The Opinions - I Went Viral For Crying Over Hurricane Milton. I Couldn’t Help It.

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

The meteorologist John Morales has been a hurricane specialist in Miami for decades, but he never found himself close to tears until he witnessed the intensification of Hurricane Milton while live on the air earlier this month. In the weeks since, the clip of Morales choking up has been viewed millions of times online. In this episode of The Opinions, Morales reflects on his emotional response to the Hurricane and urges Americans who share his climate anxiety to talk about how they feel — and vote accordingly.Thoughts? Email us at [e-mail]. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is The Opinions, a show that brings you a mix of voices from New York Times opinion. You've heard the news. Here's what to make of it. I'm John Morales. I'm a meteorologist for Climate Data Corporation. I also serve as hurricane specialist for NBC Channel 6 in Miami. So over the course of my broadcast meteorology career, which dates back to 1991, I've always been in Miami. And Miami is an interesting news market. that is out there that has any chance of becoming a tropical storm or hurricane becomes lead news but the way that i have approached it over all these decades is just a facts approach

i can tell an audience whether they really need to worry about something or they don't as hurricane milton was starting to form i was asked to be on the news on NBC on sunday night sundays is also the that NBC has the NFL football game. A perfect Sunday night for football. It's time to go to work. We're going to have to be aggressive. No, they don't, please. And it's a big, big deal, because the ratings are super high,

and they wanted me in the studio after the game. Well, the game got delayed, and the news started at 1.15 in the morning, Eastern Time. This hurricane, Milton, has been rapidly intensifying already, going through a rapid intensification cycle that has brought its maximum sustained winds to 85 miles per hour. Bottom line is that I didn't get to bed to about 2.15 a.m. Monday morning. And meanwhile, Milton was rapidly intensifying. I was up early to monitor that. And then my first newscast for Monday was at 12 noon. We want to begin with Hurricane Specialist John Morales, John. I am in the home office, but I'm controlling weather graphics on the computer that's over in the TV studio. And I'm being

being talked to in my ear, stand by, be ready for air, and the National Hurricane Center declares that it's become a category five. And then, as I'm trying to pay attention and look at the camera because they're about to present me, but I can't keep my eyes on the camera because I'm constantly glancing at the latest data that had reported a very low barometric pressure, so much so that I'm doing this calculation, looking at a chart that I've got over here, And I do the math and I go, my goodness. John, now this monster of a hurricane is a category five. Suddenly, it's my turn to speak. And I clench my eyes and I just say,

it's just an incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane. It has dropped, it has dropped 50 milligrams in 10 hours. And, you know, my voice quivered. And then I apologize. And then I just said, This is just horrific. It was in my head as, well, look, you know, here's another symptom of global warming. If we had, you know, controlled this sooner, and maybe it wouldn't be this strong.

My first feeling after it was awkward, feeling a little embarrassed that that had happened. It didn't take long before the weekend news anchor for NBC6 shared the video. And I'm thinking, you know, what do I do with this? He already put it out there. But then when I thought of the opportunity to communicate the urgency of the climate crisis, I decided to retweet the post and, well, it went viral. An emotional report from the NBC Miami meteorologist and hurricane specialist, John Morales. One weatherman had this response live on edge.

Hurricane Milton's strength and magnitude have left veteran meteorologists in shock. I think the most surprising thing I saw from this viral moment was the way that younger generations suddenly felt represented by this baby boomer. You have to realize that in the lead up to that moment, I had been thinking of climate change, the impacts of it on our planet for decades. Over the course of my broadcast meteorology career, the way that I've approached it is to have a lot of, a non-alarmist approach. But gosh, it's hard these days to be non-alarmist because these hurricanes are becoming more dangerous very quickly. These violent intensities spread the devastation far and wide. And because hurricanes is what I've done my entire career, I've seen these changes in real time. I've gone from, you know, the cool cucumber to being in a state of agitated dismay.

So if this baby boomer is feeling those same feelings that the younger generations are, I think this is an opportunity for us to think about talking about this climate crisis more often. I mean, look at what's happening this fall in parts of the eastern U.S. where it's 80 degrees almost in November in some northern sections. Isn't that water cooler conversation? Of course it is. It's a kitchen table conversation. And it shouldn't be taboo because the shared anxiety cuts across generations.

I mean, thinking about the climate crisis can be overwhelming. How do you combat feeling numb about the climate crisis? Well, you call for action and you act on it yourself. And you make sure that you find leaders that are going to enact climate-friendly policies. your vote is very powerful too. If you have a leader that is not enacting or stalling in any way the climate-friendly policies, well, then think about maybe voting for somebody else, right? These are some of the things that we can do to combat feeling helpless about the changing climate.

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The executive producer of Times Opinion Audio is Annie Rose Dresser.