MIAMI -- From the day Don Noe arrived at WPLG-TV in 1979, South Florida quickly warmed to his sunny disposition. Now after 34 years of delivering weather news to television viewers, 28 of which have been spent at WPLG-TV, Local 10, Noe announced his retirement Thursday live on the air.

"This decision comes with the blessings of my family and my close friends. It's going to be hard to say goodbye to all of you, but I'm not going very far," said Noe.

Noe said he'll spend some time in the Keys to "get in some fishing."

Taking over the reins as chief meteorologist will be Trent Aric, who joined the weather team in June 2004.

Noe dispelled rumors that he was leaving to become head of the National Hurricane Center after some changes recently there.

At the age of 10, Noe was first intrigued by nature's fury while watching a fierce thunderstorm tear up a large tree in his back yard. The next day, he gathered up all of the books on weather he could find at the local public library, bought a thermometer with his allowance and set off in a career direction that would take him far from his hometown of Fond du Lac, Wis., all the way to Local 10 News.

His first job out of college was forecasting weather for Great Lakes Weather Inc. located in Green Bay, Wis. For three years, Noe provided radio stations, ski resorts, power companies and snow removal crews the forecast for local weather while working weekends for television station WFRV-TV. In 1978, Noe moved to Portland, Ore., where he did the nightly weather on KGW-TV. In June 1979, Noe got a shot at working in a climate about which he often reported but could only envy from afar -- the subtropics of South Florida.

"Why now?" Local 10's Laurie Jennings asked Noe.

"I think it's just time for me," he said.

Noe mentioned the stress of being chief meteorologist in a place where hurricanes are many times the weather du jour.

"In fact, 2004 and 2005 were tough. It's the stress in doing that that got to me," said Noe.

He also said that working nights kept him away from his family, especially his children.

Now that they are grown, he hopes to spend time especially with his youngest son, who is serving in the U.S. Army. Noe told viewers his son was coming home on leave from Iraq in December.

Noe's last day on WPLG will be Nov. 28.