Turning passion into purpose, one forecast at a time

At around the age of 3, Jason Prichard fell in love with the weather.

The changing shapes of clouds in a summer sky?

Fascinating.

Autumn leaves falling against the backdrop of a crystal blue October afternoon?

Enthralling.

The lightning-streaked wall of purple that signals an approaching summer thunderstorm?

Frightening and thrilling.

And the chance, however slim, of a snowfall in Piedmont North Carolina?

Enough to keep a young boy who grew up primarily in Burlington awake and at the window into the wee hours, hoping to see that first snowflake fall.

“To me, weather showcases the beauty and majesty of creation,” said Jason, now 51 and a resident of Burke County for the past 18 months. “It inspires me to know I live in a world made by a creator with such skill.”

And, although decades have passed since his graduation from North Carolina State University with a bachelor’s degree in meteorology, Jason is now working to share his love of all things weather with a national audience via YouTube.

The classes at State provided a solid foundation for Jason to understand weather and the forces that drive it.

“A lot of the classes were mathematically based,” he remembers. “Calculus, physics, chemistry — all aimed at providing the basis for understanding atmospheric phenomena and how weather can be forecasted.”

“A lot of it was not fun,” he said. “But it was necessary.”

Although Jason spent one summer as an intern at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, the idea of being a television weather forecaster never really crossed his mind.

“It just was not the right path for me at the time,” he said. “I was not a good presenter and I really did not feel comfortable as a communicator in front of a camera.”

Instead of pursuing other career paths in meteorology, Jason worked as a technology salesman and consultant in the corporate world for more than two decades.

And then, in the late summer of 2024, he and his wife, Beth, decided they had had enough of living in Raleigh and, in the aftermath of Helene, moved to Morganton with their son Alex.

In a new home in a new part of the state, the couple decided it was the time to pursue new dreams.

For Beth, that has meant working with senior adults at a host of Burke and McDowell county churches to build mental acuity and physical strength through fitness classes focusing on Tai Chi.

For Jason, it is sharing his love and knowledge of weather through the ever-growing audience of YouTube.

In February of 2025, Jason launched a daily YouTube channel — Cold Rain Weather (search: @realcoldrain.) Within a few months, the daily video feed had more than 1,000 subscribers and now the number sits at just under 18,000.

“I would like for (the YouTube channel) to be my primary source of income,” Jason said. But for that to happen, realistically, I would need to have about 300,000 subscribers.”

Cold Rain Weather is not Burke County centric. Indeed, just the opposite is true. Each day Jason reviews what is happening, weatherwise, across the continental United States.

Each video highlights expected temperatures, precipitation, wind speeds, and possible weather hazards such as snow, thunderstorms, or high winds for the day.

He also looks at ongoing trends and when they might change — such as the ongoing mostly dry weather that has led to severe drought conditions across much of the Southeast.

“I want to be authentic,” said Jason of his goals for the channel. “I want to communicate in a clear way. When it comes to weather, people often know what is happening, but they don’t know why it is happening.”

Those watching the channel now will not see the same sort of videos as they would have a year ago, Jason said.

“My goal is to inform. My secondary goal is to entertain,” he said. “But the process is evolving. It takes a while to find your own authentic voice. I watch myself every day. I critique myself every day. I know that I have to give people a compelling reason to watch.”

Whether tracking a line of storms across the Plains or explaining the science behind a stubborn Carolina drought, Jason is still doing what first captured his imagination decades ago: watching, wondering, and sharing.

And as Cold Rain Weather continues to grow, Prichard isn’t just forecasting what’s ahead in the atmosphere — he’s steadily building a new chapter in a life shaped by curiosity, patience, and a lifelong sense of awe at the sky above.