Songfacts®:

• Just the second single released by the four sisters of Sister Sledge, "The Weatherman" was written by Phil Hurtt and Tony Bell, who were Philadelphia-based songwriter/producers responsible for many of the "Philly Soul" records of the era. Hurtt's wife was friends with the Sledge matriarch, and he got to know the group well. When he and Bell signed a publishing deal with Atlantic Records, they introduced the label's A&R man to Sister Sledge, who signed the group.
  
  They were still honing their sound when they recorded this single, which was followed by another Hurtt/Bell co-write, "Mama Never Told Me." Two years later, they released their first album, Circle of Love, and in 1979 they hit it big with We Are Family, which sold over a million copies in America.
• Atlantic Records had their own studios in New York, but this song was recorded at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia, since that was the group's hometown and also where the song's producers were most comfortable. The Sigma house band, known as MFSB, provided the instrumentation. The same year, MFSB recorded the Soul Train theme song, which became a #1 hit.
• This song finds the girls wondering if their hearts are going to be broken. They liken their indecisive beau to a weatherman, who could call for sunshine one day and rain the next. Phil Hurtt, who wrote the lyric, has a penchant for writing songs that female vocalists can relate to. Other artists he wrote for include Jackie Moore and Bettye Swann.