Climate Matters

Climate Matters is a program of Climate Central, a hybrid science and media nonprofit in Princeton, New Jersey.^1,2 The program sends TV meteorologists and journalists ready-made material for reporting on climate change where they live.¹ Each week it produces data analysis, graphics localized for more than 245 U.S. cities and media markets, science explainers and other reporting resources on a timely topic, in English and Spanish.¹ Media partners use them to tell stories about how climate change affects their own communities, and about ways to limit warming.¹

It began in 2010 as a pilot funded by the National Science Foundation, in partnership with George Mason University; during the pilot WXLT's Jim Gandy showed how climate change affects Columbia, South Carolina.¹ Climate Central says the reason for working through weathercasters was that they are among the most trusted local science communicators.¹ It became full time in 2012 with 12 meteorologists, by Climate Central's account; a 2020 paper listed on the same page dates the nationwide launch to 2013.¹ Since then it has produced more than 560 weekly bulletins and more than 70,000 localized graphics, and Climate Central counts more than 3,000 meteorologists and journalists in its network.¹ The same page also gives a figure of 200+ U.S. locations alongside the 245+ markets.¹ The American Meteorological Society, NASA, NOAA and Climate Communication later joined as partners.¹

The program has been studied. A 2020 paper in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society reported a randomized controlled experiment in which localized climate reporting by TV weathercasters increased viewers' understanding of climate change as a local problem, across the political spectrum.¹ Other papers listed on the page measured the program's effect on public understanding (Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2020; Nature Climate Change, 2022) and tracked weathercasters' own views.¹

Climate Central's terms of use let anyone reuse its materials for any non-commercial purpose, commercial media organizations reuse them for a commercial news purpose, and accredited educational bodies for an educational purpose.² Users must credit Climate Central and, online, link to the page the material came from.² Other commercial use needs written permission, in particular any use to create, market or promote financial products or investments.² Bulk downloading and screen scraping are forbidden.² Images may be resized or trimmed in ways that do not affect the information, and text may be excerpted; other changes need written permission.² The same organization publishes the Climate Shift Index and city pages called Climate Local,¹ and its researchers wrote the paper on extreme water levels.

The program delivers a model's result through a person the audience already trusts, in the place the audience already looks.