BATON ROUGE - A parade grand marshal generally has a welcoming presence, but people tend to evacuate when this year's "Wearin' of the Green" Grand Marshal comes to town.

"Folks know if there's an approaching storm, and Jim says, 'I'm going to be covering it on the Gulf Coast,' and he shows up in Baton Rouge or New Orleans, people are diving under their beds," parade founder Pat Shingleton said.

Meteorologist Jim Cantore joined The Weather Channel in 1986 and has been there ever since. This year's Wearin' of the Green Grand Marshal is known for being in the eye of the storm, providing firsthand, live accounts of weather conditions- including covering Hurricane Katrina and its destruction in Louisiana in 2005.

Shingleton was also a weatherman, forecasting at WBRZ for 40 years.

"I told him on the phone, 'You know, Jim, God's blessed you with a lot of heartbeats, and you've used those to save lives and protect property, and you've done it for a lot of years. Both you and I have probably worked every storm that ever came across the Gulf of Mexico for, I don't know, 25 or 30 years,' or however long he's been doing it. So, there's a relationship there," Shingleton explained.

Cantore is a big name. It's a Grand Marshal tradition Shingleton's children intend to build upon for many years to come.

"And I think that Todd Graves really set the mark here recently when he was Grand Marshal because he loves the parade," Shingleton said.

He's still involved in the parade, and he greatly assists us in securing potential Grand Marshals for years to come. And Mike and Katy now have pretty much a list of who they want for the next seven to eight years."

And the only "hurricane" Jim Cantore will see at this parade is the ones people drink from a cup.

WBRZ will be covering the parade on Saturday starting at 10:30 a.m., with rebroadcasts of the parade airing on WBRZ+ on Sunday, March 16, and Monday, March 17.