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Meet the family who has supported Glenn Burns throughout his 40-year career at WSB-TV

By WSBTV.com News Staff
By WSBTV.com News Staff

ATLANTA — With his retirement day here, Channel 2 Action News is celebrating 40 years of Chief Meteorologist Glenn Burns.

Like us, so many of you consider Glenn part of the family. You invited him into your homes every evening and that’s possible thanks to the support of his own family.

His wife Susan gave us insight into life with Glenn Burns and what’s ahead after his retirement.

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“He was handsome, first of all. And second of all, he was not boisterous. He was kind of calm and subdued. And we fell in love so fast that we were married within a couple of years,” Susan Burns said about when she met Glenn.

“The love of my life, Susan. That I met in college. That knew immediately that was the one. Also from West Palm Beach. So everything just kind of fell in place and there are no coincidences and just remarkable what happened,” Glenn said.

The couple met at the University of Florida. Susan described Glenn as “very shy” when they were younger.

Susan encouraged and supported Glenn to pursue an on-air career. He landed a reporting job in south Florida and transitioned to weather there. Then he moved to Minneapolis as a meteorologist.

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Early in his career, the Burns welcomed life-changing additions to the family.

“It was just surreal. I had visions of having a baby, and I knew what name she was going to have all along,” Glenn said.

“Mhm. You named her,” Susan said about their daughter.

“I named her Kimberly and, uh. That was just amazing. Absolutely. Take your breath away,” Glenn said.

The couple later welcomed a son as well.

“From the time I was a teenager, I knew. I could see him. I could see my son. Blonde, blue eyes. And his name was going to be Chris,” Glenn said.“

“And voila,” Susan said.

The family moved to Atlanta in 1982 and shortly after, Glenn became chief meteorologist at WSB-TV. There were sacrifices.

“We had a tornado go through our backyard. He was at work. The ice storms, of course, that paralyzed the city. But his job was more important than us missing him,” Susan said.

Kimberly and Chris understood that as well and appreciated the time they could spend together.

“I had a wonderful childhood. When we were together we spent quality time,” Kimberly said. “From a very young age, I could see how much people meant to him.”

“My dad was on the tv my entire life so for me it was always very normal. But we always had a really good time,” Chris said.

Glenn said his family’s support has been overwhelming.

“They understood the responsibility. They understood the job. And so I really thank my wife, Susan, and Kimberly and Christopher for their many, many years of enduring.”

Susan knows what her husband did for decades is life-saving work and how much Glenn cares.

“I think if people have watched him through the years, they’ll realize that when things are wrong and people are hurting during these disasters, he kind of chokes up for a minute. You know, it hits them right there in the heart,” she said.

In retirement, the couple looks forward to spending more time with family, granddaughter Ava, and their cocker spaniels.

“She’s just an amazing granddaughter there as far as science goes. And then all my kids and grandkids were really well in school, so I was very happy,” Glenn said.

What else is ahead?

“He’s decided he wants to do the grocery shopping, which is perfectly fine with me, and that he’s going to learn how to cook, which is perfectly fine with me,” Susan said.

“The ocean will become his playground once again. And we’re going to travel. You know, COVID kind of stuck us here for quite some time. So we’ll travel with our children and grandchildren not living here. We have the luxury of of going when we want to. So just to see the world. He’s earned it.”

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