Some good news to report on this Easter Sunday….

WGN (Chicago) Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling is set to return to work tomorrow after undergoing gastric-bypass surgery, which he called “a life-altering experience.”

Skilling said he has lost 50 pounds since the March 4 procedure at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Doctors also found and repaired a small hernia, he said.

A lot has changed since Skilling last appeared on the air.

When he returns, he won’t be going back into the station. He will be wearing new suits, and he will be working remotely. He has transformed his North Side home into a TV studio to deliver his weather forecasts during the coronavirus crisis.

“This is amazing. I’ve been doing this for 50 years. There wouldn’t have been even a prayer of a chance of setting up what we set up here to do,” Skilling said. “I’m able to prepare every graphic that I prepare at the station right here.”

Skilling said he couldn’t walk three blocks or climb a flight of stairs without getting winded before the surgery. He also worried about suffering the same fate as his father, Thomas, who died in 2006 at the age of 83.

“I went into this knowing I needed help. I was moving first stage into diabetes. I had cholesterol issues. My whole family has always had high cholesterol. I was following in the path of my father, and my father ended up having a massive stroke. He was comatose a year after that and survived two years beyond that. Never walked again. Never ate properly,” Skilling said.

He timed his surgery just right. “It wasn’t planned this way, but had I been a week or two later (due to the pandemic) in having this done, it wouldn’t have happened,” Skilling said. “You prepare for this for six months, and I think to have the rug pulled out on this thing at the last minute would have been really frustrating.”

He says that he’s happy to be going back to work and he is really happy for all the support he received.

“The one thing I would say to people is thank you. You supported, you were so wonderful and I hope I live up to the kind comments that were made because I love my work, and I’m grateful to be getting back to it. I’m grateful to be hooking up with my readers, my viewers and everybody else who have been just kind beyond words. I didn’t expect anything like that. This has been very surprising to me.”

H/T Chicago Tribune