In the past year, I have observed a growing trend toward extremes of autistic civil rights advocacy, at least partially characterized by disdain for scientific research and knowledge alongside a preference for lived experiences. This concerns me, an individual on the autism spectrum and someone who desires to help autistic individuals through the psychological study of autism. Hence my intent here: to discuss and bring attention to this situation. In so doing, I hope to create civil and respectful dialogue on the subject. I will conclude by discussing implications and potential actions which might bring about positive outcomes.

Weather is important to all people, including vulnerable populations (those whose circumstances include cognitive processing, hearing, or vision differences; physical disability; homelessness; and other scenarios and factors). Autism spectrum conditions affect information processing and areas of neurological functioning that potentially inhibit the reception of hazardous weather information and are of particular concern for weather messengers. People on the autism spectrum tend to score highly in tests of systemizing, a psychological process that heavily entails attention to detail and revolves around the creation of logical rules to explain things that occur in the world. This article reports the results of three preliminary studies examining weather salience—psychological attention to weather—and its potential relationships with systemizing in autistic people. Initial findings suggest that enhanced weather salience exists among autistic individuals relative to those without the condition and that this may be related to systemizing. These findings reveal some possible strategies for communicating weather to autistic populations and motivate future work on a conceptual model that blends systemizing and chaos theory to better understand weather salience.

Smartphones, tablets, and computers offer a wealth of digital information about the world and have transformed the ways we live. Our experiences of the world are now so much more mediated by digital devices than ever before. This is especially the case for living with (and under) the influences of our weather and climate. Here, we explore the idea that an ongoing digitalization of weather and climate, vis-à-vis technology, and the evolving discourse about them may be minimizing or obscuring the actual phenomenological experiencing of weather and climate. We first discuss trends in the digital portrayal of weather and climate and then contrast these with embodied experiences of the weather which, together with “old-school” physical observation techniques, we refer to as an analogue experiencing of the weather. In the third section, we discuss the value of integrating both digitalized and analogue experiences of the weather. Finally, we introduce some ways to become more attuned to the weather of one’s place while locating these experiences on the larger landscape of data and digitalized meteorology.

This paper addresses work at the intersection of meteorology and the psychology of curiosity andlearning (Bolton et al. 2020; Stewart et al. 2015, 2018). Specifically, we report on thedevelopment and validation of the first self-report measure of epistemic (i.e., information-based)weather curiosity. Two studies derived 11 items measuring general interest in learning aboutweather and curiosity for the science behind weather. Psychometric properties and implicationsof the scale for use by meteorologists, educators, and academic researchers are discussed.

Meteorologists across the weather enterprise are faced with the daunting task of predicting future states of the atmosphere and communicating vital meteorological information to the public. This is an emotionally draining element of the job, at the forefront of many meteorologists’ minds and often a source of mental duress which may lead to such negative health outcomes as fatigue, burnout, depression, anxiety, and imposter syndrome (which involves feelings of self-doubt and failure, and the perception that one is being negatively evaluated and judged). It has been our observation that the expectations and demands of the meteorological field contribute to and exacerbate these feelings, often contributing to one’s feeling as though he or she is drowning in shallow water. It is, therefore, our goal to discuss here what we have observed to be some of the main triggers for these outcomes–especially impostor syndrome–among meteorological professionals. Through an analysis of publicly-available tweets, in sharing an introspective examination of our own mental health experiences in meteorology, and in discussing anecdotal evidence from conversations had with other meteorological professionals, we aim to discuss the occurrence of anxiety, depression, and impostor syndrome across the weather enterprise. In closing, we will discuss empirically-driven methods and some of our personal psychological defense strategies, by which meteorologists may better cope with and counteract negative mental health outcomes.

This paper explores the theoretical nature of a proposed need for cognition about weather. Whereas nature connectedness concerns a sense of communion with rivers, lakes, trees, and so forth, we propose that some people manifest a more specific form of connection directed to the weather–the atmospheric phenomena and conditions–which occurs in nature. Theory, evidence, and applications of this potential construct are discussed.

This study, based on 2018 archival data, examined a novel aspect of responses and sensitivities to weather that expands the concept of weather salience beyond Stewart’s (2009) framework of generalized weather-oriented attention. We examined in a majority-Canadian, international sample weather salience’s relationship with the Big Five personality traits, exposure to severe weather events, weather anxiety and storm fear, and storm-related safety behaviors. We found a tendency for participants to report little or very little fear of severe weather conditions, despite many having experienced at least one particularly frightening severe weather. Storm-related protective actions were predicted by storm fear but not neuroticism, and were unrelated to conscientiousness and weather knowledge. Storm fear was predicted by neuroticism and the social influence of friends and family members; openness was significantly associated, albeit weakly, with direct sensing of weather conditions. We also address some concerns around the psychometric makeup of the Weather Salience Questionnaire, Storm Fear Questionnaire (Nelson et al., 2013), and Storm Safety Behaviors Scale (Krause et al., 2018).

Mental health is a topic of increasing interest and concern across the weather enterprise amidst a backdrop of funding cuts, extreme storms, and longer, more involved work hours. The present study therefore investigated wellbeing in the meteorological workplace. Participants (N= 389), professional meteorologists (n = 360) and professionally-employed meteorology students (n = 29), voluntarily participated in a Qualtrics-hosted online survey and responded to a number of measures representing a broad range of mental health variables. These individuals fell into three employment sectors: U.S. National Weather Service (NWS), Broadcast (television weather), and Other (a combination of academic, private sector, military, and non-NWS operational meteorologists). Individual differences emerged between meteorological sectors in personality and the subjective wellbeing domains of burnout, job satisfaction, and anxiety. Broadcasters were significantly more burnt-out at work and personally, were higher in extraversion, and were highest in anxiety. NWS meteorologists were most burnt-out in working with partners. The Other category of meteorologists showed more agreeableness and greater job satisfaction than broadcasters and those in the NWS. There was no cross-sector difference, however, in traits that might be relatively uniform among meteorologists: Grit, life satisfaction, self-concept clarity, subjective happiness, stress, and depression. Results are discussed in terms of consequences for meteorologists’ mental health and emotional wellbeing as well as the future of the field.