In a year where we experienced record-breaking forest fires, floods, hurricanes, heat waves, and cold spells, one can’t help but wonder - in what ways is climate change already impacting American communities? Are the extreme weather events that the US has endured in the recent past indicative of climate change, or are the just a run of bad luck? If they are, how should we expect them to change in the future? But most importantly - how do we communicate the complexities of these answers to the public? To answer these questions and more, we’ve assembled a group of scientists who have dedicated significant effort to collaborate with other like-minded researchers and put together documents such as the National Climate Assessment and the Climate Sciences Special Report. Panelists Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist whose research focuses on understanding what climate change means for people and the places where we live. She is a professor and directs the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University and has been named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People and Fortune’s 50 World’s Greatest Leaders. David Easterling is a Supervisory Physical Scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NOAA/NCEI) in Asheville, North Carolina. David received his Ph.D. in 1988 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and served as an Assistant Professor in the Atmospheric Sciences Program, Department of Geography, Indiana University-Bloomington from 1987 to 1990. In 1990 he moved to NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center as a climate scientist, He has authored or co-authored more than 90 research articles and book chapters on climate science. David was a Lead Author on the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report, the IPCC Special Report on Climate Extremes, the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, and a Convening Lead Author for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP) 3.3 on Climate Extremes. He is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society, and has been awarded four NOAA Administrator’s Awards, and three NOAA Bronze Medals. 3:56 PM (CST) - Hi all, we’re jumping into your questions now! David Easterling is joining us on the floor of the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, and Katharine Hayhoe is joining us online. We’re excited for the discussion! 5:00 PM (CST) - We’ve just about finished answering most of people’s questions. Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any more!

It seems that every time a significant weather event is forecast, there’s a race to hype its impacts and severity on social media in order to catch eyeballs. But what was once limited to competitive TV stations in a broadcast market has spilled over to social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, where people can freely share “doomsday” forecasts, regardless of where they come from. After all, the ECMWF is the best model in the world, so its 10-day forecast of a 4 foot snowfall must be reliable, right? How are meteorologists trying to cut through this noise and provide the public with the best, most relevant and actionable information possible? We’ve invited several expert weather communicators who served the public during life-threatening situations in this past year to help shed some light on this problem by sharing personal stories on what challenges they faced and what steps they’re taking - and that the broader public should be aware of - to better inform the public in the age of information overload. Panelist Info: John Morales is the Chief Meteorologist for the NBC station in Miami. He’s the longest tenured weather presenter in South Florida, having spent 27 years on both Spanish and English language stations, and covering many-a-#bombcyclone like Hurricanes Andrew, Wilma, Matthew and Irma. Yet he’s known as a non-alarmist. Could he keep cool even when record-setting hurricanes were threatening in 2017, or did he give in to the hype? Tim Heller is an AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist with 34 years on-air experience. He is currently the Chief Meteorologist at KTRK ABC13 in Houston. When Hurricane Harvey dumped torrential rain over the course of several days and homes filled with water, Heller used social media and on-air broadcasts to keep the public informed on the progress of the storm. Heller believes the key to successful communication on social media is to build a trusting relationship with followers over time, avoid using headline grabbing phrases like “Bomb Cyclone” and limiting the use of exclamation points. 4:10 (CST) - We’re live! Join us on twitter, too - @HellerWeather and @JohnMoralesNBC6 5:05 (CST) - Alrighty /r/science, we think we got to everyone who asked a question! Thanks for all of your interesting comments and questions - we’re going to jump back into the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, but please feel free to continue the discussion with us on Twitter!