Some TV Meteorologists Want to Talk About Climate Change, But There’s a Risk

By Paul Greeley

Many TV weather broadcasters feel climate change reporting is part of their job, but the effort comes with risks, according to The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, branded as CBC/Radio-Canada.

John Morales said he was inspired to start talking about climate change in his work after a 1997 meeting of meteorologists at the White House.

The veteran meteorologist, who works for the WTVJ television station in Miami, had been talking about climate change in his weather reports for decades.

But in October 2024, after watching Hurricane Milton rapidly gain strength off the coasts of Florida and Mexico, he began tearing up.

“I was delivering the facts, but suddenly I realized how strong of a hurricane that could be, how many victims it could take, how many lives it could ruin,” he told What on Earth? host Johanna Wagstaffe at the Climate Week NYC conference.

“These events are happening with such frequency now, and there’s so many people in harm’s way, that I feel more compelled to call for action, to have people prepare for the worst, because the worst is happening, more and more often.”

Hurricane Milton would go on to kill 15 people across the U.S. and Mexico, according to a National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report.

NOAA estimated Milton caused a further 27 indirect deaths related to preparation, clean-up and power failures, not to mention $34.3 billion US in damages in Florida.

Morales said his reaction was a mix of climate anxiety, anticipatory grief for the victims and frustration.

“For 20 or 25 years, I’ve been communicating on climate, providing climate context to audiences, empowering them through education, to demand action on climate,” he said.

“Yet hardly anything has been done.”

It wasn’t always like this. Growing up in Puerto Rico, Morales was excited by the storms he now often dreads. The fascination led him to a career as a meteorologist.

At a meeting of meteorologists at the White House in 1997, vice-president Al Gore said something that inspired Morales. Gore asked why meteorologists comment on events like shooting stars, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions but not climate change. Morales said it was the catalyst for talking about climate change on air.

“At first it was difficult, and then I started to see more opportunities and less resistance from managers in newsrooms for me to do that,” he said.

“My hand was getting slapped less and less.”

Today, Morales says, he rarely gets pushback from audiences, and Miamians often thank him for his climate coverage.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE BY The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 

Paul Greeley is the manager and a writer for News Blues.

He can be reached at Paul@NewsBlues.com or 817-578-6324.