When we awoke Wednesday morning, we were confronted with a meteorological double whammy - a picturesque sky of swirling reds, pinks and purples, and news that The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore was heading to the Lehigh Valley.

You remember: “Red sky at night, sailors delight; red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.”

This prophetic and somber warning was superimposed over Cantore’s trek from The Weather Channel’s Atlanta headquarters to Philadelphia International Airport, then his drive north to Bethlehem.

While we mere mortals cower, shiver and panic in fear and trepidation over the prospects of 12 to 20 inches of snow, Cantore not only speeds toward the beast but relishes his interaction with it.

This intrepid weather tracker is the most notorious meteorologist who shows up when weather conditions will be at their worst. And he loves it and couldn’t be happier.

At 7 p.m. Wednesday, when he measured the snow on Bethlehem’s Main Street at 5 inches, he observed that during all of the 2019-20 winter season just 5.3 inches of snow had fallen at the Lehigh Valley International Airport weather station.

“Do we double that amount?” Cantore asked gleefully. “Do we triple that? Stick around. It’s going to be a fun night.”

About an hour later, Cantore fretted that sleet and graupel had begun to mix with the snow. He knew that this was a sign that the snow total was going to be lower than predicted. He was right, because the Lehigh Valley wound up getting between 8 and 9 inches.

You could hear the dejection in Cantore’s voice. He would have been way more upbeat if the total had been 18 or 19 inches.

Cantore’s excitement was palpable when he tweeted early Wednesday morning, “It’s game day as our major winter storm gets ready to cream the northeast.”

Cantore’s fans have a love-hate relationship with the guy. They secretly admire his enthusiasm for his job, but it is not a good sign when he shows up in your neighborhood. It likely means that the weather will be beyond frightful.

Cantore, who is fearless in the pursuit of bringing his viewers the most realistic live experiences, has nearly been blown away in a hurricane. While covering Hurricane Michael in Florida in 2018, Cantore also deftly dodged a flying piece of lumber that could have ended his illustrious career.

Doing live reports always has unexpected challenges, as Cantore found out on Jan. 28, 2014. While doing a report at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, a student charged Cantore, who caught the oncoming student out of the corner of his eye.

Cantore kneed the startled student in the groin, forcing him to run off. For his part, Cantore never missed a beat and continued with his weather report. The YouTube recording of the episode has been viewed more than 2 million times.

In 2018, while reporting on the impact of Winter Storm Neptune along the south shore of Massachusetts, an intense band of thundersnow struck the area, causing Cantore to react excitedly to the presence of the extremely rare weather phenomenon.

The video of his joyful, exuberant and childlike reaction has had more than 5 million views on YouTube.

Cantore says he has been on the air when thundersnow struck five times, and he said it is his biggest thrill, “provided I don’t get struck by lightning.” He said that some people have died during a thundersnow storm. He finds it pretty cool to be in the right place at the right time to experience thundersnow since it is so rare.

Cantore, 56, a native of Connecticut who grew up in Vermont, began his career as an intern at The Weather Channel in 1986 and is now considered one of the most successful and influential live broadcasters on TV with a net worth estimated at $4.5 million. This pales in comparison, however, to the likes of NBC meteorologist Al Roker, who earns $10 million a year.

As for his time in the Lehigh Valley, Cantore spoke numerous times about how beautiful it was in Bethlehem with the Christmas lights enhanced by the snowfall. He said Bethlehem has the best Christmas lights of any he has seen.

Christmas City merchants and the Chamber of Commerce were ecstatic about Cantore’s live reports from Bethlehem throughout Wednesday night.

What’s not to like? Getting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free publicity from a notable personality, well, it doesn’t get much better than that, especially during these challenging economic times.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com