It’s easy to assume that when you’re the son of legendary TV meteorologist Mark Eubank, it would be natural to follow in his footsteps. For Kevin Eubank, KSL’s longtime meteorologist and native of Bountiful, that wasn’t the case.

“I'm the sixth of seven children in my family,” Kevin Eubank said, “so most of my siblings are older than I am. My father had a meteorology company called Weather Bank, and a few of my older siblings actually worked for my dad's company. And so as a young kid, I knew my dad did weather and that he did radio shows in the morning from our home, and I saw him on television, but I had zero affinity or interest in the weather other than just, you know, basic family conversation.” 

Mark Eubank with son Kevin. (Photo courtesy of Eubank family)

Kevin Eubank went to Oak Hills Elementary, Millcreek Junior High and Bountiful High, from where he graduated in 1993. He said weather was always a subject of conversation in their home.

“So I was fully exposed. I just didn't have any interest in pursuing that as a career,” he said. “And in fact, as I got into my teenage years, it was actually almost the opposite. Really. It was kind of a turn off, because my dad was so passionate about it that it was something I didn't want anything to do with.”

That changed when Kevin Eubank was serving an LDS mission in Mexico due to a tragedy he experienced.

“I served in a very rural area, and there was a dry wash that went through the area that kind of divided the community, and there was a flood that happened because of a large storm,” he said. “There were two little girls that were playing in that ravine, and a flood came and they died. And I remember for the first time in my life asking, number one, how did that happen, and number two, why didn't anyone tell them to get out? That's where it started to click that that's actually what meteorologists do. They talk about the weather, they warn people, they help people know what's coming. I always thought meteorologists studied the weather, which they do, but they study it so that they can then go and help people.”

When he got back from his mission, Kevin Eubank talked to his father and told him of his plan to get into the business. Surprisingly, Mark Eubank wasn’t excited. 

“He told me it was a difficult business,” Kevin Eubank recalls. “He knew how competitive it was. So he kind of just said, ‘Hey, Kevin, don't judge my career as the standard of how TV meteorologists careers go.’ He'd been in Salt Lake City for almost his entire career. I thought he made it look easy, but he was like, ‘It's not easy. It's not always fun. It's very challenging.’”

Kevin Eubank knew it was what he wanted to do, so with his dad’s help, he made an audition tape at KSL, where Mark Eubank had moved after leaving KUTV, but KSL management wasn’t interested in hiring Kevin Eubank full time. He did some Saturday morning shows as a fill-in for Kent Norton for about eight weeks. After that, he reached out to the other three TV stations in Salt Lake City looking for an opportunity. 

“I met with management at channel 2 (KUTV), and they weren't interested either. But a couple weeks later, they called and said, ‘Listen, we need somebody to fill in. And we just need them to fill in for two days in the morning and noon show. So I said I’d do it.”

The first day went fine, he said, but his second day was Aug. 11, 1999–the day the tornado that went through Salt Lake City. 

“I was on air at 12:42 in the afternoon when it hit,” he said. “Instead of going on air for three minutes, I was on air for almost three hours, talking about the tornado and what happened and how it all happened. Sterling Poulson was in the middle of it downtown, and he was reporting from the field, and it just gave me a lot of incredible exposure. The next day, the vice president of the TV station invited me into his office and said, ‘Hey, I'm sorry I messed up. We want to hire you to do the weekends.’ And that's how it started.”

He worked at KUTV for five years, left for a year to work with Weather Bank, then joined KSL in 2007. He now heads a five person weather team at KSL as the lead meteorologist, and said he feels blessed to work with his fellow forecast experts.

“My family still jokes to this day that it took a tornado to get me a job,” he recalls. “The truth was nobody was interested. Here, you had Mark Eubank, who was an institution in the state, who was an incredibly great meteorologist, respected among peers and on television. And then you had little Eubank Junior coming up and no credentials, no education, no anything. More than one station said, ‘We already have a Eubank in Salt Lake doing the weather. He's really good at it. We don't need two.’ That was a motivation to me to keep moving forward. The opportunity came and it has been great ever since.”

One Eubank tradition that viewers have loved for decades is the snow coat, something Mark Eubank introduced at KUTV. 

“He was on the news with Bill Marcroft, who was a sports legend, and my father had a kind of a bone colored, light colored sport coat, and he would wear that and not ever thinking anything of it,” Kevin Eubank remembered. “It was Marcroft who told my dad that whenever he wore the light jacket, it snowed. So he started to wear that lighter coat and he replaced it with a white coat, but his own rule was that there needed to be at least a 1-inch storm in the Salt Lake Valley.” 

The coat became a popular topic of discussion among viewers who had mixed reactions. 

“Skiers loved seeing it, while those who worked outside or had long commutes hated it,” he said with a smile. “It’s a love-hate relationship with the coat, but it’s become an expectation. And it's become more of a responsibility than I ever thought. If I’m wearing the coat, there needs to be at least an inch of snow on the valley floor.”

Kevin Eubank and his wife Jana have four children, none of whom have a desire to make it a third generation thing. 

The Eubank family, from left, are Maryn, Jensyn, Jana, Kevin, Owen and Camryn. (Photo courtesy of Eubank family)

“I think they're like I was when I was their age,” Kevin Eubank said. “They understand what dad does, they respect what dad does, but they don't have the yearning towards broadcast meteorology. And the truth is, our business is changing. Television is changing so dramatically that while I believe there will always be a place for meteorologists and on-air meteorologists, it's going to be different, already different, and it's going to continue to evolve. So my kids are great. They all are all grown and graduated from high school, and most are done with college and other things. They all live here in Utah, but no, none are pursuing meteorology as a career.” 

Kevin Eubank is under contract with KSL for several more years. He and Jana are active in their faith and hope to someday serve a church mission together. For right now, he’s happy with where his professional life is focused.

“I'm 49, so I have time in front of me, and I love what I'm doing,” he said. “As long as it continues to be fun and I continue to have the opportunity to do what I do, I will continue.”