Al Roker lends his voice and meteorology skills to the new PBS Kids
animated show 'Weather Hunters'
[September 05, 2025]
By MARK KENNEDY
NEW YORK (AP) — Before he was a star on TV, Al Roker was a huge fan of
watching it, especially animated shows.
“I spent a lot of Saturday mornings in front of the TV,” he says. “I was
one of those kids who waited with bated breath because going back to
school in the fall meant that the fall preview edition of the TV Guide
was coming out that had all the listings of all the new cartoons.”
This fall, everyone's favorite weatherman is getting a kick out of
launching his own educational cartoon TV show — “Weather Hunters,” which
premieres Monday on PBS Kids.
“This project really is like — not to use a negative term — but almost
like a perfect storm, a nexus of everything I love: My family, weather
and animation,” Roker says.
What's the show about?
Roker voices a younger version of himself named Al Hunter, a TV
meteorologist who has plenty of dad jokes and wears violet-framed
glasses. He's teamed up with his producer wife, Dot, and their three
inquisitive kids.
The first episode is all about wind — what weather vanes do, how an
anemometer measures wind speed and how it makes kites, flags and paper
airplanes fly. “What exactly is wind, anyway?” asks the middle child.
“Well, air is all around us, right?” dad responds. “So when air moves,
it becomes wind.”
In the second episode, the family uncovers a solar energy powered van
created by Grandpa Wallace that’s a mobile weather station. To make it
work, they first need to solve where various puzzle pieces go.
“What’s important is we give kids the tools to investigate and to
explore what’s happening in the world around them when it comes to
weather,” says Roker. “We’re not telling kids what to believe. We’re
telling them what to look for and then come to your conclusions.”
The show comes at a time when The National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration is trying to shore up the National Weather Service after
deep job cuts, and it arrives just as there are new terms to describe
weather phenomenon, like bomb cyclone, atmospheric river and polar
vortex.
‘Connect with your senses’
Executive producer and showrunner Dete Meserve says the show encourages
children to use their senses and science to better understand their
world, like knowing that lower temperatures and higher humidity might
mean a storm is coming.
“That ability to sort of connect with your senses helps you connect to
weather. And then you realize, ‘Hey, it’s something I can do, I’m not
dependent on other people to make these observations for me,’” she says.
“And that’s, I think, the beginning of any kid being scientifically
thinking.”
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This image released by PBS Kids shows a scene from "Weather
Hunters." (PBS Kids via AP)
 The series will launch with
interactive games on the free PBS Kids Games app, including one in
which viewers can become a weather reporter, create an avatar and
choose the right outfit for delivering the news outdoors.
In addition to Roker, the voice talent for the
series includes Sheryl Lee Ralph, LeVar Burton, and more. Yvette
Nicole Brown performs the main title song — which has a nod to
Roker's Senegal roots — and Holly Robinson Peete plays Hunter's
wife.
Roker jokes that he asked his real-life wife, Deborah Roberts, if
she wanted to voice his cartoon wife and she politely declined. “She
said, ‘It’s OK. I have enough dealing with you in real life. I don’t
need to deal with you as a cartoon.’”
A relatable show
Sara DeWitt, senior vice president and general manager for PBS Kids,
says the channel is excited to be able to show children something
that's so relatable. After all, who doesn't interact with weather?
“For young kids, one of the very first conversations you have is,
‘What’s the weather today? Are you going to be able to go outside at
recess? Is your soccer game still going to happen? Do you need to
wear a coat today?'” she says.
Upcoming episodes will investigate rainbows — how do they form and
are the colors always in the same order? — and the phenomenon of
pink snow. It will look at how nature can be beautiful, like dew
forming on a spider’s web or fog, using 2D and 3D computer art.
“I really wanted to bring to kids the awe — both awe and the awww —
of weather, of the things that go on around us, and to be able to
use their imagination, use their deductive reasoning, use their
curiosity,” says Roker.
While the series targets children aged 5 to 8, Roker hopes older
siblings or caregivers can also watch and learn things they didn't
know. “I’m proud of much of what I’ve done in my career, but I could
not be prouder of this show.”
He and his team have finished 40 episodes, but Roker still gets a
kick out of seeing his likeness on screen. “Al Roker is 71 years
old, but Al Hunter will be perpetually in his 40s and that’s the
beauty of an animated cartoon. I am forever young as this
character.”
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