Local Weather Forecasters Have Become the Unsung Heroes of the Climate Crisis

Local TV weather forecasters have become foot soldiers in the war against climate misinformation.  Over the past decade, a growing number of meteorologists and weathercasters have begun addressing the climate crisis either as part of their weather forecasts, or in separate, independent news reports to help their viewers understand what is happening and why it is important.

And the reports are having an impact.

Studies by the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication show that in communities where local weather forecasters are reporting on the climate crisis, “public opinion is changing more rapidly,” said Ed Maibach, director of the center and an author of the studies.  “We showed a really strong impact — people who saw the climate reporting came to understand climate change was more personally relevant,” he said.

The change has come as meteorologists and weather forecasters themselves have changed their opinions on the climate crisis and its causes.  In 2008 a survey of some American Meteorological Society members found that only 24 percent of weathercasters agreed with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that warming was caused by humans.  In 2010, a study by Maibach found that 54 percent agreed that global warming is happening.  But by 2017 a full 90 percent agreed that climate crisis is happening, and 80 percent indicated it was human-caused.

“There’s been an enormous shift,” he said.

The change has been partially brought about by Climate Central’s Climate Matters reporting program founded after Maibach released a study showing that the public has a high degree of trust in local forecasters.

“All TV weather forecasters are really good science communicators,” Maibach says.  Not only are they scientists, but they are trusted by their viewers because they don’t generally report on politics or other controversial topics, he says.

Today, more than 600 TV weathercasters participate in the program, which provides training, scientific information, charts, and videos for education and newsroom use.

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