Sports reporter's reluctant snowstorm broadcast goes viral

A sports reporter called out to report on the massive winter storm hitting the United States gave the internet the laughter it needed on Friday.

A compilation video of his early morning reports posted on Twitter has gone viral, garnering smiles and sympathy from users.

Sending the 'sports guy' out to cover a blizzard

Mark Woodley, a sports broadcaster for KWWL-TV, an affiliate of NBC News in eastern Iowa, was in no mood to cover the storm early on Thursday and made that known on camera.

At one point when the anchor at the studio asked Woodley about how he was faring on the frigid and windy streets of the town of Waterloo, the sports anchor wryly responded that he was feeling exactly the same as he had been feeling "eight minutes ago."

Woodley said he generally reported during evening shows and typically stayed indoors for reports on sporting events.

"This is what you get when you ask the sports guy to come in to cover a blizzard," he told the anchor.

Woodley added at one point, "I didn't realize that there was a 3:30 also in the morning ⁠— until today."

But since all sporting events were canceled because of the massive winter storm, Woodley was called out to report on the weather instead.

"What better time to ask the sports guy to come in about five hours earlier than he would normally wake up, go stand out in the wind and the snow and the cold and tell other people not to do the same?"

US battling record-breaking storm

The sports reporter's video has more than 6 million views as of Friday night. During another clip, Woodley muses about taking up the meteorologist's job in the studio because that "thing is heated, the outdoors currently is not heated."

Iowa, like several other US states, has been battered by a major winter storm that has brought frigid temperatures, snow, ice and winds since Thursday.

Temperatures in Waterloo, Iowa plunged to -23 degrees Fahrenheit (-30.6 degrees Celsius) on the day of Woodley's broadcast.

"The good news is that I can still feel my face right now," Woodley says toward the end, adding that "the bad news is that I kind of wish I couldn't."

Edited by: Rebecca Staudenmaier