Cape Breton amateur weather man is a viral video star
Some Frankie MacDonald videos have more than 80,000 hits each
A Cape Breton man, who has become an internet weather-broadcasting sensation, has received tens of thousands of hits on his YouTube videos.
At a young age, 28-year-old Frankie MacDonald fell in love with the weather. He said he has always wanted to be a weather man.
"I like it, I like when people say, 'Frankie you are doing a great job, doing the weather.'"
Frankie is not only popular in his hometown of Sydney but his amateur weather broadcast has become something of a sensation on the internet.
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His YouTube videos have tens of thousands of hits and he has more than 4,600 followers on Twitter. One of his videos has been viewed more than 86,000 times.
Frankie's Blogspot site, which he designed himself, has also received thousands of hits.
Frankie tweets and produces a weather forecast that's uploaded to YouTube daily. He said he likes to keep people informed.
"I look it up on dozens of other websites — and watching TV and made me interested in weather," he said.
"When there's a big storm coming or heat wave, all the other stuff, you have to be prepared. During heat waves — bottled water, sun screen, wearing hats and sun glasses — drink lots of bottled water."
Frankie has autism and some YouTube commenters don't appreciate his unique take on the weather.
Darlene MacDonald, his aunt, said Frankie loves everyone and she can't understand why some people post rude comments and poke fun at Frankie's expense.
"Anybody who has autistic children would know how hurtful some people can be. Just give them a little reminder like I did when I saw two girls picking on him, I said, 'How would you feel if that was your [brother]?' Let people think on that before they're mean to somebody else," said MacDonald.
"It's very, very hurtful. They wouldn't speak like that if it was their relative or their son, basically they don't know what autism is and they don't realize [those with autism] have feelings too."
MacDonald said when it comes to technology, Frankie is gifted.
"To him, that's his life. He lives for it. I don't think, if he didn't have the weather to do, I wouldn't know what he would do with himself. He be bored basically," she said.
MacDonald said, what she finds challenging on a computer, Frankie does with very little effort.