After the city decided to keep schools open on Thursday, parents, teachers, principals and the teachers' union were livid about the decision. One of those parents was none other than Today Show weather forecaster Al Roker, who was Tweeting furiously, "It's going to take some kid or kids getting hurt before this goofball policy gets changed" and "Long range DiBlasio forecast: 1 term" Now, Roker has some regrets.
De Blasio had defended Schools Chancellor Carmen "It's a beautiful day" Farina's decision not to call a snow day and directly addressed Roker's Tweets by saying, "Well, I respect Al Roker a lot. I watched him on TV for many, many years. It’s a different thing to run a city than to give the weather on TV. So, I am comfortable with our decision-making, and we just got off the phone with the National Weather Service—and again, I respect all the meteorologists out there, but the one I respect the most is called the National Weather Service. And this did—and they just affirmed to us on the call before we came out to you—that this went faster and heavier than their projections last night. And that happens. It is—it’s weather. None of us controls it. Our job is to adjust and respond to it."
This morning on the Today Show, Roker said he understood that some children rely on the hot meals at schools, but claimed that other cities have that issue and their schools closed, "It’s about safety, safety first for children." He also said, yes, there are some parents who can't afford to miss work, "But again, what's more difficult, to know that your kids are going to stay home or have to all of a sudden figure out how to get them home when school lets out early?" (Roker was Tweeting about his daughter's public school having early dismissal, but the Board of Education said was no early dismissal.)
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"I do have one tweet that I do regret in the heat — I'm very passionate about the weather," Roker said. "I made a prediction that there would be only one term of his administration. I apologize for that. That was a little below the line."
Roker also pointed out that the National Weather Service's projections about it being a terrible storm was right on the money—NYC did issue a hazardous travel advisory after all.
