Weatherman's astonished reaction to touch screen display leaves the internet in splits
From AI to metaverse and beyond, technology has come a long way and while a generation has grown up in its shadow, the older lot are often astonished by things that seem right out of sci-fi movies. A viral clip from ABC7 News shows a similar incident when correspondents were caught marveling over the fact that their television has a touch screen. Not only does this add another layer to the weather reporting but also showcases how far broadcasting has come. As Daily History recounts, weather reports were initially announced with the help of radio before TV screens with massive maps took over and now the impact of weather is recreated in real-time while the anchor announces updates.
The video starts with Chicago Meteorologist Greg Dutra explaining the changing pattern of winds. In order to showcase the direction in which this 'change' would take place he dragged his hand on the screen and to his surprise the map also moved. He surprisingly said, "I didn't know I could do that. I can do that!!" Dutra was taken aback and so were his colleagues, as one of them uttered in the background, "Are you serious? Did you just discover that?" Another one wanted to come out and try it and soon there was a man coming right behind Dutra, trying to move the screen. All of them were spellbound. Dutra tried to "zoom" and to his delight, the screen showed an enlarged image. He smiled and said, "It's a great day!!!"
Dutra then tried to get back to his broadcast but the studio refused to let him do that, as they couldn't stop laughing at what had transpired. “I didn’t know I’ve never touched it before!” he blurted before moving the map again. “Oh my God, you can tilt it? What is going on here?” The video also left the internet in splits and went on to garner 3.7 million views on YouTube. The clip blew up prompting a reaction from the reporter on social media. His post read, "This wasn’t in the training manual!” and in his replies, he wrote, “I’ve got nothing to sell or plug except be nice to those around you. Everyone’s going through something.” As per Dutra's LinkedIn profile, he has been an on-air meteorologist for more than a decade and has been linked with ABC for almost 4 years.
Viewers who took to the comment section were equally delighted by the turn of events. @illumynarty loved the camaraderie between the entire crew and wrote, "I think the best part about this is how it seems like no one else on the crew realized it's a touch screen either, so the entire crew all learned at this same time that it indeed has touch capabilities." @SirFloofy001 loved how the video just escalated from one level to another, "The slide excited him, the zoom made him happy, but the tilt blew his mind." Seeing the elation on everyone's face it is evident that the whole office definitely found something to chat about for days to come.