About the time Mark Eubank bids his KSL-TV audience farewell tonight, the skies should be clear for his departure. According to the forecast, another storm isn't due for a few days, which seems fitting. Utahns will need time to adjust to not having Mark Eubank as a constant in their lives.
It's no exaggeration to say that Eubank is a Utah institution. After 42 years of bringing weather reports to life in his inimitable style, Eubank is retiring. His last broadcast will be at 10 o'clock tonight. Eubank plans to spend his retirement studying weather patterns and long-range forecasts.
What can one expect from a man who got his first rain gauge at age 14? Or someone who has recorded weather statistics in a spiral notebook for 50 years? Being a weatherman wasn't just a job to Eubank. The weather is his passion.
Perhaps that's what has kept us tuning in all these years, first at KUTV and later KSL-TV. Eubank, in his heart, was a teacher. It wasn't sufficient for him to simply tell us the day's high and low temperatures and provide a forecast. Eubank provided added value. We learned what tribal people believed about certain moon phases; learned characteristics of plants and animals believed to forecast weather; and watched on-air demonstrations to further our understanding of weather phenomena. He employed the latest technology to improve the accuracy of his forecasts. He used quirky sound effects and gimmicks such as his snow coat to further explain weather events.
Along the way he inspired people to study meteorology themselves. At least two people on the KSL's comment board (visit www.ksl.com) credit Eubank's lively reports for launching them into their own careers in weather forecasting. Others wrote about Eubank's memorable visits to their elementary schools; how he launched a weather balloon near his Bountiful home to the delight of the neighborhood children; how he took the time to correspond to viewers; and how he knew the names of weather watchers throughout the state.
Over the past four decades, Eubank has demonstrated in a million little ways how much he cares about the weather and its impacts on everyday Utahns' lives. Today, we join thousands of Utahns in thanking him and wishing him fair skies in the next chapter of his life.