Real estate
Roy Ponder aims to inform, protect residents with social media weather forecasts
but he found ways to incorporate his interest in weather into his work. “I love the weather, so that’s what I’m going to talk about. ... If they want to bring up insurance, I’ll talk to them about insurance,” he said. 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 in the insurance industry, but eventually took 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. 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. 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.
What began as a personal interest in the weather is now a full-time career for Roy Ponder, who shares forecasts and weather updates with an audience of over 400,000 followers. 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 experi- ence also sparked his interest in the weather. “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 profes- sional pursuits were in the insurance industry,
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