John Moralesdoubleu casino, one of South Florida’s longest running meteorologists, was delivering his weathercast for WTVJ/NBC6 in Miami on Monday when his voice cracked. Beside him, on a split screen, an image of Hurricane Milton whorled, giant, angry and red.
The storm had just made the leap to a Category 5 monster that was churning toward Florida’s storm-battered west coast, much of it still in splinters after being struck by Hurricane Helene on Sept. 26.
“It’s just an incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane,” Mr. Morales said of Milton, closing his eyes and slightly shaking his head. “It has dropped. …”
His voice faltered. He looked down, drew a shaky breath and continued, “… it has dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours.” For viewers who didn’t understand the staggering implications of this barometric plunge, Mr. Morales’s choked delivery said enough. “I apologize,” he said in a quavering voice. “This is just horrific.”
Mr. Morales shared the broadcast on X, writing that he had debated whether to do so. The post has since been viewed 1.7 million times.
In an interview on Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Morales said a number of factors had played into his tearful broadcast. Shock about the storm’s rapid intensification. Angst about the increasing number and the severity of extreme weather events. Frustration over society’s failure to mitigate the pollution that is heating the planet, despite scientific certainty that it is driving increasingly violent weather. And empathy for the people, the ecosystems and the creatures that would experience Hurricane Milton’s destructiveness.
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