Beyond the Forecast: TV Meteorologists Weigh in on Climate Challenges

Local broadcast meteorologists have become more vocal about the evidence of climate change in their communities’ weather in recent years. While some have encountered dramatic pushback, others have found audiences that are eager to understand the causes of recent record-breaking disturbances in familiar weather patterns.  

In Phoenix, meteorologist Amber Sullins—formerly a climate skeptic, herself—uses her role to inform an increasingly concerned audience about not only the risks but the climate change factors contributing to the unprecedented extreme heat they experience.  And far to the other end of the Ten Across region in Miami, Michael Lowry is putting his background in meteorology and emergency management to work on multiple platforms, explaining both the immediate dangers and the greater, complex drivers of worsening tropical storms.  

But even as more meteorologists like Amber and Michael embrace their unique ability to use the immediacy of local weather to connect the public to the larger context of climate change, there is growing concern about loss of critical federal weather and climate data on which their forecasts are based.  Severe cuts are being made at federal agencies—particularly within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the sources of nearly all U.S. weather information. A proposed budget change for 2026 would reduce resources even further.  

Listen in as Amber, Michael, and Ten Across founder Duke Reiter discuss these changes and the implications for both forecast accuracy and public safety as the climate continues to warm.  

Relevant links and resources:  

Read Michael’s column in the New York Times  

2017 Bloomberg video report on Amber's climate coverage

"After DOGE cuts, National Weather Service gets OK to fill up to 450 jobs" (The LA Times, August 2025)

“US Weather Boss During ‘Sharpiegate’ Nears Return to a Shrinking Agency” (Bloomberg, August 2025)  

“After 7 Decades of Measurements From a Peak in Hawaii, Trump’s Budget Would End Them” (The New York Times, July 2025)  
 
“Nearly half of National Weather Service offices are crticially understaffed, experts warn” (PBS News, April 2025)  

“Woking Paper: The Value of Improving Hurricane Forecasts” (The National Bureau of Economic Research, 2024)  

“One sent tsunami alerts. Another flew with ‘hurricane hunters.’ Both were just fired from NOAA” (NBC News, April 2025)  

Relevant Ten Across Conversations podcast episodes:  

Past, Present, and Future Climate Reporting with NPR’s Sadie Babits  

AI Series: