talking to my wife, I talked to the station and said, 'What else can we work out?' We kind of went around for a while, but luckily, they saw the value in keeping me."

That's confirmed by Fox31/Channel 2 news director Brian Gregory. "Chris has been a fantastic member of the team for many years, and someone Coloradans know, love and trust to deliver their forecast," Gregory says. "After he let me know he wanted a schedule change, I looked for a way to keep him in the Fox31/Channel 2 family. I’m glad we were able to do that.

"I think Travis Michels’s energy and experience will be a perfect fit on Daybreak," Gregory adds. "We can’t wait to welcome him to our great team of Chris [Parente], Katie [Orth] and Ken [Clark] beginning Friday."

Tomer says he's glad that he'll be able to exercise his weather skills on Good Day Colorado and thinks there's a good chance he'll be asked to fill in for other forecasters every so often. "I'm still a meteorologist at heart," he confirms, and another weather gig will continue to be an important part of his life — delivering forecasts for mountain climbers across the globe.

"Back in 2002, I went to college with a guy who lives up in Vail and climbs all over the world," Tomer recalls. "He was starting his climbing career and said, 'I could really use some weather forecasting on Denali,' and doing that has grown word-of-mouth for the past twenty years. At this point, I've forecasted for over 250 climbing teams. Everest, K2: You name a peak, I've worked it, and that's been an incredibly fun and rewarding thing to do."

Tomer has also gotten into the mountaineering act himself. In 2011, he and Jon Kedrowskii co-authored Sleeping on the Summits: Colorado Fourteener High Bivys, which memorializes "a project where we slept on the summit of all the 14ers in the state. I think that really laid the groundwork for me and made me a better forecaster," he says. "I've learned so much about forecasting and accuracy and picking the right tools for the mountain, listening to the team and learning from mistakes — changing a forecast at the last minute and not just sticking it out for pride."

Getting a prediction wrong under those circumstances can result in life-or-death situations, Tomer notes: "These are high-stress environments, for sure. But that's the challenge of forecasting, and it's also helping people achieve a dream — helping them reach the summit, or whatever their goal is."

Right now, though, Tomer is mostly interested in "getting some sleep," he says, laughing. Still, he's thrilled that he's going to retain a connection to Fox31/Channel 2.

"In the eighteen years I've been here, I've seen a lot of good friends and co-workers come and go," he concedes, "and a number of those have come in the last two years. But I think their reasons for doing what they did are different from mine. I love what I do, and I really didn't want to leave the station — and I'm happy I'll still be here."