TV weather becomes political

For a long time, talking about the weather was the apotheosis of small talk.

Awkward pause in conversation? No idea what to say to a colleague? A comment on the prediction was usually a safe bet.

But the weather is no longer the neutral ground it once was.

Climate change is now an integral part of America’s culture wars, and heat waves and flash food have become fodder for partisan bickering.

Nowhere is this tension more acute than in the weather departments of local television stations. As extreme weather becomes more common and climate change drives temperatures higher around the world, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the country’s 2,000 or so television meteorologists to stay above the fray.

Consider the case of Chris Gloninger.

Gloninger, an award-winning TV weatherman, moved to Iowa in 2021 to take the job of chief meteorologist at KCCI, the CBS affiliate in Des Moines. His new bosses were explicit: they wanted him to talk about climate change.

But many conservative viewers of Gloninger thought differently. When he started making the connection on air between extreme weather and man-made global warming, he started receiving hate mail and even a death threat.

As my colleague Cara Buckley recounts in a recent article, Gloninger began to feel unsafe and eventually moved back to Massachusetts.

What happened to Gloninger is an extreme case, but the episode shows how difficult it can be for meteorologists to talk about climate change.

While today’s highly partisan politics can take things to extremesThe meteorological community has been grappling with how to talk about global warming for more than a decade.

In 2010, the National Science Foundation and George Mason University started a program called Climate MattersThe goal of the effort was to bring data-driven climate news to local audiences, and the demand for such material was enormous.

Climate Matters now operates in more than 245 cities and media markets, working with thousands of reporters and editors across the country.

Bernadette Woods Placky, who runs the program, said TV meteorologists are increasingly talking about global warming in their reporting.

“Our weather has changed so fundamentally because of climate change that it is now part of the story,” she said.

And for the most part, the public is receptive, she said, adding that TV meteorologists can help explain climate change in real time.

Yet in America today, politics is as much a part of people’s lives as the weather.

Just last month, Steve MacLaughlin, a meteorologist at NBC6 in Miami, broke with his usual script.

A few days earlier, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida had signed a law that meant that the state government no longer had to take climate change into account when formulating energy policy.

MacLaughlin used his segment to condemn the law and implore people to vote.

“The whole world is looking to Florida to lead on climate change, and our government is saying climate change is no longer the priority it once was,” he said. “Remember, the most powerful solution to climate change is the one you already have in the palm of your hand: the right to vote.”

In response to requests for an interview, MacLaughlin said his employer would not let him discuss the matter further.

And then there’s Jeff Berardelli from WFLA in Tampa. Berardelli has been one of the most outspoken meteorologists on climate issues for years, and is routinely willing to attribute the increase in extreme weather to rising global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels and other heat-trapping gases.

Yesterday he did that a segment about the record heat that is plaguing the world in the past year, underscoring the claim that most of the excess heat was the result of human activity.

“My job is to be honest and forthright about the science, and tell people the facts,” Berardelli said. “I’m not going to tell the truth because it might offend some people.”

Berardelli is not alone. Elisa Raffa at CNN She also consistently pays attention to the climate in her predictions. John Morales, also on NBC6 in Miami, has been integrating the discussion of global warming into its predictions for years. Ginger Zee, a meteorologist at ABC, did just that pushed back against viewers who claim she has a political agenda.

And as extreme weather and record heat become more common, even more meteorologists will have to find their own ways to tackle what can sometimes be a touchy subject among local viewers.

We keep an eye on the weather and how climate change plays a role. It’s also one of the topics we discuss on stage with Al Roker during our upcoming Climate Forward event on September 25.

5 things you still need to know

Rural areas lag behind in heat protection. Dionne Searcy reports that areas in the United States that are traditionally less warm, like Maine for example, are considered the most socially vulnerable to exposure to extreme heat. But many of these areas lack programs that big cities use to keep people cool.

Climate Silence on Wall Street. The terrible news about the costs of climate change has largely not reached Wall Street, Lydia DePillis reports. “In fact, the news from Wall Street lately has been about retreating from climate targets, rather than a renewed commitment,” she writes. “Banks and asset managers are withdrawing from international climate alliances and are annoyed by their rules. Regional banks are increasing lending to fossil fuel producers.”

How climate change affects our weather: Austyn Gaffney reports that the deadly heat waves that started in Central America last month and moved into Mexico and the southwestern United States have become 35 times more likely due to human-induced climate change, according to a new report from World Weather Attribution.

That’s one of many reports released this year by the group, an international organization of climate scientists. Among the reports it released this year:

• Human-caused global warming has made floods like the deadly rains in Brazil in April and May twice as likely.

• According to a report from WWA and other groups, the average person experienced 26 more days of abnormally high temperatures last year than they otherwise would have.

• Climate change has increased the likelihood of a heat wave in West Africa, which reached record highs in February, tenfold.

However, researchers were less clear about the role of climate change in the floods in Dubai in April and the drought around the Panama Canal this year.

Yes, summers are getting warmer. Extremely hot summers, the kind that were virtually unheard of decades ago, have become increasingly common, Nadja Popovich and Adam Pearce report. The graph in this article, based on an analysis by researchers at Columbia University, shows how local summer temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere have shifted noticeably toward higher temperatures in recent decades.

A disturbing record. Global energy consumption rose by 2 percent last year, “pushing fossil fuels and emissions to record levels,” according to a new report from the Energy Institutean industry group. But dependence on fossil fuels in advanced economies may have peaked, the report found. In Europe, the share of fossil fuels fell below 70 percent of primary energy consumption for the first time since the Industrial Revolution.