NBC weatherman Al Roker took a thinly veiled swipe at President Trump for refusing to apologize after insisting Alabama faced a serious threat from Hurricane Dorian.
During an appearance on MSNBC delivering an update on Dorian, Roker noted how the National Hurricane Center issued a correction for an erroneous statistic in one of its updates earlier in the day.
He began by correcting anchor Stephanie Ruhle, who said Dorian was back up to Category 3 strength as it crept up on the Carolinas.
“Well, and now we’re back down to a 2,” Roker said. “Actually what was interesting, at 12:00 noon the National Hurricane Center put out an erroneous update saying it was a Category 3 and then they sent out a correction, they immediately corrected it, that it is a 2. So that’s what happens. When you make a mistake, you correct it. It’s a concept.”
Ruhle cut in to say, “Al, throwing some shade there. I feel some shade that you are throwing.”
“No! I’m just saying,” Roker replied. He went on to add, “We’re humans. We make mistakes. We correct them.”
Roker echoed that statement in a tweet that showed the NHC correction and thanking the agency for doing it. “We’re human. We make mistakes. We admit them, then move on. Thank you, National Hurricane Center,” he said.
The @NHC_Atlantic made a mistake with the 12pm EDT and sent out a correction. We’re human. We make mistakes. We admit them, then move on. Thank you, National Hurricane Center https://t.co/lQrWjDiT2q
— Al Roker (@alroker) September 5, 2019
Although Roker denied any connection, his comments were a clear rebuke of the president, who after four days is still clinging to the defense of his outdated warning Sunday that that Alabama could be hit by Hurricane Dorian. Forecasters had already discounted the possibility of the hurricane heading in Alabama’s direction by then.
Within 20 minutes the National Weather Station in Birmingham put out a tweet asserting the state would not see “any impacts” from Dorian because it was projected to remain too far east.
The president went so far as to present an outdated forecast map for Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office on Wednesday that appeared to be doctored with a Sharpie in order to add southeast Alabama in a National Hurricane Center forecast cone of uncertainty.
