Adam Krueger, also known as @weatheradam across his social media platforms, didn’t mean to become an influencer. It just sort of happened.
You may have seen Krueger’s TikToks and reels. Krueger is the chief meteorologist at CW39 Houston, but he is also a social media sensation. His schtick is that he sneaks song lyrics into his weather forecast, mostly at the request of his fans. His TikTok account has grown to 1.9 million followers and has 27.3 million likes, and videos of his stealthy forecasts have been shared by Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne and Metallica.
It started with Wordle
Krueger and his coworkers are Wordle fans, and he started out sneaking the puzzle’s solution into his forecast for the day.
“The joke around the office was you couldn’t talk about the Wordle of the day without spoiling it for someone else,” says Krueger. “As a nod to the people at work that already solved it, I would just stick the Wordle in my weather [forecast] at some point over the course of the morning. No matter what the word was, I would do it. Sometimes that takes some kind of creativity to weave it into my forecast.”
Krueger started a TikTok account where he showed how he used the daily word in the weather. He would always post it the next day, as not to ruin the puzzle for anyone. Eventually, he started getting requests.
“A few people online thought it was fun and that was going for a few months,” says Krueger. “It was my followers that steered it to what it is now. They’re the ones that suggested trying movie quotes or song lyrics.”
Adam Krueger: Weatherman to TikTok sensation
This isn’t the first time Krueger has gone viral for his weather forecasts. During the pandemic, he was working at a TV station in Austin and everything had gone virtual.
“I figured out a way to use my backyard as a giant green screen and would film myself walking around on the weather maps,” says Krueger. “I created this whole series I called ‘Weather on the Lawn’ where I was able to interact with the graphics and stand on certain cities and walk with a storm line across my yard.”
Krueger never studied media production. Television weather forecasters have to get a degree in meteorology, which is heavy in math and science.
“There was a minimal amount of required communication classes in college,” says Krueger. “Early in my career, I felt very shy. Public speaking was probably my No. 1 fear in life, and it took a while to warm up just to be on camera.”
Even after a long career in television weather forecasting, Krueger says he still felt shy when he created his social media following.
“It was initially very uncomfortable to do—planning out some lyrics to say in the weather felt wrong,” says Krueger. “I kind of got over that, and that was a hurdle that felt good to clear. Now it’s like I look at it as a creative outlet, and it’s kind of like a brain exercise to figure this out.”
“Weather Adam” becomes a sensation
When Krueger found out some of the artists whose lyrics he used were reposting his content, he was shocked.
“My first really big one was when Snoop Dogg reposted my video and he commented ‘weatherman on one,’” says Krueger. “That just blew me away. When I first saw it, I thought it was like a fake Snoop account or something—no way this actually happened!”
Krueger has noticed likes and comments from other artists including one from the Backstreet Boys and one from the Jonas Brothers. Comedian Taylor Tomlinson also made his forecast into a game show on her late-night comedy show, After Midnight.
“I think the biggest ones for me are Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne,” says Krueger. “Lin Manuel commented on the Hamilton one. There’s people that I’m a big fan of that suddenly know who I am. It just feels weird to say that out loud.”
It’s a team effort
Luckily, Weather Adam’s workplace is in on the joke and have actually been able to leverage Krueger’s newfound fame. CW39 Houston maintains a collection of the “WeatherAdam” videos on their website.
“My general manager at the TV station saw my very first video that I posted with the Wordle word and he was like, ‘That was cool,’” says Krueger. “He knew what the word was the next day when he saw me and he’s like, ‘I don’t know how you’re going to do today’s word. Good luck with that.’
“From there on forward, they’ve been very cool with everything I’ve done,” says Krueger. “Once it started getting really popular when the song lyrics were going in, I revisited it with him, and I was like, I just want to make sure [we’re still good with it] because this is getting a lot of traction online… [and] he said he trusts that I’m going to be responsible and not do anything ridiculous.”
Although it looks like his forecasts are heavy on the lyrics in his video clips, Krueger’s lyric insertions are spread out over several hours of news broadcasting, so they are not as obvious when you watch the weather report on TV.
“My No. 1 priority is still the weather,” says Krueger. “On days where there’s severe weather or something big going on, I don’t mess with any social media videos of this nature.”
Adam Krueger’s unique branding
Krueger declined to comment on whether he has monetized his social media pages, but he did say that he has done some brand partnerships.
“I’ve had a lot of partnership opportunities reach out to me,” says Krueger. “I have done a few, and they are mostly weather-related. I did one with solar eclipse viewing glasses, and I’ve done one with Tostitos where they wanted specifically weather people.”
Mainly, Krueger is just blown away by his surprise fame.
“I’ll go places and people know me even outside of the city I live in,” says Krueger. “I was in Colorado not long ago at a weather conference, and someone’s like, ‘Hey! Weather Adam from TikTok!’”
Photo courtesy of CW39 Houston.