Longtime AccuWeather meteorologist Elliot Abrams, a Philly native, to retire this week

Longtime AccuWeather meteorologist Elliot Abrams will retire from full-time broadcasting on Friday, March 1 after more than 51 years of weather work.

AccuWeather announced Abrams’ retirement on its website today, writing that weather broadcaster will wrap his full-time run at the company after “hundreds of thousands of forecasts,” but will maintain a part-time role. According to the writeup, AccuWeather is the only company Abrams has worked for full-time, and he regularly worked out of its State College headquarters throughout his career.

“It’s been 51 ½ years, so I though I might try something else,” he said.

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A Philadelphia native, Abrams, 71, has long been interested in weather forecasting, and reportedly got started in the field as a youngster by posting forecasts in his parents front lawn. He began at AccuWeather in 1967 as a part-time employee, and moved to full-time when he received a master’s degree in meteorology from Penn State in 1971.

Abrams’ helped establish AccuWeather’s popular radio service, with forecasts initially airing in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. Other stations, including stations like Philadelphia’s own KYW Newsradio, picked up his reports shortly thereafter. Television coverage, meanwhile, began in 1972.

Over the course of his career, Abrams earned a reputation for providing precise information to viewers, like whether they could expect their car door keyholes to freeze over in a storm, as well as his easily understandable style of present complex weather patterns, which AccuWeather reports came from Abrams’ “pioneering research” into the subject.

Fans, however, may best remember Abrams for his typical sign-off line: “Have the best day you’ve ever had. Until tomorrow.”

In addition to his position as a revered broadcaster in the area, Abrams is also a distinguished meteorologist. According to the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia, he is one of just two meteorologists to be a Certified Consulting Meteorologist that has also received an American Meteorological Society Seal of Approval for radio and television. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia’s Hall of Fame in 2009.

“I just hope that people were glad they worked with me,” Abrams told AccuWeather. “I’m going to miss the people I work with every morning.”