Days before residents of southern Florida prepared to brace for the landfall of Hurricane Ian, a meteorologist on Fox Weather caused a stir on social media for an unfortunately shaped drawing.
Bryan Nocross, who has long appeared on US news stations to discuss hurricanes, was a guest of Fox Weather on Sunday when he began drawing the expected path of the tropical storm.
Having already drawn a curved-shape line down the spine of central Florida, Nocross explained that Hurricane’s path was hard to predict and that meteorologists often used a “cone of uncertainty” to guess its path.
“Look at this,” Mr Norcross told viewers. “What you think you see are all kind of tracks here over Florida.”
Circling an eastern and western area at the north of Florida, Mr Norcoss said “just remember that the worst of the hurricane is on the east side” and added: “That’s daunting”.
The drawing made by the meterologist appeared to show a phallic-shaped visual for the hurricane, which was due to make landfall as a powerful category four storm on Wednesday with potentially catastrophic consequences.
“This guy has been doing this ALL DAY LONG,” wrote one Twitter user of the drawing.
“Bryan Norcross let everyone know Hurricane Ian is screwing Florida,” another added.
Many also referred to Mr Norcross’s coverage of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, when the popular weather presenter and meterologist was praised for staying in the TV studio and giving people updates, advice and information to residents of southern Florida.
“Bryan Norcross was the weather guy who got us through Hurricane Andrew 30 years ago. Now with Fox weather, he’s drawing Ian d*** on the tv,” quipped radio host Nicole Sandler.
Catastrophic storm surges of up to 12 ft to 16 ft (3.6 m to 4.8 m) are forecast for more than 250 miles (400 km) of coastline, from Bonita Beach to Englewood, by the National Hurricane Center.
Ian, which had a centre about 50 m (80 km) west of Naples at 10 am Wednesday, had wind speeds of up to 155mph, forcing residents of the state to brace or evacuate in-land, the Associated Press reported.
