Mark Henderson’s chill new approach to forecasting the weather in the Rockford area

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Mark Henderson has had a more relaxed approach to forecasting the weather in the two months since he lost his longtime television job.

Out are the suits, ties, makeup and studio lights. In are the flip-flops, polos, shorts and an at-home work station.

The new approach, he says, comes with the same passion for delivering daily forecasts and real-time updates on severe weather. Despite the departure from TV, he’s still drawing tens of thousands of viewers daily to his new social media-based weather hub.

“You can take the boy out of the weather, but you can’t take the weather out of the boy,” Henderson said of his new solo venture. “The weather was a passion since I was a kid. It just allows me to continue to share that passion, and it shows that there’s still a need.”

Henderson has amassed more than 22,000 followers since launching Mark Henderson’s Weather Hub on Facebook two months ago. While that pales to the 180,000-some followers of his former employer WIFR, it has still positioned him to garner roughly 100,000 views on Facebook daily, according to data he shared with the Rock River Current.

Henderson has also now incorporated Henderson Weather Consulting as an LLC, and he’s picked up a handful of sponsors to support his new endeavor. He’s still searching for his next full-time job, while leaving open the possibility that the Weather Hub could grow into exactly that.

“If it continues to take off, who knows?” he said.

Karla Slusser of South Beloit said she and her fiance missed Henderson after he was let go by WIFR in late May. She quickly became one of his thousands of followers when he launched the Weather Hub.

“I’m 57 so I’ve been watching him for years,” Slusser said. “He’s like our hometown boy, our weather man. He’s my go-to.”

Henderson is a Schaumburg native who started with WIFR in July 2003 after working at WFQX in Cadillac, Michigan, and WJFW in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. He said he wasn’t given an explanation by the company for letting him go, other than it decided to go in a different direction. The station has since hired Kira Miner — who has worked at stations in Texas, Arkansas, Florida and New Mexico — serve as its chief meteorologist.

Henderson, meanwhile, is creating weather graphics, social media updates and occasional remote videos from his home in Rockton.

“So, so glad to see you again. No weather forecast for northern Illinois is complete without you,” one viewer wrote on a YouTube video Henderson made on corn sweat, the phenomenon where water evaporating from crops can contribute to a region’s humidity.

“I love his updates. He’s so personable and friendly. He goes above and beyond to keep us informed,” Slusser said. “He seems like a great family man. They’ve even got Hurricane Henderson ice cream named after him at the Dairyhaus in Rockton, Illinois. He’s a local celebrity, that’s for sure.”

Related: The parent company of WIFR plans to purchase WREX in Rockford

Data that Henderson shared with the Current shows his posts garnered 2.8 million views during a recent 28-day span, roughly 100,000 per day.

“I think after the first day I think there might have been 10,000 followers. It just kept growing and growing and growing,” he said. “I could never have seen this in my wildest dreams.”

Zak Rotello, general manager of The Olympic Tavern in Rockford, said the numbers illustrate Henderson’s connection to the community.

“We pull our media a lot more than it gets pushed nowadays … You watch the news when you want. You watch YouTube on your schedule, Netflix on your schedule,” Rotello said. “That’s an interesting thing that people are so willing to seek him out. That speaks very highly of him to me.”

Rotello used his restaurant’s North Main Street-facing sign to deliver a message of support for Henderson after news dropped that he was out of a job. It read, “Mark Henderson will always be RKFDs weatherman.”

“To see that sign, my God, it’s just mind-blowing,” Henderson said. “The amount of people who have come up just at the grocery store or other general interactions. I really want them to know how much that means. They really helped me through one of the more difficult times in my life.”

Rotello is known to occasionally use the tavern’s sign to deliver snarky messages. After Henderson was let go after 22 years on the air here, Rotello said he wanted to deliver a message of support.

“He’s always come across as a pretty genuine guy, and people pick up on that,” he said. “I think they pick up on the TV personality versus the real personality. His TV personality is pretty darn close to his actual personality.”

Henderson formed Henderson Weather Consulting LLC on July 8, according to records with the Secretary of State. He said that’s the umbrella company for the hub and other weather-related services he plans to offer. That can include offering direction for plowing contractors during snow season, serving as an expert court witness and other consulting services.

He started taking on sponsors as a means to cover the cost of a graphics and data package he purchased for the Weather Hub, he said.

“If we get enough sponsors down the road, it may end up being able to turn into a source of income,” he said. “I just need to cover the costs, and everything else is gravy.”

Right now, he doesn’t force a set schedule onto himself for the Weather Hub. He posts as weather dictates, and keeps his own schedule and dress code.

“I had a meeting earlier in the week and it was the first time I put a suit on in two months, and I’m like, how did I do this everyday?” Henderson said. “I’m not going to lie, there are times I’ll do it in my pajamas. It’s nice not having to shave every day and do hair and makeup.”

He said viewers have taken note of the more easygoing approach.

“People have told me on more than one occasion I just look more relaxed these days,” he said. “I guess when you can set your own schedule and do things on your own terms there’s some truth to that.”

Henderson and his wife, Sara, are raising two children ages 10 and 14. He said he appreciates the chance to continue living out his childhood dream of delivering the weather, even if his days on TV are over.

“This community, for as supportive and wonderful as they’ve been to me, my feeling of love and respect goes back equally toward them,” he said. “I never wanted to stop serving this community. If I can do my small part in helping plan a day, helping keep people safe from bad weather, that’s very fulfilling.”

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas