Minnesota drivers urged to stay off roads amid snow emergency
FOX Weather's Mitti Hicks reports live from Minnesota on the severe winter storm sweeping across the country.
A local Iowa sports reporter assigned to reporting on the blizzard conditions currently gripping the Midwest turned heads online Thursday with a clip of his hilariously grumpy reactions to having to be outside in the cold for the job.
A clip of KWWL-TV sports reporter Mark Woodley expressing his displeasure reporting in the cold outside in Waterloo, Iowa, during blizzard conditions gained several million views on Twitter.
"Can I go back to my regular job?" Woodley asked in the video, right in the middle of the local station’s "Tracking the Blizzard" coverage.
A local Iowa sportscaster goes viral for his cranky reactions to reporting out in the cold and snow. (Screenshot/Twitter)
Woodley posted the compilation in good humor, adding a caption which stated, "This is what you get when you ask the sports guy to come in to cover a blizzard in the morning show."
The comical clip featured Woodley — who remained relatively good-natured throughout — slinging sarcastic one-liners about all the fun he was having while standing outside at "3:30 a.m." as snow blanketed his surroundings.
In one instance, Woodley explained, "I normally do sports. Everything is canceled here for the next couple of days. So what better time to ask the sports guy to come in about five hours earlier than he would normally wake up, go stand out in the wind, and the snow, and the cold, and tell people not to do the same?"
Travelers wait in line to check in for their flights at Terminal 1 at MSP Airport in Bloomington, Minn., on Thursday. (Kerem Yücel /Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
In another portion of the video, Woodley replied to a question from the studio anchor about how his report was going with sarcasm: "It’s absolutely fantastic, Ryan. You know, I’m used to these evening shows that are only 30 minutes long and generally on those shows I’m inside so, uh, this is a really long show. Tune in for the next couple hours to watch me get progressively crankier and crankier."
Woodley even ribbed his coworkers in sidesplitting moments as he suffered the cold in front of the camera. Chirping at another KWWL-TV weather team member, he asked, "How do I get that Storm Chaser 7 duty? I feel like Clint got the better end of that deal, you know? That thing’s heated, um, the outdoors, currently is not."
Not holding back on his supposedly cozier colleagues, he added, "I’m pretty sure, Ryan, that you guys added an extra hour to this show just because somebody likes torturing me."
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In an interview with Insider, Woodley assured any concerned viewers that he was reporting "outside about 30 feet from the backdoor of KWWL-TV's main station," so he, admittedly, had the chance to warm up between takes.
Woodley also wanted to relay to viewers that despite the comedy, he and his team were taking the storm very seriously. He added, "It's a pretty serious storm. We take it very seriously. I want people to know it's not a complete joke to me. I kind of felt if I brought a little personality to it, people would pay attention."
Temperatures plunged far and fast Thursday as a winter storm formed ahead of Christmas weekend, promising heavy snow, ice, flooding and powerful winds across a broad swath of the country and complicating holiday travel. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)