OXFORD — A local woman is being called the “new Al Roker” by late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.

Peggy Dorf, a special education technician at Oxford Elementary School, was featured Wednesday night on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” from her home in Oxford. She walked from room to room with a thermometer hung around her neck taking the temperature.

She credits her daughter, Becky, a writer’s assistant on the show, with coming up with the idea.

“Kudos to my daughter, who came up with the story,” she said.

The skit was developed when Dorf began texting her daughter about how cold the temperature was due to the recent arctic air.

“Her mother lives in Oxford, Maine, where it’s been extra cold,” Kimmel told his audience this week. “So every 20 minutes her mother, whose name is Peggy, would text her how cold it was in the house, all day, which was annoying so Becky came up with a plan to keep her busy.”

Telling her mother that the reports would be perfect for a bit Kimmel was doing on the show called “TherMOMmeter,” Becky instructed Dorf to get a thermometer, a pair of scissors and a piece of string and make a necklace. Wearing it around her neck, Dorf went from room to room to record how cold it was.

With the help of her friend and fellow education technician Susan Leunig, Dorf taped the skit on her cellphone and emailed it to the Kimmel show. About 10 segments were taped in her home and at the school.

“This is TherMOMmerter checking in. It’s 52 freezing degrees by these teapots. TherMOMmeter checking out,” Dorf said in one of the segments.

In another, she reported the wind chill factor had risen from 35 degrees below zero to 15 degrees below zero and it was still cold inside the house.

“There’s a wind chill in the house. Someone should close the door. It’s like mom versus wild,” said Kimmel, who called her the new Al Roker, who has a show on The Weather Channel.

Although she was disappointed the school segments weren’t aired, Dorf said she was nonplussed about the television experience.

“I really didn’t think twice about it,” Dorf from the school Friday.

“It’s a balmy 22 degrees now,” she said, looking at the thermometer strung around her neck and double checking the temperature with her cellphone.

ldixon@sunjournal.com