Warren Dean remembers feeling helpless when a deadly heat dome loomed over British Columbia last summer.
CTV’s weather anchor for Vancouver Island says he and his colleagues have tried to impress upon the public the seriousness of the unprecedented extreme heat, but there are still people who haven’t heeded the warnings they’ve been issuing.
“It was really gut-wrenching to see the fallout from it and see a lot of people suffer from it,” Dean, a weatherman for 16 years, said of the heat dome that led to more than 600 deaths in B.C. .
“I think we’ve done a very good job as a weather community, as a forecasting community, of giving enough notice to make adjustments, but still getting, ‘Well, it’s not going to be that bad.'” And I think what it showed us , is that it could be that bad.”
Dean is among several Canadian weather personalities who say they have changed their tone and approach in light of worsening climate change.
It’s okay not to end predictions in a “sweet spot”
While on-air weather forecasters may be perceived by some as typically lighter TV personalities, Dean says that over the past five years he has made an effort to share the “bigger picture” with his audience, delving into why a region sees certain weather patterns and how they can affect those living there.
CBC meteorologist Colette Kennedy, who has been reporting on the weather since 1995, said she has also changed her approach to her work as more extreme weather events occur. (David Donnelly/CBC)
“I took a very educational route to this when I was presenting my prediction, and I really dug into the science of it so that I could show people really what’s going on, explain the reasons why we get this and try to explain why is it a crisis,” he said
CBC meteorologist Colette Kennedy, who has been reporting on the weather since 1995, says she has also changed her approach to her job as more extreme weather events occur. That means reminding herself that it’s okay not to end weather forecasts in a “happy, pleasant place,” she said.
“We tend to be optimistic when we’re just talking about general forecasts,” she said, “the difference is when there’s bad weather, it’s very serious and life-threatening and you take a very different approach. ”
“Now there’s a place in between where you’re just talking about a forecast. It’s not bad weather in the sense of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms, it’s severe in the sense of long-term effects on our planet, and you have to feel comfortable giving bad news.”
Jim Abraham, president of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, said the “unique challenge” for meteorologists and weather personnel when it comes to climate change is preparing the public “for something they’ve never experienced before.”
“Something that all meteorologists around the world are dealing with is how do we communicate the risk in a way that’s well understood by the public?” he said. “I certainly think that’s in the works.”
Weather messages should be “consistent and clear”
Abraham said on-air weathermen have long predicted temperatures, humidity levels, wind strength and rainfall amounts.
But they also need to share “the impacts of these particular weather elements,” he said, and what people can do to minimize the effects of such weather not only on the general population but also on those more vulnerable. marginalized and vulnerable.
Abraham adds that there needs to be greater collaboration between governments, meteorologists, on-air weathermen and emergency managers to ensure messages are “consistent and clear”.
“I don’t think the public realizes the risk of heat, for example,” he said. “I doubt many Canadians realize that the largest loss of life from a weather event in Canadian history occurred in British Columbia last year with the heat dome.”
Kennedy says it’s important for everyone working in meteorology to adapt as climate change continues to affect people’s lives.
“We’ve been concerned about climate change for a long time, but progress has been slow,” she said. “We don’t have the luxury of weather with extreme and life-threatening conditions.”
This story was produced with funding from the Facebook-Canadian Press News Fellowship, which was not involved in the editorial process.
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