Central Texas checks the sky: Zack Shields' storm forecast draws 85,000 views
A short weather hit, which on most days would find a thousand viewers, ran about a hundred times past FOX 7 Austin's usual first day, and a second storm video followed it up.
FOX 7 AustinStory of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 105,619 views a day, 103 times a normal first day on this channel (1,026).
Austin weather: Storms expected, flooding possible
Zack Shields had a plain message for Central Texas: storms were on the way, and some of them might bring flooding. The FOX 7 Austin forecast says little more than that. Its title, "Austin weather: Storms expected, flooding possible," is the whole pitch.
It was enough. Fifteen hours after it went up, the forecast had passed 85,000 views. A regular video on the station's channel usually finds about a thousand viewers in its first day. A forecast is not a scoop, but when the sky is the story, everyone in the region wants the same few minutes.
The weather kept the channel busy. A second video, "Texas weather: Severe storms hit the Hill Country," reported Thursday's heavy rain and the flash flooding it caused west of the city. It has drawn more than 40,000 views of its own, while the station's sports and politics uploads from the same day stayed in the hundreds or low thousands.
The comment section, which usually stays empty on a first day, filled up with a few dozen replies. Several viewers looked out the window and asked where the rain was. One did the arithmetic on a coin-flip chance of showers. Another predicted Texas drivers would switch on their hazard lights. A few people wrote from outside the area to say they watch because a sister or a daughter lives in Austin, which may be a good reminder of who checks a local forecast from far away.
Published on Trari
What viewers say
Oh that means people in Texas will be driving with their hazard lights on.
@ahotdj07See it on YouTubeWhere’s the rain????
@dsc420247See it on YouTubeKeep making videos like this
@AriyanJibranSee it on YouTube
Public comments from the video's page on YouTube
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- Channel
- FOX 7 Austin
- Subscribers
- 192,000
- Channel views, pace per day
- 73,238 (on a normal day: 228,774)
- Video published
- October 1, 2026
- Video views so far
- 85,147 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 105,619
The numbers
The forecast's first fifteen hours left the channel's usual first day far behind.
💡 Test your knowledge
Which river runs through downtown Austin, widening into Lady Bird Lake?
Lady Bird Lake is a reservoir on the Colorado River of Texas, which flows right through downtown Austin.
