As Storms Intensify, the Job of TV Weather Person Gets More Serious

“Our job is to help people live better and to give them information and tools they can use in the here and the now,” Ms. Freeze said. “So we are going to cover climate change.”

James Spann, a meteorologist at ABC’s affiliate in Birmingham, Ala., wrote in a Medium article last year that he mostly eschews explicit mentions of climate to avoid alienating some viewers. “Say anything about climate and you lose half your audience,” he said.

Other forecasters insisted that positive feedback for climate coverage far outweighed negative responses. “I don’t look at my position as a bully pulpit,” Mr. Roker said. “It’s informational. You can open more eyes by just presenting facts.

“Our management and producers don’t underestimate our audience,” he added. “I think politicians may.”

More than 1,000 TV meteorologists receive free weekly bursts of information, data and visuals on links between the weather and climate change from Climate Central, a nonprofit organization that works with journalists to publicize facts about climate change. Forecasters, said Bernadette Woods Placky, Climate Central’s chief meteorologist, “have been at the forefront of making these connections to the public.”

Several meteorologists said they used Climate Central’s pitches and materials on-air. Elizabeth Robaina, the meteorologist for Telemundo’s affiliate in San Juan, P.R., said she has used its Spanish-language graphics.

Emily Gracey Miller, until last year the meteorologist at ABC’s affiliate in Charleston, S.C., praised Climate Central for responsibly conveying climate news in relevant and not didactic ways.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/29/business/tv-weather-climate-change.html