John Morales, the longest-tenured TV meteorologist in South Florida , recently appeared live on NBC6 to give an update on Hurricane Milton, a Category 5 storm, set to hit landfall on Wednesday evening. "It's just an incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane. It has dropped..." Morales paused, seemingly choking back tears. "It has dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours," Morales continued with a shaky voice. "I apologize; this is just...horrific."
"Maximum sustained winds are 160 miles per hour, and it is just gaining strength in the Gulf of Mexico, where you can imagine where the winds, I mean the seas, are just so incredibly, incredibly hot. Record hot, as you might imagine. You know what's driving that, I don't need to tell you. Global warming, climate change leading to this and becoming an increasing threat..." Morales continued, still choking back tears.
"I debated whether to share this. I did apologize on the air. But I invite you to read my introspection on @BulletinAtomic of how extreme weather driven by global warming has changed me. Frankly, YOU should be shaken too, and demand #ClimateActionNow ," Morales wrote.
Others felt that seeing a meteorologist become emotional about the impact of climate change shows that the situation is more dire. "Seeing the meteorologist crying on live News about the seriousness of the storm and the possible outcomes is soooo insane in my entire life I’ve never seen that before," another user wrote.
Former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson thanked Morales for his candidness. "No need to apologize, Sir. Quite the opposite. Thank you for allowing your humanity and common sense to shine through."
Another person described the contrast between Morales and some people being unable to evacuate in Florida. "just watched an NBC meteorologist cry on air talking about how terrifying Hurricane Milton is & then the next thing I saw was a woman in the evacuation zone saying she has literally nowhere to go — all the hotels are booked & she doesn’t have a lot of money & has 4 dogs/6 kids."
"Hey remind me is it a good sign when meteorologists start crying on air or do we want to avoid looking up a little longer," another user wrote, alluding to the Netflix film Don't Look Up, which highlights the dangers of society ignoring scientifically-proven, impending disasters.
"I’m in Orlando, and I just saw this clip with Mr. Morales and I started tearing up myself," another user wrote. "You can tell that he realizes this is gonna be bad and as much as I hate to say it, people are gonna lose property they might lose their lives and this is just a terrible terrible situation."
In a post for Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , Morales further described the lasting impact climate change has had on him personally: "For decades, I had felt in control. Not in control of the weather, of course. But in control of the message that, if my audience was prepared and well informed, I could confidently guide them through any weather threat, and we’d all make it through safely. Today as a result of so many compounding climate-driven factors, the warming world has forcibly shifted my manner from calm concern to agitated dismay."
"Now, I look at storms differently. And I communicate differently. I don’t need to be told 'you’ve changed' to know that I’m not the same. Perhaps those who have known me as the just-the-facts non-alarmist meteorologist can’t get used to the new me. That’s why they bicker and accuse me of overhyping emerging weather threats."
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Local News
Comments / 0