What happened to David Lynch's weather report? Director’s meteorological insights made him a beloved YouTube star

American visionary director David Lynch, who was the creative force behind bizarre and radical storytelling such as Twin Peaks, died on January 16, 2025. Lynch’s death was confirmed by his family on Thursday, who, in a Facebook post, wrote:

"We would appreciate some privacy at this time. There's a big hole in the world now that he's no longer with us. But, as he would say, 'Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.' It's a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way."

The quote was a reference to David Lynch’s online weather reports, which often began with the director happily stating the date, day, and year before ending with “blue skies and sunshine.” Lynch stopped releasing the weather reports in December 2022.

For the unversed, David Lynch left behind a tremendous legacy that is not merely limited to filmmaking. Lynch also contributed to online culture with a charming YouTube series that amassed hundreds of thousands of loyal followers online.

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David Lynch's weather reports stopped in December 2022

In the mid-2000s, David Lynch occasionally released online weather reports. While it is unclear what impelled Lynch to share the meteorological insights, actress Laura Dern, in a 2017 GQ interview, revealed Lynch was focused on spending as much time as possible working. She said:

“You’re at his house, and if he’s not cutting or writing or shooting, he’s in the woodshop making furniture, or he’s painting, or he’s filming birds, or telling the weather.”

In the videos recorded in his home office back in the mid-2000s, he even occasionally invited guests into the studio, including Laura Dern.

After a few years, David Lynch stopped filming the weather reports but started again in 2020, sharing clips to his David Lynch Theater YouTube channel with over 400,000 subscribers. In a video dated May 18, 2020, Lynch while glancing out the window, said:

“Here in LA, by golly, we’ve got rain, gray, and gloomy with a slight breeze,” “This should — I hope — burn off by this afternoon and we’ll have sunshine back and 70 degrees. Have a great day.”

Lynch continued to post weather reports for two years until he ceased recording in December 2022. The time coincided with his close friend and Twin Peaks composer Angelo Badalamenti’s death. Lynch and Badalamenti were close friends and collaborators who worked together on Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Wild at Heart, The Straight Story, Lost Highway, and Mulholland Drive.

Lynch’s absence online was noticed by several concerned fans. On Reddit, a fan wrote:

"David Lynch made his last weather report 9 months ago. Is he working on a new project?"

In response, another fan added:

“I hope so! He stopped putting them out the day Angelo Badalamenti died; that was an exceptionally sad one. "Today...no music."

In a 2023 interview with the French magazine Cahiers du Cinema, Lynch shared why he stopped posting weather reports, stating:

“Oh boy. I had to be at the end. The experiment ended on a positive note. My last weather bulletin was on a Friday. I was always doing something special that day of the week, so I recommended a song "The World Spins," our favorite of all the ones we wrote with Julee and Angelo. It seemed to me that it was a good ending.”

He noted that he was up early every morning to consult the weather bulletin, adding, “now I can sleep longer in the morning.”

David Lynch died a year after revealing an emphysema diagnosis.