Al Roker is not here for the social media commentary on his age.
Over the weekend, fans took to Twitter to express their concern after seeing the 67-year-old Today weatherman getting slammed by waves during his coverage of Hurricane Ida. In the original footage shared by MSNBC, the forecaster was first seen reporting on the hurricane while in the thick of it, literally, on Aug. 29. And although many users immediately expressed their worry over his on-the-ground reporting, Al himself had a message to share while appearing on The Sunday Show later on that day.
"I volunteered to come out here," he said. "This is what I do. I've done this for forty years. We all make sure we're safe and we're not going to do something that's going to put ourselves in harm's way. As much as I love the weather and I love NBC, I'm not going to risk my life for it."
And addressing those on social media who claimed he was "too old" to be out there, Al's message jokingly became a bit more direct. "Hey, guess what? Screw you!," he continued. "Try to keep up. Keep up, okay? These young punks. I will go after them—I will drop them like a bag of dirt!"
Al's latest comments were in response to social media users wanting him to stay inside (where it would be safer, of course) after footage of him covering Hurricane Ida went viral. One person retweeted the clip of him in the heavy rain and wrote, "Al Roker is almost 70 years old, why is this necessary." While another tweeted, "Are we really still forcing Al Roker to stand in the middle of a lethal hurricane?? The man is a national treasure, how about we stop risking his life to have him tell us it's too dangerous to be out there."
The weatherman, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2020, also later explained in a tweet of his own that everyone can rest assured knowing that he and his crew are completely safe and sound.
"For all those who were worried about me out on #lakepontchartrain covering #Ida," he wrote alongside a clip of himself pouring out water from the inside of his rainboots. "I volunteered to do this. Part of the job," he wrote, adding, "My crew and I were safe and back at our hotel."
And last but not least, the veteran newscaster reinforced his original counter point, adding, "For those who think I'm too old to be doing this, try and keep up."
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)