After more than six years as a WHO 13 meteorologist and digital content producer, Amber Alexander has left the Des Moines station, citing mental health reasons.
Alexander joined Channel 13’s weather team in December 2015, according to a bio on the TV station’s website.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in meteorology/climatology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2014 and previously worked as a meteorologist and reporter at KNOP in North Platte, Nebraska.
“Being hired as a full-time meteorologist in a top 100 market (there are 210 TV markets in the US and I started in market 209) has been a dream come true. I have truly lived my dream for almost 5 years,” Alexander wrote in a Facebook post last week announcing his departure.
Alexander has been open about her ongoing battle with diagnosed anxiety, including obsessive-compulsive disorder since 2019, when she publicly shared her struggle to raise awareness of mental health issues.
In his most recent post, he said his health took a serious hit this spring.
“The last 2 years have been the hardest of my life mentally and physically, and in the last few months my body has shown me that it cannot take much more than I am currently putting in,” he wrote . “My health must come first.”
Alexander said she began experiencing chest pain during the March 5 tornadoes that hit Winterset, which she quickly learned was related to her anxiety.
“Doing several hours of severe weather coverage is both mentally and physically draining, but when people die and homes/businesses are destroyed, we as meteorologists are heartbroken, in a way that’s hard to process,” he said.
It took the next morning, but came back that afternoon to update a story on the EF-4 tornado classification. The same day, he covered up the deadly shooting near East High School in Des Moines.
“It just led to more anxiety, more stress, and more pain,” Alexander said.
She continued to experience chest pains and developed an eye contraction when she took a second job in April to help her family achieve their financial goals. He also said he was tired, even when he had eight to 10 hours of sleep.
Fortunately, he wrote, blood and heart tests ruled out any serious underlying conditions.
Alexander, who grew up in Council Bluffs, said his passion for meteorology began in sixth grade. During his time at the university, he took a tornado in Solomon, Kansas, on his first storm-hunting trip with his colleagues in April 2012.
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Alexander said she was grateful for the opportunities offered to WHO and to viewers who trusted her to report on climate and factual and up-to-date news, which was largely focused on the science and sustainability.
But he also pointed out the health challenges he faced working in a demanding field, adding that hobbies such as yoga, meditation, reading and volleyball help him decompress from “the difficult days that life brings”.
In his 2019 post, Alexander said that transparency about his challenges is intended to raise awareness of the importance of mental health – and to make people aware that they are not alone.
“We, as humans, should not be ashamed to have a mental illness,” he wrote. “Contrary to what we sometimes believe, it’s not something we can control.”
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Alexander, who lives in central Iowa with her husband and two cousins, says she will stay in the area. His last day was Wednesday.
Virginia Barreda is a trend reporter and general assignment for the Des Moines Registry. It can be reached at vbarreda@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @ vbarreda2.
