Legendary WTTG Chief Meteorologist Sue Palka will sunset weather duties, but remain key member of FOX 5 team

WASHINGTON (FOX 5 DC) - The legendary WTTG Chief Meteorologist Sue Palka will sunset her weather duties, but remain a key member of the FOX 5 DC News team! 

Sue would like to share the news with you in her own words: 

I’d like to share a "life update" with you.  

In a few weeks, I’ll be stepping back from my weather duties here at FOX 5 after 36.5 years.  

This is something I’ve been planning to do for a while, but it’s been harder to let go than I anticipated.

To give you an idea how long I’ve been at this, when I started my weather career in Richmond in 1983, I drew the weather map (only one) with a magic marker over a plexiglass map of the United States.  When I was hired at FOX 5 in September of 1985, we had recently transitioned from magnetic boards to computer graphics.  

Maury Povich and James Adams anchored our only newscast at 10 pm and Ronald Reagan was the President. I’ve been here so long I’ve seen the Brood X cicadas emerge three times!

It has been quite a run. 

WTTG took a chance in 1985 and hired me even though I had little experience and was expecting my first child. I wasn’t sure how to manage motherhood on a night shift let alone not obstruct the weather maps with my growing pregnancy.  

I mentioned to a colleague that I would probably quit when my newborn daughter started kindergarten.  

That colleague would ask me every 5 or 10 years if my "daughter started kindergarten yet!?" Well, I finally have an answer for my colleague.  

My daughter’s daughter will be starting kindergarten in the fall. So I think it’s finally time to step back!

It’s time for more family time.

I’m SO grateful to our loyal FOX 5 viewers and our managers and staff here at the station who have always stuck by me and allowed me to build a career and a life I never dreamed of in the Nation’s Capital. 

This during a time when few if any women in the country had the evening forecast position in local weather (and certainly not in a top ten market).

I would be remiss if I didn’t express my profound gratitude to my husband Joe who was the first to encourage me to pursue this career and is now and always has been my biggest supporter.

Thanks to the internet, information is available to you 24-7. In my heart, I’ll always love broadcast television and FOX 5 the most. I’m incredibly proud of our amazing weather and news team and I know you’ll keep watching them!

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We know you don’t like it when we "disappear" so that’s why we’re giving you this heads up. My last day will be March 23, so I’m going to help get you through the winter.  

While I won’t be with you every day, I’m beyond thrilled to tell you that our General Manager Patrick Paolini has asked me to continue to make regular appearances on some of our many live programs and to do some feature reporting. That new phase of my career will begin later this year, so we WILL continue to see each other.

MORE: FOX 5's Sue Palka introduces her comfort cat Lily

I’m a baby boomer. I’m not sure how to fully retire… so this is a perfect arrangement!

Thank you, to YOU, our cherished viewers, and everyone here at Fox 5 from the bottom of my heart for 36 amazing years.  

I am looking forward to continuing to share some time with you in the months ahead.