Tony Laubach

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Tony Laubach (born November 20, 1980) is an American storm chaser and meteorologist. He has participated in several field research projects and is one of the surviving members of TWISTEX. He has been contracted as a severe weather photojournalist for various major television networks, and has starred in several television shows, including Seasons 3 through 5 of Storm Chasers on the Discovery Channel.^[1][2]

Laubach is a field Meteorologist and storm chaser for AccuWeather.^[3] Laubach made his debut on the network on June 7, 2021 after witnessing a tornado from their new house the day they closed. On August 9 in northern Illinois, Laubach aired the Sycamore, IL tornado live on the network in the middle of a tornado outbreak.^[4]

Laubach was the weekend morning meteorologist and storm chaser for KAKE-TV in Wichita, Kansas. He joined the team on March 19, 2018 and debuted on-air a week later on March 25.^[5] Three years later on March 25, 2021, Laubach announced on his Facebook page that he was leaving KAKE with his last day being May 2.^{[citation needed]} Prior to KAKE, Laubach worked for nearly five years as a meteorologist and the "Weather Warrior" for WSIL-TV in Carterville, Illinois. He worked at WSIL from July 31, 2013 until March 11, 2018. Prior to that, Laubach was the primary storm chaser and a weather producer at KMGH, 7News in Denver, Colorado.

At WSIL, Laubach created and produced a nine-part segment that aired every Wednesday from May 3 to July 8, 2015 called "Weather Warrior Wednesday". This weekly package detailed his storm chasing, and he produced it from the field. He did a second season of the "Weather Warrior" segment in 2016, which aired from May 4 to July 13, and featured eight packages and two narratives.^[6] In August 2016, Laubach debuted as a broadcast meteorologist, filling in to do weathercasts on weekend mornings. He was promoted to full-time weekend mornings starting on September 3, 2017. He created another storm chasing segment called "Storm Story Sunday", which featured highlights of his storm-chasing career and aired every Sunday for his tenure as the full-time weekend meteorologist. His final "Storm Story Sunday" aired on March 4, 2018 and included his official announcement that he was leaving WSIL to pursue his career in Kansas.

Laubach was the contributing producer, a videographers, and featured talent in KMGH 7News's 2011 television news special, "Tracking Twisters".^[7][8] The special was named "Best Single Program Including News Magazine Programs" in 2011 by the Colorado Broadcast Association,^[9] and received a 2012 regional Emmy award from the National Television Academy Heartland Chapter for "Magazine Program/Weather Program".^[10]

Laubach's images and footage have been used by networks and programs including CNN, ABC News, Good Morning America, Fox News, The Weather Channel,^[11] The National Geographic Channel, The Discovery Channel, The Travel Channel, Associated Press, Univision, Women's Entertainment, and local media news outlets nationwide.^[12][13]

In July 2017, The Scioto Post named Laubach as the 10th most famous person from Pickaway County, Ohio, owing to his well publicized storm-chasing career.^[14]