---
id: communication/climate-matters
about:
  label: Climate Matters
  description: >-
    Climate Central's free weekly service of localized climate graphics, data
    and explainers for TV meteorologists and journalists, localized for more
    than 245 U.S. cities and media markets.
  tags:
    - climate communication
    - local graphics
    - TV meteorologists
    - journalism
    - Climate Central
tool:
  form: 'free reporting service (weekly materials, localized graphics, workshops)'
  group: Showing
  homepage: 'https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters'
  licence: >-
    Climate Central terms of use: free for any non-commercial use, for
    commercial news use by media organizations and for educational use by
    accredited educational bodies, with credit (and a link when used online);
    other commercial use, notably for financial products, needs written
    permission; no bulk downloading or screen scraping; images may only be
    resized or trimmed without changing the information
  cost: free; meteorologists and journalists sign up through a form
open:
  source: unknown
  data: partly
  api: unknown
  participation: partly
  licence: Climate Central terms of use
  note: >-
    The terms forbid bulk downloading and screen scraping, and ask that Climate
    Central's flood maps not be used to assess actual hazards, insurance or
    property values.
domains:
  - climate
  - people
provenance:
  origin: agent
  sources:
    - title: Climate Matters | Climate Central
      url: 'https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters'
    - title: Terms of use | Climate Central
      url: 'https://www.climatecentral.org/what-we-do/legal'
  created: '2026-10-23'
  reviewed: '2026-10-23'
  reviewed_by: 'Claude, from the sources listed'
  status: draft
---
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](/communication/climate-shift-index/) and city pages called [Climate Local](/communication/climate-local/),[^1] and its researchers wrote the [paper on extreme water levels](/articles/climate-central-extreme-water-levels/).

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