The role of television weathercasting amid the growing impact of climate change was the topic of a discussion with chief meteorologists and weather personalities at The Business of TV News.
B+C senior content producer of programming Michael Malone moderated the panel, which focused on climate change and the severity of recent storms around the country. WCBS New York lead weather anchor Lonnie Quinn said the debate over the effects of climate change won’t interfere with how the day-to-day weather is reported.
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“We have to cover it because it’s hitting our viewers right where they live,” Quinn said. “Yes, there is a debate out there, but the debate really is about whether man is responsible for it. You can have that debate if you want, however, you can’t argue that our globe is getting warmer.”
Quinn pointed to the frequency of supposed thousand-year “superstorms” like Hurricane Sandy, which hit New York in 2012. “We have to change the vernacular because nine years later, we had the remnants of Ida that had cars floating down the Major Deegan highway and people crawling out of their windows and swimming,” he said. “That was also a once-in-a-thousand-year storm that’s now coming once or twice every 10 years.”
It’s impossible to talk about the severity of recent storms without including climate change, CNN senior climate editor Angela Fritz said, adding that it’s not too late to improve the situation. “You cannot tell the weather story without telling the climate story … but I am hopeful that we’re going to be able to fix this eventually,” she said. “The debate is not whether climate change is happening, it’s about what we’re going to do about it.”
Fox Weather meteorologist Ian Oliver added that the discussion of climate change has to be delicately woven into overall weather reporting without wading into the divisive political waters of the issue. “I think that the science is more agreed upon than people realize,” he said. “You’re trying to be entertaining and informative, but you’ll lose some people … it’s the policy that’s political.”
As for the future of on-air meteorologists, weather phone apps can provide most people with weather information, but Spectrum News chief meteorologist Bryan Karrick said that there’s still a need for on-air meteorologists to add nuance and detail to the simple weather forecast.
“I don’t foresee an app taking over for us because when it comes down to it … they way you handle yourself in front of an audience of viewers during a severe weather event is really going to be key,” he said. “You have that connection, and you have that trust that you’ve earned with your audience.”
