Originally posted Tuesday, November 19, 2019 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog

Jim Cantore, a recent Atlanta Press Club Hall of Fame recipient, has a fan base at the Atlanta-based Weather Channel that spans the generations.

Nine-year-old Kaylee Tolleson from Missouri City, TX battled cancer and is now in remission. She is a huge weather person and storm tracker. Her hero? Cantore.

As part of her Make-a-Wish request, she got to meet him in person Tuesday. In a video the Weather Channel tweeted, she greets him like a long-lost uncle, running with joy across the hallway to hug him.

She received the full VIP treatment at Weather Channel headquarters, getting a behind-the-scenes tour, her own Weather Channel jacket and the chance to to do her own weather forecast of the Houston area today. She also got to check out the augmented reality technology the network likes to use and visit the weather trucks used during extreme weather.

Cantore left impressed with Kaylee’s knowledge and love for weather, which he possessed himself at her age.

“I was so honored to meet someone as bright and ambitious as Kaylee during her visit to our studio,” Cantore said. “Her passion for weather and storm tracking clearly is already setting her up as a meteorologist in the making!

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