The year was 1989.
The sweater was white and chunky. A giant windmill adorned the front.
"I actually wore this on TV," ABC-7 meteorologist Tracy Butler told me, holding it up for emphasis. "Doing the weather. I mean, it's a giant windmill!"
It was the '80s. Her grandmother bought it for her. What can you say?
Besides, people adored it.
"People called the newsroom loving it," Butler said. "They wanted to know where to get it."
Grandma, for the win.
Meteorologists, the women anyway, get a whole lot of feedback on their appearance. Stories abound about pregnant meteorologists being body-shamed by viewers who don't want to witness their weather forecasters growing human life. Others are just criticized for wearing the wrong clothing.
Recently, a photo of almost 50 female meteorologists wearing the same dress made the rounds, reigniting a discussion about our mild obsession with the appearance of people who are versed in weather patterns, climate change and other scientific phenomenon.
Which is what brought me to Butler's studio last week.
"So many people were talking about that dress," she said with a laugh. "My dad, who lives back in Pittsburgh, sent me an email saying, 'Should your mother and I get you this for Christmas? It's the hot dress everyone's talking about.'"
Do people ever write or call you, I asked, to talk about meteorology? To compliment your forecasting acumen or ask questions about storm history?
"You get some of those," she said. "I do get some comments about the meteorology aspects, which I would love more of."
Mostly, though, she gets calls about her clothes and hair.
"Not too long ago I had a woman who said, 'You make way too much money to have your hair looking like a mop. I can't believe none of your friends tell you how bad you look,'" Butler said. "I called my best friend and said, 'You're my best friend. Why didn't you tell me I look like I'm wearing a mop?'"
Butler takes the feedback in stride. And most of it, she said, is positive.
"I'm just truly blessed and lucky that I have a job that allows me to reach people," she said. "Growing up in Pittsburgh I was so shy. Never in a trillion years did I think I would grow up and people would ask where I purchased something. It's a humbling and crazy honor for me."
And ask her they do. So much so that she keeps a daily wardrobe log — decades of wall calendars with each day's outfit noted.
"Over the years, I would get calls, especially from men who would say, 'My wife saw that you wore this sweater or suit or something, and it was back in April,' and this would be, like, August," she said. "And I'm thinking, 'I can't remember what I wore yesterday.' So I started keeping a calendar of every single thing I wear. I've done it since the late '80s, early '90s."
Butler joined ABC-7 in 1994 and has been the meteorologist for the morning news show since 1995. Her first weather gig was at WTRF-TV in Wheeling, W.Va., and from there, she moved on to work in Youngstown, Ohio, and Richmond, Va. She grew up in Pittsburgh, where she met her husband of 23 years on a blind date arranged by her cousin. She and her husband now live in the suburbs with their two daughters, 10 and 13, who stay up later than their parents.
"I leave the house at 2:15 in the morning," Butler said. "It's getting more challenging as the kids get older, but I try to go to bed between 6 and 6:30."
She's on the air by 4:30 a.m. And she had better look just so.
"Now, especially with social media, people can instantly tell you if they like what you have on or don't like what you have on," she said. "I always crack up because, on any given day, I'll get a really sweet message, 'I love that color on you!' And the next message is, 'You should never wear that color again. You need to burn that.'"
She relishes all of the comments.
"Then I know I'm reaching people," she said. "And I save all the good ones to show my husband, so I can justify going shopping."
The windmill sweater, meanwhile, has been taken out of rotation.
Twitter @heidistevens13
