40 years of Doppler Dave on News Channel 10

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - You’re used to seeing “Good News” stories with Doppler Dave, but how about a good news story about Doppler Dave?

Sometimes I think 40 years, where did it go? I mean, where did it go? And I still love what I do. I mean, I still have as much fun coming into work today as I did 40 years ago.

So that part hasn’t changed. But man, when you think about four decades of being on TV, it’s kind of mind-blowing sometimes.

You know, for a meteorologist, Amarillo is pretty close to heaven because we get crazy weather. We get it often. We get the whole spectrum. I mean, you can’t find many places in the United States that have the variety of weather that we have. And me, I’m a junkie for crazy weather. I love crazy weather. And I love the abrupt changes that we have. And I love the challenging forecasts. And it’s hard to walk away from that if you’re a meteorologist.

I’ve had the privilege to work with a lot of young meteorologists and a lot of them have gone on to blaze their own trails, but we keep up. And again, that’s another very rewarding part of this job is helping other meteorologists, you know, get their footing, kind of fuel their passion for the business and then watch them go and succeed.

You know, I’ve stood in front of a lot of tornadoes and you know, I think really as recent as it was, just last September when we had all those tornado warnings and the sirens just wouldn’t go off, they were sirens continuously and there was such a high degree of anxiety in our community.

I felt really, really good to be able to, be the voice of calmness to help people through that event. That one’s always going to stand out.

I’d say my takeaway is going to be knowing that I fill a role that’s important to people, yeah, I’m on TV most nights talking about something, but when it comes down to things that impact your life, making your plans, staying alive, all these things, I get a lot of joy when people come and say, dude, listen, if you hadn’t been on TV that night, my house was demolished, I probably wouldn’t be here.

When I hear things like that, or man, you told me not to get on the highway and then the blizzard hit, that makes me feel good, that I was able to help people.

I have this inborn passion that God gave me for weather. It’s always with, it’ll always be with me.

So what keeps me going is just that, is, you know, I really think that God gave me this desire and this passion and this interest and he’s allowed me to to do this for a career.

I mean, it’s not even like working, because I do what I love to do. So it’s pretty easy to stay upbeat, when you feel that foundation.

When you see me on TV or around town, just know I really feel fortunate to be your weather guy, to have the weather team that I do, to work at News Channel 10 for decades, and just be part of your life. You’re part of mine too.

It’s been awesome.

Now that’s some good news!