NBC’s Al Roker Remembers Moore Tornado, Helps OU Students Set World Records

Al Roker from NBC’s The TODAY Show and students at the University of Oklahoma set Guinness World Records Monday during Roker’s visit to the OU campus in Norman.

Monday’s trip to Oklahoma wasn’t Roker’s first visit to the Sooner State. He and his producers from the TODAY Show were on the ground as the May 20 tornado ripped through Moore, Oklahoma in 2013.

Roker said he was in the the rubble near the devastated Plaza Towers Elementary School less than 30 minutes after the EF5 tornado ravaged the Oklahoma City suburb.

“Those are moments, unfortunately, that you don’t forget,” Roker said. “The human toll that weather takes, and the reminder that life changes, literally, in an instant.”

The jovial meteorologist reflected on how different the landscape looked as his entourage traveled through Moore, on his was to the University of Oklahoma, four years later.

“It shows the resilience of a community, but it also shows the goodness of a country. How people dropped everything, came here, drove here, flew here, to help rebuild and help people put the pieces back together,” Roker said. “That’s what makes a big difference. I think that is what makes America great.”

As part of the TODAY show series, Roker is traveling to five college campuses, to attempt world records at each, in just 5 days. Monday’s record for the largest human lightning bolt and the largest human cloud marked the beginning of Rokerthon 3, “Storming Into the Madness.”

In the Rokerthon’s first rendition, the meteorologist gave a 34 hour weathercast to capture the title of longest forecast ever given. Rokerthon 2 featured a forecast from each of the 50 states over the course of a week. The TODAY Show crew made a stop at Ft. Still in Lawton for the Oklahoma leg of the 2016 journey.

Roker said the collegiate theme for Rokerthon 3 plays off March Madness, which Roker asserted was a good hook to an event that the show otherwise has no rights to.  

During the time slotted for the daily national weather forecast, Roker used a national weather map made of University of Oklahoma Students, pitching to the local forecast with his tag line, “That’s what's going on around the country, here’s what’s happening in your neck of the woods...”

After the two hour broadcast that included riding the Sooner Schooner and taking part in the singing of “Oklahoma!”, a representative from the Guinness Book of World Records was on had to make the new records official.

Al is definitely an honorary Sooner. ?? #Rokerthon pic.twitter.com/y7LwLJydII

— OU Sooners (@UofOklahoma) March 27, 2017