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Black bears hijack weatherman's live broadcast

Rain or shine, four black bears had somewhere to be, and incidentally, they made a cameo appearance in one local weatherman’s recent live news broadcast.According to WNEP news in Columbia County, Penn., meteorologist Kurt Aaron was about to begin his 11 p.m. backyard spot Monday night in Scranton when the first unwelcomed visitor crashed the party. Arriving with her presumed three cubs, “mama

Rain or shine, four black bears had somewhere to be, and incidentally, they made a cameo appearance in one local weatherman’s recent live news broadcast.

According to WNEP news in Columbia County, Penn., meteorologist Kurt Aaron was about to begin his 11 p.m. backyard spot Monday night in Scranton when the first unwelcomed visitor crashed the party. Arriving with her presumed three cubs, “mama bear” appeared unexpectedly, walking on set through a fence and staking claim to the forest-like set-up in the back. Three other bears came along as well, and then all disappeared behind a stash of trees and a waterfall at the scene. Aaron and his news team watched on from protected quarters, the broadcast now stalled.  

“I literally was standing out there and ... our producer ... said, ‘Kurt, 30 seconds, we need you out there,’” Aaron explained to the audience and in-studio anchors. “So, I walked out there and I turned around, and I’m looking at the camera, and I hear this sound. And I turn around and the bear’s literally 10 feet from me, and I ran like I stole something. I’m not gonna lie.”

Aaron and his associates fled inside and began the broadcast in a guarded location, allowing the bears to roam freely.

"No offense, but I don't want to be doing the weather with four bears," he remarked before getting into talk of frost advisories, winter storm warnings and rain.

Following the precarious forecast, Aaron checked back in with his four-legged visitors, who approached “from the back of the hill,” and “just walked right in and started sniffing around.” The animal entourage proceeded to meander about through the flowers and sidewalk of the set, before finally triggering an alarm and scurrying off.

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