Tom Bessler always had his eye on the weather. After he retired following a long career in grounds maintenance, including 20 years at Illinois Central College, Bessler said he was bored silly.
So he decided to take his passion for watching the weather into a service to help others.
Bessler, a resident of Bartonville near Peoria, founded the Facebook group Current Central Illinois Weather. The group provides important weather updates daily for Central Illinois residents. The group has acquired over 8,200 members since its launch last year and has proven efficient due to Bessler’s experience as a trained spotter for four Illinois-based National Weather Service [NWS} offices.
Bessler said his passion for weather dates to his youth. His interest in weather began in 1978 while working at a Peoria golf course. He then took further interest while working for the grounds department at ICC.
“Once I retired, [with] my son — who lives in Bloomington — we decided to take a spotter training class from the National Weather Service in Lincoln,” Bessler said in an interview on WGLT's Sound Ideas. “It gave me the knowledge to know what I was looking at instead of just working on the golf course or working at ICC and saying, ‘Well OK, it’s raining.’ Now, [after] taking the spotter class, I was able to see the storms building.”
Bessler said the idea for the Facebook group came to him around early 2024. Since its launch, the group has gained a lot of attention from residents in Bartonville, Peoria, Chicago and St. Louis.
“I cover as much severe weather as I can for the whole state,” he said.
Bessler said he would like as many people, specifically members of the Facebook group, to receive the same NWS spotter training that he did.
For accurate reporting, Bessler uses a radar app on his phone to track storms, which he then posts on the Current Central Illinois Weather Facebook page.
Bessler said he makes sure to address specific counties with warnings of approaching storms.
“If there’s a lot of storms happening and stuff, it gets a little overwhelming because I’ll have people in the group say, ‘What about my place?’ or their town. Anymore, I’ve come to the point of showing my Radar Scope, where the radar and the storm is and then I’ll highlight or underline towns that could be in the path of the storm,” Bessler said.
“I have found out most people have no clue what the NWS does [or] what they offer, and so anytime I get a chance — when somebody will personally message me — I will say, ‘OK, go on their [NWS] website and you’ll be able to see everything that they offer.”
Bessler said, from his perspective, more people are turning to social media to find weather updates and in many cases, are also on their phones where storm alerts develop.
Despite the changes the NWS has experienced due to budget issues, Bessler said it is still a reliable source in tracking severe weather.
“I think it’s still the best source out there,” he said.
Bessler recommends a NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] weather radio as an alternative to online weather services that require Wi-Fi to view in case of a power outage.
Bessler’s Facebook group is visible to the public and anyone with an account can join. The page focuses primarily on providing reports for Peoria, Tazewell, Woodford, Fulton and McLean counties, according to its bio.
“I encourage people to just know as much as you can about the weather,” Bessler said. “Don’t always believe everything that you see on social media. As long as it’s an accurate reliable source, then you can go with that.”
“I don’t try to predict the weather,” Bessler continued. “I just try to get the information that the NWS is putting out, I try to get it out to as many people as I can and hopefully, they then get it out to as many people as they can.”
