U.S. Heat Wave
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On-air meteorologists have become a target in the culture wars as they report on the effects of climate change.
For the longest time, chatting about the weather was the apotheosis of small talk.
Awkward pause in the conversation? Stumped about what to say to a colleague? Remarking on the forecast was usually a safe bet.
But the weather is no longer the neutral territory it once was.
Climate change is now squarely part of the American culture wars, and heat waves and flash foods have become fodder for partisan squabbling.
Nowhere is this tension more acute than in the weather departments of local TV stations. As extreme weather becomes more commonplace and climate change raises temperatures around the globe, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the nation’s roughly 2,000 television meteorologists to stay above the fray.
Consider the case of Chris Gloninger.
An award-winning TV weatherman, Gloninger 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 of Gloninger’s conservative viewers felt differently. As he began making the connection between extreme weather and human-caused global warming on the air, he began getting hate mail and even a death threat.
As my colleague Cara Buckley recounts in an article she just published, Gloninger began to feel unsafe and eventually moved back to Massachusetts.
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