Ponder, a McKinney resident, turned his life-long passion for weather into a full-time job in 2021, and now shares daily weather forecasts through Facebook and YouTube with the goal of protecting his audience “before and after the storm,” his social media page states.
The setup
At 8 years old, Hurricane Alicia hit Ponder’s childhood home in the Houston area, causing a power outage lasting multiple weeks. The experience also sparked his interest in the weather, Ponder said.
“I found myself watching all four news stations just for the weather when I was a kid,” he said.
Ponder later relocated to the Dallas area as an adult, landing in McKinney in 2004. His professional pursuits were in the insurance industry, but he found ways to incorporate his interest in weather into his work. When attending networking events, Ponder often encountered other insurance industry professionals and in an effort to set himself apart, began using his weather knowledge to make connections.
“I love the weather, so that's what I'm going to talk about is the weather and if they want to bring up insurance, I'll talk to them about insurance,” Ponder said of the last couple of years he spent in the insurance industry.
Ponder’s wife, Chris Ponder, created the initial POW Ponder on Weather social media page in 2017 as a birthday gift, and encouraged Ponder to share his passion for the weather with others through the platform, he said. He operated the page part-time while continuing to work another job, but said he was sharing daily forecasts and eventually chose to expand his platform to include a YouTube page.
Ponder said his coverage of Hurricane Harvey in 2017 along with a viral post attracted his initial following, which continued to grow. Ponder was later able to monetize his social media pages, and chose to take on the role of social media meteorologist full time in March 2021.
As of July 2025, the POW Ponder on Weather Facebook page has over 160,000 followers while Ponder’s YouTube channel stands at nearly 260,000 subscribers. Ponder also has profiles on Instagram and X, formerly Twitter. In addition to monetization of the platforms, Ponder uses sponsor partnerships to support his work.
The specifics
While Ponder doesn’t have a formal education in meteorology, his time spent studying the topic has given him the skills to craft his forecasts.
“They say, if you do anything [for] 10,000 hours, you become pretty good at it, right?,” Ponder said. “I probably follow the weather a lot more [than] even some of the weather guys out there. I just enjoy it, that's the bottom line.”
Ponder said he uses many of the same models and tools used by traditional meteorologists, but also relies on his knowledge of other contributing factors such as water temperature and climate patterns when developing his forecasts. His experience with Texas weather as a native of the state also helps inform his forecasts, he said.
“We all forecast the same weather,” Ponder said. “Everybody has a different viewpoint on the weather, and everybody thinks that something might turn out differently, but at the end of the day, there's only one weather.”
Through the POW Ponder on Weather Facebook page, Ponder focuses primarily on the North Texas area while his YouTube channel content features more nationwide weather content, he said. By using his social media platforms, Ponder said he has the ability to share his forecasts in different ways than a traditional meteorologist.
“[With] social media, the sky's the limit,” Ponder said. “I have a lot of advantages, because I could go live at two o'clock in the morning. I can go live in my backyard ... I love going live during high impact events.”
Quote of note
Ponder said that he finds forecasting both enjoyable and challenging, and that he approaches the task like a puzzle.
“I look at it as like a puzzle,” he said of a weather forecast. “If you ultimately find all the pieces of the puzzle, then you're going to get it right but if you're missing one piece, then that's going to throw everything off.”
Diving in deeper
In August 2024, Ponder launched another weather-focused business called StormHero. The business, founded in partnership with Catherine Brenneman and Chris Ponder, offers storm protection products including storm shelters, lightning rods and generators to customers in the Collin County area.
Ponder conducts many of the customer appointments himself, using the sales skills from his background in the insurance industry as well as his knowledge of weather preparedness. The business also filled a gap in his existing sponsors, Ponder said, noting that he had previously gotten inquiries from followers about his recommendations for businesses offering products that are now sold by StormHero.
“I always tell people to ‘Go get in your safe spot’. Why don't I take it a step further?,” Ponder said of the business’s weather preparedness products.
Also of note
In addition to his work on social media, Ponder said he is involved in the community including through a networking group and at speaking engagements where he shares the importance of weather awareness with students at local elementary schools.
Ponder and his wife also lead the Prosper group of the nonprofit organization Feed the City, which works to make meals to feed those in need, according to its website.
As a way to interact with followers on his social media pages, Ponder partnered with one of his sponsors, a travel agent, to begin offering POW cruises. The first cruise took 20 people to the Caribbean in 2024, and another cruise this summer took nearly 80 people to Alaska. The next POW cruise is scheduled for 2026 and will go to Spain. Ponder said his goal is to sell out a ship for a future POW cruise.
“Every single body in the ship would be a follower? That would be cool, so I'm putting it out there,” he said.
