FONTE = OFTEN

HALAP = ALPHA

LGGGIE = GIGGLE

CHUPIC = HICCUP

THE RIVALRY BETWEEN THE WEATHER FORECASTERS WAS —

TENAPIGHU = HEATING UP

Good Wednesday morning everyone!  OFTEN tripped me up right from the get-go this morning so I breezed through the next three words and came back to think about it for a minute.  As soon as I started making words that start with O, the answer came to me and I jotted it down.  With all of the clue words complete, it was on to the cartoon.  After reading the dialogue and sentence as well as noticing the high temperatures on the map, I had a pretty good idea what the answer was going to be.  Writing out the clue letters, I quickly crossed out HEATING which left UP for the finish and confirming my original guess.  The letter layout of the final solution was great with “TEN” and “PIG” spelled out to try and get your mind going in another direction.  With Jeff giving us two clues as to who the meteorologists were in the cartoon  (the map of Michigan and 7 on the camera), I surfed over to the WXYZ Detroit website to take a peek at the staff.  The female looks like Hally Vogel, but I was unable to identify the male subject as he appears to be older in Jeff’s cartoon and all of the meteorologists on the website look middle aged.  Perhaps the male retired from the station because he couldn’t get along with her in real life like the cartoon depicts!  Have a great day and I’ll see you tomorrow.  😀