VIRGINIA BEACH — Fire Chief Ken Pravitz didn’t expect to run into a national TV star at an Oceanfront restaurant Tuesday night. When he and a group of firefighters were having dinner at Waterman’s Surfside Grille, The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore strolled in.

They posed for a photograph and posted it on the Virginia Beach Fire Department’s Facebook page .

“Sometimes, being in the right place at the right time brings unexpected encounters,” Pravetz wrote in the post.

Cantore had rolled into town a day ahead of a significant snowstorm that bore down on the city Wednesday afternoon. Known as the Storm Tracker, Cantore is a harbinger of nasty, headline-making weather, but he’s also a cheerleader for first responders who step up when others hunker down.

“He was certainly concerned about everybody remaining safe,” Pravetz said. “I appreciate him highlighting our community and our storm preparations.”

On Wednesday morning, the famed meteorologist reported live next to the King Neptune statue at the Oceanfront. He interviewed Mayor Bobby Dyer and the city’s director of Public Works, L.J. Hansen, about Virginia Beach’s storm readiness.

“We have a dire situation here,” Cantore quipped before introducing Dyer to Weather Channel viewers. The two talked shop briefly before the mayor presented Cantore with a Virginia Beach hat and invited him to come back this spring for the grand opening of the city’s new surf park.

“We just hit it off,” Dyer said after the live interview. “It certainly puts us on the map nationally.”