Could this former NC meteorologist quit to dance full-time? Yes. But he won’t.

When Nick Kosir announced this year that he was leaving his job as chief meteorologist at FOX affiliate WJZY-TV in Charlotte — without hinting where he was headed next — there was plenty of speculation that he’d be fully shifting his focus from television viewers to a cellphone audience.

After all, over the course of just two years, “The Dancing Weatherman’s” Instagram and TikTok followings had grown from modest sizes to stratospheric levels thanks largely to goofy/cool videos that feature him dancing while outfitted in a suit and tie.

Upon it being suggested to him that a lot of people must have initially surmised he was going all-in as a social-media influencer, the 38-year-old husband and father of a middle-schooler chuckles and says: “I think that was the thought a lot of people had, and I see, obviously, that would be easy to infer.”

Then came the twist, in late June, when it was revealed that Kosir had left the traditional TV business to do work best appreciated by audiences watching him on their mobile devices.

But the focus would not be on dancing.

He’d been hired to continue making forecasts, this time from New York City, for the brand-new venture Fox Weather. Fox News Media’s 24/7 ad-supported streaming weather service will launch on Monday, Oct. 25.

As for why he kept the details of the move private for more than two months? Well, he was just following protocol.

“I had to keep my job here quiet for a little while, because Fox is very good at uniformly making a statement when everybody’s ready,” Kosir explains. “So yeah, a lot of people did kind of think that (I was concentrating on being a social-media influencer) — or, heck, I even think a lot of people thought maybe I had already made enough money to not need to work anymore, which, you know, is not the case.”

Here are six other key takeaways from our recent conversation with Kosir (pronounced KOH-sir, like coaster without the “t”).

1. New York is treating him surprisingly well so far. Much better than the last time he lived there.

“I lived in New York as a youngster for three months, back in a previous life in ’05 as an intern, and it was difficult. Part of it was probably that I was flat-broke. Actually, most of it was probably that. But this time around, it’s much smoother. My wife is able to work remote. My kid (son Canon, 12) absolutely loves his new school. He really seems to be thriving. And that was really the X factor for me, was how he would assimilate. So once he got a couple of good weeks at school under his belt, that eased my mind, and Fox Weather’s treating me well. ... It’s not like I’m over here making tons of money, but at least this time around I can afford an apartment that isn’t infested with rats. So there’s that.”

2. For Fox Weather, he’ll work Monday through Friday — probably between 5 and 11 p.m., although his exact schedule has yet to be determined.

“I’m really proud to be a part of it,” Kosir says of Fox Weather, “’cause it’s very progressive. Instead of appointment television, where a person has to go and physically turn the TV on and make sure they’re in front of it for their program, this is the opposite. We’re gonna put our programming right in your pocket. On your cellphone. So everybody keeps asking me where they can watch Fox Weather, and it’s just right off your phone.”

Fox Weather is a free service that will be available at foxweather.com and through the FOX Weather app for iOS and Android. Fox Weather will also be available on internet-connected TVs via Fox Now, the Fox News app, and Tubi.

3. He had no reservations whatsoever about leaving traditional TV for a streaming service.

“Not at all,” Kosir says. “That’s the thing I’m most confident about, honestly. I don’t think I would have taken a job that was on TV. I truly am saying this. Not just because all my bosses ... are gonna read this, or see this, but this is it. This is the new wave. You can believe me, or not, but I truly believe, this is how we will all consume (news and weather). ... So no, I’d rather be here than anywhere else, because this is gonna push the industry forward.”

4. And yet ... Kosir hasn’t ruled out a return to Charlotte.

“Oh, man, are you kidding me? It was impossible,” he says, when asked whether it was a tough decision to leave the Queen City, where he earned the nickname “The Dancing Weatherman.” “I love Charlotte. ... I mean, I called Charlotte home for seven years. My family and I for sure thought we were there to stay. You know, for sure. Right up until just a few months ago really. So it was tough. But here’s the thing: I just couldn’t pass up this opportunity. ... And once I told my wife, she actually really, really was on board. That shocked me more than anything, because I thought for sure that she wasn’t gonna be thrilled about moving again ... and she was like, ‘We have to go.’”

His last day at Fox 46 was April 13, but he and his family lingered in Charlotte into the summer since his first day at Fox Weather wasn’t until July 26. Kosir now jokingly refers to that break as his “temporary retirement.”

“I had several months to process everything, and kind of hang out in Charlotte, you know, say my goodbyes, do my last this and that, so that helped,” he says. “But yeah, it was tough, man. I still love Charlotte. Maybe I hope one day to go back permanently.”

Kosir says he has a three-year contract with Fox Weather.

5. Now, in regards to that alter ego — the one that does the increasingly complex choreographed dances in increasingly polished videos with a variety of fellow social-media stars — he’s fine with it continuing to be something he just does on the side.

“I think I could absolutely make a run of it to make a career out of social media,” says Kosir, who now counts 2.1 million followers on Instagram and 2.5 million on TikTok. “But I’m not one-dimensional. Everybody says, ‘Why don’t you quit and just do social media?’ And it’s like, Well, I love doing the weather. You know, and I also love doing social media. So why not just do ’em both for as long as possible? ... Might as well just kind of keep both going for as long as possible, and see what happens.”

He adds: “I like to think that I’m young, but I’m getting up there. I’m almost 40. I’m a little old-school I guess, and I like the idea of a steady paycheck, you know? That’s always a good thing. Like I said, we’ll see what happens — but for now, I’m here at Fox, and I’m more excited about Fox Weather than anything.”

“I don’t know, I just love it,” Kosir says of being a meteorologist. “When you find something that comes to you more easily than other things, that’s the thing you should be doing. That’s kind of your gift, I guess. I want to keep operating in my gift, and that’s this.”

6. Oh, and by the way: Kosir still won’t admit he’s a good dancer.

“I am a pretty tough critic on myself,” he says, chuckling. Asked to rate himself, he says, “That first time that I danced (in 2019) and it went viral, I’d give myself like a 2 out of 10, and now maybe I’m a 3 or a 4 out of 10. I mean, there are some people that, you know, just kill it, that I see on my feed every day. And I can’t believe that people like to watch me dance, after they see these other people dance. I can’t even wrap my mind around it. ...

“I’m shocked that people still like me. It’s been a pretty decent two-year run, and if it ends today or tomorrow, I will be fully happy with the run.”