Al Knows Wilma Blows

Poor Al Roker.

Looks like Al drew the shortest straw on the NBC morning team and had to go down to Florida to report from the eye of Hurricane Wilma in Naples. And today on the, ahem, Today show, he was literally blowing away while giving his report at 8 a.m.

Why must news shows feel the need to have reporters and weatherpeople out in the thick of it all during big storms? I mean, we all know the rain and wind is bad — just like we know the snow is bad in the wintertime. And yet, some poor reporter always has to go out and show us just how bad it is.

What was perhaps worse was the way Katie Couric and Matt Lauer were mocking Al from the studio in New York. They were actually laughing at him! (Then again, so was I.) And this was just 60 seconds after Matt did a promo for his upcoming "Where in the World Is Matt Lauer?" segments, during which he'll be sent to report from exciting locations over the course of a week, and a clip of Matt in Egypt in front of the pyramids from 1998. Cut to Al Roker, blowing away on the roof of some hotel in Naples.

Poor guy.