NBC Washington’s chief meteorologist paused midway through a live weather report to call his family to make sure they knew about a nearby tornado warning.
Storm Team4’s Doug Kammerer was on air at 8.45pm on Thursday evening when the warning came through from the National Weather Service.
Live on TV and holding his cellphone he noted that the path of the storm system on the weather map takes it “right over my house” in the northern part of the Greater Washington, DC, suburbs and into Maryland.
As viewers watched, Mr Kammerer called his son at home and instructed him to get downstairs immediately and stay there.
Ending the call, he said: “Gotta warn my kids, because I know what my kids are doing right now, they’re probably online gaming and they’re not seeing this.”
He continued: “So we have a tornado warning, hopefully they saw it on their phones. Many of us got it on our phones.”
Mr Kammerer resumed his live weather reporting, and thankfully a few minutes later the NWS cancelled the tornado warning.
One Twitter user wrote that Mr Kammerer “put on an absolute master class with NBC Washington during a tornado [warning] on how to do live broadcasting. 45 minutes straight with no hyperbole, useful information, with relatively limited incoming data, used every available resource. Great work.”
The meteorologist replied to a tweet of a video of the moment, saying: “Yes, had to warn my family! Kids were home alone and I knew they were not watching me on TV! They are safe. Thank you!”
He added: “Scary moment for me though, I was freaking out inside a bit.”
Mr Kammerer was praised online as a good father and for showing how to take a weather warning seriously.
Strong storms roared through the DC metro area with heavy rain and powerful winds on Thursday night, prompting two tornado warnings and leaving damage in Tysons, Virginia, where a tornado may have touched down.
The National Weather Service will assess the damage and video on Friday to determine if there was a tornado.
“I think this is going to be a confirmed tornado,” Mr Kammerer said on Friday morning’s broadcast.
