CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Fans of NBC weatherman and Today Show personality Al Roker waited for over three hours Wednesday night at Yeager Airport to greet the TV icon as he whirlwinds across the nation.
Touching all 50 states and the District of Columbia in just a week as part of “Rokerthon 2″ to support Feeding America, Roker made his West Virginia stop in Charleston on Wednesday.
Dozens of residents packed Yeager Airport’s executive air terminal, many of them holding different signs hoping to get on TV.
“I think it’s very cool. If you look around you got a lot of folks who just came out on their own,” said Kanawha County Commission president Kent Carper. “He really is a national treasure. If you don’t like Al Roker, there’s something wrong with you.”
Kayla Donathan said Roker has been a regular part of her mornings for years.
“I watch the Today Show every morning while I’m getting ready for work. They bring you the news but it’s lighthearted. And Al is always extra hilarious,” she said.
Donathan was with her friend Genelle Robillard who came from Maryland, and said Roker had been “a staple of my mornings” since she was a kid.
Roker finally arrived and gave a live forecast for the night and for Thursday around the Mountain State in front of the crowd.
“Charleston? Partly sunny and 64 tomorrow after an overnight low of 49. Beckley? Partly sunny tomorrow 61. And Bluefield the same just about; a high tomorrow under partly sunny skies of 61 degrees.”
Roker said he wanted to see more young broadcasters set their sights on entering meteorology.
“There’s a lot going on with the environment. We need more meteorologists,” he said.
Roker began Nov. 6 in Hawaii and will return to Rockefeller Plaza in New York on Friday.