AccuWeather touts itself over newly launched Fox Weather, hints at concerns over climate coverage

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Following the launch of Fox Weather, AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter issued a statement raising questions about if the new service will be able to match his company’s capabilities and how it might address climate change.

“Fox Weather is entering this industry at a time when increasingly volatile weather events are becoming more frequent. Weather and climate events have an annual global economic impact of trillions of dollars and cause hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries each year,” he said in a written statement.

Specialized weather forecasting infrastructure is key — especially when people’s lives, communities, businesses and assets are on the line, he noted.

Climate change is also an integral part of complete weather coverage, he added.

“As a weather media company, we have the obligation to present people with authentic, fact-based, and unbiased information on weather and climate events – without hype or exaggeration,” Porter said.

Although Porter didn’t directly mention concerns over how Fox Weather might handle climate change reporting, its sister network, Fox News, is known for having a range of hosts who downplay or simply do not believe in climate change or that it has been caused by humans.

AccuWeather offers a variety of weather services, including its own 24 hour weather TV network. It also provides weather forecasts or data to hundreds of TV stations, newspapers and digital publications.

It frequently encourages its subscribers to co-brand forecasts with its name.

AccuWeather Network is primarily available on select cable, satellite and streaming providers, as well as over the air as a digital subchannel on stations across the country.

The network can, much like The Weather Channel, be localized with computer generated local or regional forecasts covering the national feed at designated times.