Featured photo courtesy of Jordan Darensbourg’s Facebook
By Gavin Martin
A cheerful Jordan Darensbourg leans toward this computer screen as the Zoom interview begins. His enthusiasm is infectious; he’s excited and full of energy, and his laughter fills the small room inside the studios of KVUE-TV, the ABC affiliate in Austin, Texas, where he does the weather for the station’s weekend morning and weekday afternoon newscasts.
His greeting has a happy tone, as he begins some light chatter about Austin FC, the city’s only sports team, in the realm of major league soccer.
He’s very transparent when talking about the career path that led him to KVUE, including his early experience at smaller-market TV stations.
Darensbourg has always loved the weather, ever since he was a kid growing up outside of Atlanta, so being a meteorologist in the 32nd largest market is a big deal. It’s such an important deal because Darensbourg has autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder that can affect people’s ability to communicate and interact socially.
While there is a lot of controversy now about autism and its causes, and some viewers write mean things to him about it on social media, Darensbourg stays positive. He wants to prove that people with autism can do this kind of work.
“I plan to leave behind a positive legacy and one that shows that people on the spectrum can do whatever they set their minds to,” Darensbourg said.
Darensbourg’s fascination with weather began long before he ever stepped inside a TV station. Growing up, he remembers being terrified by lightning and wanting to know how the weather works.
“I was tracking the weather to see when the storm was going to pass so that I could not be scared anymore, and I could go back outside and enjoy whatever activities I was enjoying,” he said.
His fascination with weather intensified like a storm when he started watching the Weather Channel. The headquarters was exactly eight miles away from his house.
Darensbourg was able to tour the building before pursuing his first undergraduate degree at Jackson State University (JSU), which is one of two historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the nation with specific meteorology programs.
Coincidentally, the meteorologist who showed him around the Weather Channel headquarters was also a JSU graduate named Vivian Brown.
Jackson State would later become his school of graduation in 2016, and meeting Brown, one of his favorite meteorologists growing up, solidified his dream of working in broadcast weather.
While at JSU, he became a very popular student. “Incredible” is the word Darensbourg uses to describe his time there.
“Jackson State provided me a full scholarship after I ran into, I kid you not, I ran into one of their recruiters while visiting Purdue,” said Darensbourg. “I am not even kidding, I was a little shocked by that, but you know, it was God telling me that Jackson State was the place.”
After JSU, Darensbourg went to Mississippi State University (MSU) where he earned his second bachelor’s degree, this time in broadcasting.
After school, Darensbourg got his first job at WDTV in Bridgeport, West Virginia. It wasn’t easy; he had five bosses in two years.
Darensbourge had multiple roles at that station besides meteorologist; he was also a multimedia journalist. He didn’t tell anyone that he had autism.
“Management was not the best, he recalled. “It’s pretty difficult to really set up a system and really grow, even though I was able to, and I was able to overcome it. I was just focused on performing at my best and not worrying about, you know, whatever was going on, on the outside.”
But when he got to his second job at KCEN, the NBC affiliate in Temple, Texas, he did. To his surprise, the response was positive. The station even did a story about him, so he got viewer support too. He had the job for two years before his former news director at KCEN asked him to send a demo reel for the meteorologist job in Austin. He got the job and has been at the station since 2023.
Although Darensbourg has found success in his role, having autism has presented some challenges. The key to TV is great communication, and autism can make that difficult, he said.
“It can make things harder, especially on TV, because you have to be great at adlibbing. Sometimes you struggle to find the right words in the moment,” Darensbourg said.
He said his bosses are very accommodating; they will coach him on what’s good to say and what’s not good to say, particularly off-air.
“Given the challenges I face every day, it allows me to better myself,” Darensbourg said. “It allows me to push myself even further.”
He considers himself a representative for people on the spectrum. “I know that people on the autism spectrum look up to me, and I want to give the best impression of what people on the spectrum can achieve with the right support.”
And with the same cheerfulness, he has a message for people who don’t think people with autism are cut out for TV news.
“I think that if they doubt the abilities of people on the spectrum, they’d be shocked to find that we’re just as capable of our abilities as other people, and in some areas, we might even be smarter than them,” said Darensbourg.