In Red Arizona: Waking up Slowly to Climate Change
August 23, 2020
All over the country, TV meteorologists have been – slowly – waking up to their responsibility as science messengers, and making climate change a part of the larger context as they explain extreme weather events to their audience.
Arizona is a state that is gradually changing from deep red to some thing more moderate, and part of that is taking note of the increasing number of heat waves and heat records they’re seeing, for instance in the last week.
It’s interesting to watch the TV-met above as he kind of hedges all his bets on the way to explaining the role of climate in the current heat wave, and brings in Gavin Schmidt of NASA (in full quarantine beard) to explain.
I’ve talked to a number of TV mets about their work as often the only science explainers that most of their audience will ever see in day to day life. (below)
August 23, 2020 at 2:16 pm
The “heat island” effect tends to be more pronounced in poorer neighborhoods with fewer trees, unlandscaped strip mall parking lots.
If anybody knows about studies of the local contribution of waste heat from urban ICE vehicles, please let me know.