Why Lubbock Meteorologists Deserve More Respect

I follow a number of weather folks here in Lubbock, and honestly, the way they're portrayed sometimes is just plain unfair. People act like they're alarmists—or worse, flat-out wrong.

But the truth is, the weather in Lubbock can be insane. On May 11th, 1970, a tornado ripped this town in half, killing 26 people and injuring hundreds more. There’s a massive memorial downtown for the lives lost, and constant reminders that yes—it can happen here.

Still, some people refuse to believe the threat is real. They get angry when their favorite TV shows are interrupted and heap insult after insult on the very people warning them their lives might be in danger.

I've seen so many posts calling out our local meteorologists—as if they had any idea how close we've come with some of these recent systems. It's ridiculous that these men and women take so much flak for doing their jobs.

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I used to work mornings with a weather gal, and trust me—severe weather isn’t just another shift. It’s a high-stakes, high-intensity, all-hands-on-deck situation. These folks aren’t just "geeked up" because they love watching storms. They understand what severe weather does. They’ve studied it, and some have seen the worst of it up close.

And you don’t even have to go all the way back to 1970. Almost nine years ago to the day—June 1st, 2015—Lubbock flooded. Cars and trucks were floating, homes were destroyed, businesses wiped out. That was real.

So if you don't want to see weather coverage during a storm, I'm sure you’ve got a streaming service you can turn on. But the rest of us? We’d rather stay alive and know what's coming.