28-02-2025
What happened to Dave Frankel? Longtime 6ABC weatherman Dave Frankel dead at 67
Beloved longtime meteorologist Dave Frankel has died. He was 67 years old.
Frankel's Philadelphia region weather forecasts were a key part of newscasts on 6ABC.
Here's what we know about Frankel's passing.
Dave Frankel passed on Wednesday, Feb. 26. Frankel's former station confirmed that Frankel died from a form of dementia called primary progressive aphasia.
"Primary progressive aphasia is a rare nervous system condition that affects a person's ability to communicate," according to the Mayo Clinic. "People who have primary progressive aphasia can have trouble expressing their thoughts and understanding or finding words.
"People with primary progressive aphasia can lose the ability to speak and write," the Mayo Clinic's description continued. "Eventually they're not able to understand written or spoken language."
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According to the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia website, Dave Frankel grew up in Monmouth County, NJ, and made early career stops at WCAX-TX in Burlington, Vermont, and then at WCIX-TV and WSVN-TV in Miami.
"When WPVI-TV in Philly was looking for an investigative reporter, it reached out to its sister station in Miami to ask who the best reporter was at a competitive station," read Frankel's entry on the Pioneers of Philadelphia Broadcasting's site. "The answer was Dave Frankel. So, in 1984, Dave joined WPVI-TV Channel 6 where he began the next leg of his TV career, and moved back up north and to the town that would become his home, where he would marry and raise his family."
According to 6ABC, Frankel moved from investigative journalism to his post as weather forecaster in 1989.
"For the next eight years he shared his smarts, his sense of humor and his warm personality with all of you," read 6ABC's comments on Frankel's passing. "In 1996, Dave also became our first tech reporter, which back then meant explaining new and complex concepts like email.
"After leaving television, Dave launched a second career in law, focusing on children with special needs and their families."
Damon C. Williams is a Philadelphia-based journalist reporting on trending topics across the Mid-Atlantic Region.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: What happened to Dave Frankel? Longtime Philly forecaster passed away
