Weatherman's Reaction To Earthquake Is Adorable

During Monday's magnitude 4.0 earthquake in the San Francisco Bay area, at least one person was able to maintain a calm demeanor — and he did it on live television, no less. KTVU-Oakland's Steve Paulson was busy reporting the week's forecast when the building began to rumble, shaking screens and causing people to panic. Instead of freaking out (which would have been totally appropriate), the weatherman's response was much more dignified and, frankly, adorable than anyone ever could have expected.

Paulson, who worked with news outlets in Chicago and Denver prior to finding a home with the Bay area outlet, was in the middle of giving an update on recent weather patterns, and was just about to mention some viewer-submitted photos of Mount Diablo when the quake struck, causing him to stumble backward into the green screen and brace himself for the tremors.

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness," he said calmly. "This is a good one!"

Once the quake had passed some eight seconds later, Paulson turned to his colleagues, who admitted that they were still a bit dizzy from the shaking, and replied professionally, "That was a big 'un, that was a big 'un ... OK, I'm gonna throw it back to you guys, because I think we have some [news updates]."

Within hours, the short 30-second clip had gone viral, with outlets like Zap2it calling Paulson "adorable" and social media users joking that he had actually "handled it pretty well," all things considered.

"Our studio was shakin big time," Paulson later tweeted. "I was about ready to exit stage right."

Paulson later noted that even though the quake had registered a 4.0 on the Richter scale, the shallow depth and the fact that the studio itself was positioned almost completely on top of the epicenter meant that the tremors could be felt much more strongly there than in other regions of the Bay area. And while the weatherman did seem to take it all in stride, he admitted to Twitter followers that that almost wasn't the case.

"A few choice words did cross my mind," he tweeted to one user. "Believe me."

Images: David DeBolt/Vine screengrab