'Can I go back to my regular job?': KWWL sports reporter Mark Woodley goes viral for begrudging blizzard coverage

Reporter applauded for saying what everyone was feeling about the cold: 'The outdoors is not heated'

Elianna Lev
Updated ·2 min read
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'Can I go back to my regular job?': KWWL sports reporter Mark Woodley goes viral for begrudging blizzard coverage

A sports reporter has gone viral for doing a job he never willingly intended to do - covering extreme weather.

Mark Woodley of KWWL in Waterloo, Iowa, was stuck tracking a local blizzard early in the morning on Thursday, despite his official role as a sports reporter. His station is currently short-staffed and asked him to help with the morning show since most sports games have been cancelled thanks to the poor weather. The salty journalist didn’t hold back about how he was really feeling about taking over the weather watch.

I normally do sports, everything is cancelled 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 and go stand out in the wind and the snow and the cold and tell other people not to do the same. I didn't even realize that there was a 3:30 also in the morning until today."Mark Woodley, KWWL sports reporter

On another hit, he confesses that he’s used to working the evening show, which are only 30 minutes long and requires him to be inside.

“This is a long show, so tune into me progressively getting crankier and crankier,” he says.

Woodley also quips that he longs to be inside the Stormchaser 7 vehicle doing road conditions, because “that thing’s heated and the outdoors currently is not heated.”

He eventually signs off on his blizzard report by saying “live from Waterloo, for the last time this morning, thankfully.”

The video compilation of Woodley’s hot cold takes currently has over five million views.

"Nobody told me what I was doing," he told TODAY of his viral blizzard watch. "Now I thought maybe I'd be in studio or out in the car or something — not outside when temperature is pushing in minus 40 with the wind chill!"

One company has even made t-shirts that say “The outdoors is not heated”, inspired by Woodley's remark. A portion of sales will go to charity.

No word on if Woodley intends to give the snow another go in the future.