Previous to his career in politics, Bohnak was a meteorologist for WLUC-TV and then WZMQ-TV in Marquette County, Michigan, plus several radio stations in the region.
[7] While at UW-SP, Bohnak won a national prize at the DePauw University Undergraduate Honors Conference in March 1975.
[9] Bohnak then attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study meteorology[10] while working in radio and TV weather broadcasting in Madison.
[9] Bohnak started in TV weather forecasting in 1983,[11] working first at WISC-TV in Madison, Wisconsin, until 1985,[12] and then at WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee.
[10] He joined WLUC-TV on April 25, 1988, as chief meteorologist,[13] and he has said that forecasting the weather in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan was one of the most challenging places in the United States.
[11][a] In addition to his work at WLUC-TV, Bohnak provided forecasts for local radio stations WKQS-FM,[11] WNBY-FM, WNBY-AM, WSOO-FM, and WSUE-FM.
His last book, Sunburns to Snowstorm: Upper Michigan Weather in Pictures & Stories was coauthored with local photographer Jack Deo in 2017.
[19] In September 2021, Bohnak was terminated from WLUC-TV for refusing to get a Covid-19 vaccination as mandated by station owner Gray Television.
[21] Bohnak's termination attracted protesters at the TV station; a rally was held by the Marquette County chapter of Stand Up Michigan in opposition to employer vaccine mandates.
[33] Bohnak's social media announcement clarified that he was concerned about the lack of legal liability of vaccine makers in the event of injury or death.
They also noted a shift in his opinions to a more centrist viewpoint for his campaign in comparison to his previously stated views, which included comments comparing vaccines to Nazi experiments and election fraud in the 2020 presidential race.