Cape Breton amateur weather man is a viral video star

• Updated: Read the latest on Frankie MacDonald here

ACape Breton man, whohas become an internet weather-broadcasting sensation, has received tens of thousands of hits on hisYouTube 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.'"

Frankieis not only popular in his hometown of Sydney buthis amateur weather broadcasthas become something of a sensationon the internet.

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His YouTube videos have tens ofthousands 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.

Frankietweets 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 websitesand watchingTV 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 wavesbottled water, sun screen, wearing hats and sun glassesdrink lots of bottled water."

Frankiehas autismand some YouTube commenters don'tappreciate 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 wouldknow 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.