Forecasting the weather is never a sure thing, and neither is live TV. Fortunately,
many of the funniest mistakes involving weather reporting have been caught on tape and preserved
for our benefit. Here are some weather anchor bloopers that we just can't stop watching.
In November 2020, Luke Bradnam pickup truck was stolen as he reported live on television.
Bradnam noticed three youths hopping into his truck, which went into reverse and
backed right toward him. He yelled, quote, "Me car!" as he ran up to the vehicle.
Bradnam had, in fact, just spoken with the boys right before they stole the truck.
"They said, 'Luke, let us do the weather with you tonight.' That sorta thing. Had
a bit of banter with them. And I thought they were nice guys."
Thankfully, the teens were later caught and arrested.
Tupelo, Mississippi, weatherman Matt Laubhan, a reporter for WTVA since 2011, holds the honor as,
"Northeast Mississippi's first Certified Broadcast Meteorologist." In fact, he and his team are so
good at what they do that they have earned five Emmy awards out of a dozen nominations.
The recognition is well-deserved: In 2014,
Laubhan refused to leave the studio until the last minute as a tornado bore down on Tupelo.
Similarly, during another tornado in 2018, a transformer caught fire,
knocking out power and cable television in the studio. Laubhan and the staff headed for safety,
but the mighty meteorologist managed to continue broadcasting from Facebook via his laptop.
When yet another tornado threatened WTVA in 2019, there were at least a few moments of
comic relief that were funny enough to merit airing on Jimmy Kimmel Live. In the clip,
Laubhan not only pointed out the tornado as being near the veterinarian where, quote,
"my cat died last week" but also had an issue with someone off-screen, identified as "John."
Laubhan said:
"John. John. I need you off the phone. I need you to check, um, radar. And I need
you to look at this tornado warning up here. I need you to see if I need to be on it."
He later snapped his fingers and clapped his hands to get John's attention. Laubhan also took John to
task for the possibility that a tornado could have formed while they didn't have radar data.
Kimmel said:
"John might want to post his résumé on LinkedIn right now."
"John" was fellow meteorologist John Dolusic, who is, at the time of this video’s release,
still with WTVA.
Michigan weatherman Garry Frank put up with a lot during his time at WXMI. One time,
his computer broke, and he had to do his weather broadcast using a dry-erase board, commenting:
"We're gonna go John Madden on everything."
And then there's the time he felt his crew was, quote, "dragging [him] down"
and went off at them for complaining about the weather. He said:
"I mean what do you want me to do, lie to you? I'll put 70 every day next time."
Frank also said:
"And then you expect me to be chipper for five straight hours! It's miserable."
When Frank left the network in 2019 to return to his hometown of Kansas City,
radio station WFGR lamented the loss.
WXMI's own crew paid tribute to Frank with a top five list of "moments":
cleaning out the studio refrigerator, his friendship with a co-worker identified as Davis,
wearing shorts and dancing, the number of times he sneezed on-air,
and, at the top of the list, his famous rant, which also made it to Jimmy Kimmel's show.
Viewers howled when FOX 10's weather map in Phoenix, Arizona,
forecasted temperatures in the thousands of degrees in 2015. Weatherman Cory McCloskey
was giving the day's temperatures when he noticed that Gila Bend was at 750 degrees.
As more maps faded in, McCloskey didn't miss a beat,
noting that Ahwatukee was 1,270 degrees. He said:
"Now, I'm not authorized to evacuate Ahwatukee, but this temperature seems pretty high."
He then announced that 2,385-degree Wickenburg was, quote,
"[a] total loss." McCloskey remained straight-faced as he advised viewers:
"I'm not your dad, but I would get out while you still can."
A meteorologist since 1989 and with FOX 10 since 2001,
McCloskey remained deadpan while his co-anchors giggled off camera.
NewsNow reporter Samia Khan later interviewed McCloskey, saying:
"You were already an Arizona sensation,
a FOX 10 sensation, but now the whole world knows how talented you are."
A modest McCloskey explained that while he wasn't responsible for the weather map mishap,
which was computer-generated, he decided to have fun with it.
He quipped:
"Half the time I'm just entertaining myself."
And while Phoenix temperatures have slowly climbed in recent years – The Arizona Republic
reports that the city hit 122 degrees in 1990 and was at 118 degrees in July 2020.
Some weathermen have an angle like Happy Stevens, who once did a whole rap routine for his forecast.
But Alberta, Canada, meteorologist Jordan Witzel really should be a comedian.
Witzel adores being silly, such as when he cut his jeans and sported "Daisy Dukes" on
a hot summer's day. Witzel's antics frequently crack up his co-workers,
who never know quite what to expect from him.
Most notable are Witzel's Halloween outfits:
In 2019, he appeared on-air dressed as a unicorn named Ferdinand and sporting tighty-whiteys.
The anchorwoman laughed so hard that she had tears running down her face, uttering, quote,
"Those shorts!" while a woman off-camera demanded to know what Witzel was wearing.
Witzel's best costume to date? In 2020, he appeared dressed as a ham and cheese bun,
the ham situated on his derriere. Anchorwoman Dallas Flexhaug
giggled uncontrollably while Witzel announced his "Glammy Chezbunns."
A Colorado native, Lisa Hidalgo enjoys forecasting the weather, as well as working with the Denver 7
Book Club, and running — the latter of which she was able to do during the Denver Marathon in 2017.
Hidalgo is so fit that in 2019, she participated in Denver's Dancing with the Anchors to benefit
blind children. So it's no wonder that back in 2013, when a studio camera slipped to the
floor as Hidalgo reported the weather, the weatherwoman did a little jig before
kneeling to the floor and continuing her forecast while gazing up at the camera.
Camera fails are not the only challenges Hidalgo has met head-on.
In 2014, she willingly took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, noting that:
"As a woman it's a lot harder. I have T-minus 45 minutes after this to get
the barn repainted for weather cut-ins."
But Hidalgo did complete the challenge and challenged
three more people afterward. Another funny moment featuring Hidalgo took place in 2016,
when her co-workers superimposed a giant bird on the screen as a joke.
In 2017, attorney Rocky Wilkins was accustomed to bringing his young son,
Houston, to work at Mississippi's WLBT, where he routinely did a recurring law segment.
The tyke was a familiar face around the set, sometimes being allowed to play weather
forecaster on the green screen — but never on live television. So imagine weatherman
Patrick Ellis' surprise when Houston burst into the middle of his live forecast exclaiming:
"I don't know what's going on, but Zane doesn't know!"
Next, the child performed what appeared to be a bird or
pterodactyl impression as an amused Ellis looked on.
The forecaster took Houston's sudden appearance
in stride. He asked the boy if he wanted to point out the weather.
The boy said:
"Yeah, there are farts everywhere and toots! It's crazy!"
The child remained on camera for a few more seconds before Wilkins ran
in, scooped him up, and ran out.
In 2013, KTLA meteorologist Henry DiCarlo was wishing happy birthday to viewers by name.
DiCarlo's website invites viewers to request birthday salutations on his Facebook page,
with just two rules. It says:
"Belated birthdays will not be announced. We do not log future
requests or announce birthdays for those that have passed."
So when DiCarlo received a request to give a birthday shout-out to ten-year-old Hugh Janus,
it seemed like just another random birthday announcement. But it wasn't.
"And Hugh Janus turning 10."
"I"m sorry.” “What?”
“I'm sorry."
DiCarlo no sooner said the words "Hugh Janus" when he heard co-anchor Chris
Schauble snickering off-camera.
DiCarlo looked up, puzzled, as another off-screen co-anchor whispered "What?"
The camera switched over to Schauble, who muttered:
"I'm sorry. I think it was one of those trick names and you fell for it."
DiCarlo caught on, too, laughing out loud.
He said he totally fell for it, amid the giggles.
The ever-bubbly host of Wheel of Fortune worked many jobs before taking the game show's helm in
1981. Prior to that, Pat Sajak was a disc jockey, as well as a weatherman for Nashville's WSM.
In one clip from that job, he joked with his co-anchor.
Sajak announced that he had written a script for co-anchor Dan Miller to read.
Sajak tailored the script so that Miller had to compliment him as:
"You're one of the most talented broadcasters in
the country. And you're a real asset to this show."
Miller gives Sajak a plug for his radio show. He said:
"I personally think it's one of the top radio shows in the country."
And both anchors started cracking up. It took a bit before Sajak was able to continue.
Sajak also hosted two shows, The Pat Sajak Show, from 1989 to 1990, and Pat Sajak Weekend in 2003.
And the fun never seemed to stop with Sajak on Wheel of Fortune.
In 1999, the whole studio lost it when a player tried to solve a puzzle, blurting out:
"A group of pill-pushers?"
"This is Wheel of Fortune, Joe!"
For Pat Sajak, the fun, indeed, never ends.
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