Al Roker vents on Twitter, criticizes mayor Bill de Blasio for keeping New York schools open in wake of storm

Lots of New Yorkers are angry that the city’s public schools stayed open today despite a massive snowstorm, but none can vent about it quite as loudly as Al Roker. In a departure from his usually cheery on-air persona, the “Today” weatherman criticized mayor Bill de Blasio’s office and NYC public schools in a serious of furious tweets.

@NYCMayorsOffice @NYCSchools Maybe the Mayor and School’s Chancellor should let us know when they would actually close schools?

— Al Roker (@alroker) February 13, 2014

@NYCMayorsOffice @NYCSchools snow policy is ridiculous. Tell people to stay off the roads. Stay home. But send your kids/teachers/staff in? — Al Roker (@alroker) February 13, 2014

Why are schools all around NYC closed? It’s going to take some kid or kids getting hurt before this goofball policy gets changed — Al Roker (@alroker) February 13, 2014

So now my daughter’s NYC public school is being let out early. @NYCMayorsOffice @NYCSchools Is it worth putting kids’ safety at risk? — Al Roker (@alroker) February 13, 2014

And then he called out de Blasio by name:

I knew this am @NYCMayorsOffice @NYCSchools would close schools. Talk about a bad prediction. Long range DiBlasio forecast: 1 term

— Al Roker (@alroker) February 13, 2014

Zing! Roker continued to vent, and even more so once he thought the National Weather Service was being blamed:

@NYCMayorsOffice @NYCSchools Please, so we understand, make known weather-related school closing policy. Of course, assuming you have one.

— Al Roker (@alroker) February 13, 2014

@NYCMayorsOffice says snow was faster/heavier than expected. No, Mr. Mayor. It came as predicted. Don’t blame weather for YOUR poor policy — Al Roker (@alroker) February 13, 2014

 

How dare @NYCMayorsOffice @NYCSchools throw NWS under the school bus. Forecast was on time and on the money — Al Roker (@alroker) February 13, 2014

The New York City’s mayor’s office Twitter account had one reminder (retweeted by the NYC public school’s account):

Since 1978 we’ve only had 11 snow days in New York City Public Schools.

— NYC Mayor’s Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) February 13, 2014

And according to reports, de Blasio addressed Roker’s Twitter rant, saying at an afternoon briefing that he respected Roker, but “It’s a different thing to run a city than to give the weather on TV.”

Ouch. Roker had one thing to say about that:

Mr. Mayor, I could never run NYC, but I know when it’s time to keep kids home from school

— Al Roker (@alroker) February 13, 2014