02 Jun 2024 Men of the Moment 2024: Todd Yakoubian – Taking Central Arkansas by storm

By Tammy Keith

Todd Yakoubian didn’t realize it at the time, but his future flashed before his eyes at age 6 when lightning struck a tree at his Little Rock home.

“There was this huge, huge oak tree outside of my bedroom, 6 or 7 feet from my window,” he said. Yakoubian, 49, still has memories of the life-changing event. “I remember the crash of thunder … I remember smoke coming from the baseboards in my room. It scared me to death.” His mother called the fire department, and a tearful Todd was taken to a neighbor’s house. “I remember seeing a Channel 4 truck coming out to shoot a video,” he said.

His fear turned into a full-blown weather obsession. “What my parents told me was [that] the week prior, I told them I wanted to be a shoe salesman; then lightning hit, and I wanted to learn about the weather,” Yakoubian said, laughing. “They encouraged me every step of the way.”

His trajectory has been straight up, and he’s on Cloud Nine about being the new chief meteorologist at Channel 4 KARK. He’s not new at all, as his legions of fans know. After 18 years at another Little Rock station, of which he speaks highly, he said “it was perfect timing” to move to KARK.

“They offered me the ability to work in an environment I could grow in, in the digital age with apps. They saw in me something, and I saw in them the ability to grow, and it was a no-brainer.”

When he made a short video to say he was leaving and would give details later, “it blew up to something I couldn’t even imagine.”

 Because of his non-compete clause, Yakoubian said Channel 4’s creative team, “just the best in the business,” found a way to tell viewers that he was coming without saying his name. The 30-second commercial asked, “Are you suffering from meteorologistosis, a rare form of anxiety after your favorite weatherman is no longer on TV?” Viewers were told KARK had “the perfect remedy,” and the first 44 who called a number on the screen would get a free small, stuffed yak.

Yakoubian said he asked his new employer: “What if nobody calls?’” So many people called the station that the phone system crashed.

“I cannot believe it,” he said. “It was crazy the amount of attention it got; it made me feel good. I thought, ‘Maybe I’ve made a mark over those 18 years.’ People came to me for information. They shared a passion with me for the weather.”

His passion for predicting the weather hasn’t cooled since he started Jan. 1, 1997, at his first job at a station in Missoula, Montana, which received 111 inches of snow that winter. He was in weather heaven.

Yakoubian loves snow to the point that he has three snow-making machines. “In Arkansas, we get the cold; we just don’t get all the moisture. I’ve got the moisture in my backyard with the garden hose,” Yakoubian said, laughing. His sons, Blake, 14, and Preston, 12, invite friends over for a snow day their dad creates. “It’s a winter wonderland; it looks like a blizzard is going on in the backyard. They play in the snow, have snowball fights and build things, … and my wife (Andria) makes hot chocolate.”

Not all weather creates happy memories, especially tornado season in Arkansas. Yakoubian was on air during the March 31, 2023, tornado that hit Little Rock and heavily damaged his childhood home, which his sister renovated and lives in. His childhood bedroom was hit, where his parents installed cable and gave him an old black-and-white TV so he could watch the weather channel nonstop.

“I’m absolutely fascinated by the things weather can do,” he said. “You never fully understand the weather because Mother Nature throws tricks at you. Out of that comes the ability to tell people about it. It’s an amazing thing we can do, and I love doing it. We have the ability to communicate life-threatening weather, and that’s what it’s all about.”

At KARK, “they’ve given me even more tools” to predict the weather, he said, and to reach the public using the state-of-the-art KARK Arkansas Storm Center app. He said the app can pinpoint specific areas, such as the location of a festival, to alert people to incoming weather. “It’s invigorating to do the weather in this day and age. I love going to work, and I absolutely love the people I work with in front of and behind the camera. It’s so much fun.”

The Emmy award-winning Yakoubian devotes time talking to civic clubs and schools about the weather. Despite his rock star status, Yakoubian stays grounded by his mission. “When I talk to the kids, I always put myself in their shoes. I was scared to death of thunderstorms. When I ask students how many are scared of thunderstorms, almost all of them raise their hands. I tell them, ‘If you understand what a thunderstorm is and what it does, and you understand where to go when there’s a tornado, you don’t have to be scared because you have knowledge and you can keep safe. Don’t panic; have a plan. The overwhelming odds are, you’re going to be just fine.’”

They might even fall in love with the weather and turn it into a career.