Mark Twain is often erroneously quoted as saying, "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." Local TV forecasters can't change the weather, but they're certainly on the front lines every day in the fight against weather-related ignorance and confusion. It's the kind of gig that can easily take a toll on a person, with long hours and live shots in extremely cold or otherwise dangerous conditions. Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, meteorologists simply snap, for a variety of reasons, and we all get to see the hilarious results on air. These weathermen completely lost it while on TV.
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00:00Attacking birds? Explosive outbursts? A man who made it his mission to yell at viewers?
00:06All these weathermen and so many more freaking out, live on TV.
00:10In May of 2019, a tornado shredded the streets of Dayton, Ohio, causing severe property damage.
00:15Luckily, the locals can't say the alarms weren't sounded thanks to the assertive efforts of
00:20Fox 45 weatherman Jamie Simpson. Not everyone was so happy about it, however. The weatherman's
00:25live reports, made several hours before the tornadoes rushed through, happened to cut
00:29into the airing of The Bachelorettes, and the fanbase expressed their frustration via
00:33social media.
00:35Rather than ignore these complaints, Simpson flipped out at the selfishness of the reality
00:39show's fans.
00:40No, we're not going back to the show, folks. This is a dangerous situation. I'm done with
00:45you people. I really am. This is pathetic."
00:47Aggressive? Sure. Necessary? Yes.
00:51The tornado ended up claiming one life, destroying a wide swath of central Ohio and injuring 12,
00:57according to Today.
00:58When Simpson's clip went viral, Dayton locals praised Simpson on social media for his dedication
01:03to making sure the message got out there, and fellow weathermen, including Al Roker,
01:07voiced their support.
01:08While Simpson certainly did make a scene, this is a rare instance where he was totally
01:12justified — and even quickly apologized to boot.
01:14All right, I'm sorry I did that. It just really bothers me that we have people that don't
01:20care about other people's safety around here."
01:23People were warned, lives were saved, and the fact that Simpson's clip went viral only
01:26brought more publicity to the dangerous weather conditions. Good for him.
01:31Sometimes weathermen lose it on TV for good reasons. There are other times, though, where
01:35they just embarrass themselves. CNN weather reporter Chad Myers falls into the latter
01:40category.
01:41Back in 2005, Myers was explaining the situation surrounding Hurricane Katrina. Naturally,
01:45this was a stressful time for a lot of people. However, what got Myers antsy wasn't the hurricane
01:50itself, but rather the fact that anchor Carol Costello kept asking him to translate what
01:54he was saying.
01:55I don't know about Camille, but let me talk, Carol!
01:58"...translate that for us. I don't know what that means. What does that mean?"
02:01Well, if you would let me talk…
02:02"...okay."
02:03Myers did catch himself pretty quickly, but not before the camera did. To be fair, The
02:08Week points out that this footage was filmed and broadcast a little after 4 a.m., and that's
02:12one heck of an early time to be at work, much less fielding questions. Not a great excuse,
02:18but still. At the end, Myers smiled and claimed that he was just having fun, but it sure didn't
02:23look like it.
02:24Thank you, Chad.
02:25All right, just having fun with you this morning.
02:26I know. It's a stressful time, I know.
02:30The spiders deserve all the hate they get. Yeah, they have a lot of legs, and yeah, they
02:34can be poisonous, but having a spider on your ceiling does a lot to get rid of all kinds
02:38of pesky critters, flies, mosquitoes, hobbits. Unfortunately, a lot of people find the mere
02:43sight of those creepy, crawly limbs too much to bear, including global news meteorologist
02:48Christy Gordon, who freaked out on live television in 2013 when the shot cut to a weather camera
02:53with a spider perched right on the lens.
02:56We have significant rainfall on the way, and for our area, so let's — oh my gosh, that
03:02was creepy!
03:04Although she was clearly a good sport about the eight-legged invader, it took her a good
03:07moment to shake off the heebie-jeebies, even when it was pointed out that the spider wasn't
03:12in the same room as her.
03:13Oh, I just don't like that, okay, I gotta move — ahhh!
03:19Luckily for Gordon, she's not the only weather forecaster with a buggy phobia. In 2017, for
03:24instance, one perturbed weatherman was forced to a similar surprise, and CBS 13 weatherman
03:29Brian Hughes literally screamed in horror when a spider appeared on the screen.
03:34Ahhhh! Jeez Louise!
03:40Unless you're a White Walker or a Yeti, nobody's ever happy to hear that the next seven days
03:45are going to be filled with so much snow, sleet, and black ice that you'll have to wear
03:48six jackets and drive at five miles per hour.
03:51That said, back when everybody was bonding over how miserable the 2018 cold snap was,
03:56meteorologist Gary Frank in Grand Rapids, Michigan, made it clear that he was tired
04:01of being on the receiving end of everyone's gripes. After reporting day in and day out
04:05about the cold, only to reportedly earn the groans and dismissal of his co-workers, Frank
04:10finally snapped, spewing out a viral rant.
04:14Every time I get done with the seven day, you guys are like, oh gosh, ugh.
04:21Frank painted a clear picture of how much he hated coming to the studio at all hours,
04:24putting on a chipper smile and getting the same glum reaction to his reports for five
04:28straight hours. To be honest, that does sound like a horrible gig.
04:32Here's some wind, here's some temperature, 20s, feels like 19, or feels like 70, I don't
04:39know.
04:41One of the worst jobs for a weather reporter has to be a field assignment during bad weather.
04:45CNN reported that WITI TV reporter Angelica Durillo was the unfortunate candidate for
04:50the job, getting stuck standing in a Milwaukee snowstorm for an entire morning, reporting
04:55on the weather that clearly wasn't going to improve. Finally, she got fed up and went
04:59off on a rant that every viewer could relate to.
05:01I'm exhausted. I've run out of things to say. It is snowing, and it sucks here.
05:09Unsurprisingly, her cohorts back in the warm studio applauded. Because, yeah, as any Midwesterner
05:14knows, being stuck in that winter wonderland for hours definitely sucks. Cheers for the
05:19truth.
05:20AccuWeather meteorologist Jim Kosek doesn't need a clever title. His entire career is
05:25about losing it on TV. He turned it into a genuine art form.
05:29All right, here's the deal. God of snow! Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
05:35Kosek's performance art, a steep contrast to the professionalism of his surroundings
05:39is astonishing, terrifying, and impossible to look away from.
05:42Who don't want their forecast from a block of cheese?
05:49Back when he started reporting for AccuWeather in the 1980s, Kosek's weather reports were
05:53the boring, straight-laced segments you'd expect. But at some point, everything changed
05:58for the better.
05:59Okay, picture this. You're watching the morning news one day, when suddenly, the weatherman
06:04erupts into a blood-curdling scream.
06:06Just the sound of, ahhh! It's my bum! My bum! Let me go!
06:17That's Steve Jacobs, according to The Telegraph, and the pelican is named Marnie. To be fair,
06:22Marnie, the pelican's pecking attack, seemed more playful than aggressive, but that didn't
06:27make it any less shocking — or hilarious, as Jacobs' terror quickly gave way to laughter.
06:32While Jacobs did joke that he was probably going to be mentally scarred by the ordeal,
06:36it seems more likely that this is now his favorite drunk story at parties.
06:41In 2017, Fox 2 weather reporter Derek Keverick got so infuriated by people driving around
06:46with snow on their cars after a storm that he filmed an entire sequence explaining the
06:49correct way to do so.
06:51This must be a really hard concept for people to understand. So today, we're going to break
06:55down the science behind wiping the snow off of your car.
07:00The whole sequence is every bit as passive-aggressive as it sounds. And, okay, sure, it's not quite
07:06live television, considering that it was clearly recorded and edited beforehand. However,
07:11the raging fury in this clip is so clear, so intense, and so full of bitter sarcasm
07:16that it paints a magnificent portrait of what happens when you finally push a weatherman
07:19too far.
07:20There might be some ice. That's okay. Don't freak out. There's a part of the blade that
07:25can help you get that ice off just by doing this.
07:28Honestly, though, Keverick is 100% right. Cleaning the snow off your car is a lot more
07:32important than people think it is, since those chunks of ice that fly off your bumper
07:36can do significant damage to other cars, not to mention cause accidents. Considering it
07:41takes about five minutes to follow Keverick's directions, there's no excuse for driving
07:45around in a mobile igloo.
07:48When it comes to weather, you know what's awesome? Well, most people might say sunshine.
07:52But if you're Weather Channel meteorologist James Cantor from Boston, the most glorious
07:56phenomenon of all is when a lightning bolt strikes during a thunderstorm.
08:01Oh, yes! Yes! Yes! We got it, baby! We got it! We got it! Woo!
08:08According to The Washington Post, Cantor is well-known throughout the weather community
08:11for his passion for so-called thundersnow. Like Cantor's count, he's been lucky enough
08:16to experience thundersnow live on TV at least five times, in Boston, Chicago, and Harrisburg,
08:21Pennsylvania. For his sake, and the sake of his fans, hopefully another rocking thundersnow
08:26light show happens again soon.