When one chapter closes, another begins — and by the end of next month, Texans will be seeing a fresh face giving the forecast following a veteran meteorologist’s exit.
Hannah Gard announced on Instagram on April 10 that she’ll be coming to Austin NBC affiliate KXAN from FOX 8 in New Orleans, where she spent four years. She told MySA the move marks a return to her home state, having been born in Houston and growing up in Colorado — and it happened because her husband was accepted into a physical therapy school in the Capital City.
“Every single year, multiple times a year, we would go drive down through Texas and see all of our families. So it was always kind of like a second home to me, and it was where I was originally from, and all of our people are from there,” she said. “Austin, specifically, I’ve always been super interested in living in because it just has such a fun vibe. The Hill Country is beautiful. I’ve always loved going out there, so that was really appealing to us to be able to be closer to family. And my husband’s family is in Oklahoma, so it’s close to them too.”
A new face steps in for a longtime Austin TV meteorologist
Gard will be on for the weekend morning time slot, as well as the 7 to 9 a.m. shows from Monday to Wednesday. She steps in behind Rich Segal, who spent 45 years on air as a meteorologist. Though he’d also worked in Wichita Falls and Denison, Segal is a longtime Austinite, first coming to KXAN in the mid-90s. He took a brief break from TV, then returned to the weather for 18 years at a 24-hour news service. From 2018 to 2020, he returned to KXAN as a fill-in, then made a full return in 2022. He announced his decision to retire back in January, not long after his weekend co-anchor Jala Washington left for NBC 5 in Dallas…