Freeze!!! -- while we shoot you live: having an arctic blast with D-FW TV's storm troopers

Intrepid CBS11 meteorologist Jeff Ray draws some “thunder sleet” during Monday morning’s heavy coverage of frozen North Texas. Photos: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
News directors love a good arctic blast. That’s because the ratings heat up when legions of reporters are sent out to face the cold, hard facts.

They warn against driving too fast and admonish drivers who do. They paw and scrape at the ice and snow to further illustrate what’s readily apparent. Monday morning brought another round of show, tell and shiver. “I am literally freezing,” Gannett8 reporter Brian Glenn declared.

Fox4, NBC5, Gannett8 and CBS11 all preempted or truncated regularly scheduled morning programming to bring viewers the latest news. Which of course bears repeating -- over and over and over again.

NBC5 also got a chance to debut its new “Texas Thunder Truck” amid the latest popular winter weather tagline -- “thunder sleet.” The station’s anchors took turns marveling at what a coincidence that was.

Your friendly content provider spent part of Monday morning freeze-framing a variety of hard-working reporters in the field. In pictures and captions, here’s our first fierce weather collage since December of 2013, when a far more serious winter onslaught felled thousands of innocent tree branches.


Fox4’s Jenny Anchondo and Dan Godwin keep their heads & hats.

Now why would you wanna go topless? Gannett8’s Philip Townsend and colleague Brian Glenn decided to keep their locks unlocked.

Veteran NBC5 “Night Ranger” Scott Gordon joins in reindeer games.

Ready for their frozen chosen closeups: Top row from left: CBS11 reporters Arezow Doost, Elizabeth Dinh, Jennifer Lindgren, Jack Fink. Bottom row from left: Joel Thomas, Gabriel Roxas, Stephanie Lucero.

NBC5’s Chris Van Horne deftly executes the classic show-and-tell foot scraper maneuver before the elements strike again.

Longtime Fox4 morning reporter Saul Garza gives viewers a finger.

By all that is holy: Gannett8’s Pete Delkus tweeted this Sun. night.

Primary Peacock colors for NBC5’s Ray Villeda and Julie Fine.


Gannett8’s David Schechter must have drawn the long straw this time. He snuggled in station’s “Social Media Center” Monday after winning “Coldest Looking Reporter” award in December 2013.
Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net