Chris Gloninger left KCCI after a 'death threat.' Now, he's talking about his next chapter. (2024)

Former KCCI chief meteorologist Chris Gloninger fought back tears.

Earlier this month, during the noon newscast at central Iowa's CBS affiliate, Gloninger held up printed copies of supportive viewer emails. He sported a navy blue suit jacket and was seated next to longtime anchor Alyx Sacks.

"I know two years isn't much time and even with some struggles over the last year, I wanted to reinforce the fact that my wife and I are leaving the state with mostly happy memories and more friends than we came with," he said on July 7.

"In all of this, I found the importance of living life through love, kindness and compassion," he continued. "I'm walking away from a career, an 18-year career in television that I dreamt of since second grade, so that's why I'm a little emotional."

KCCI recruited Gloninger to cover the weather with an emphasis on the changing climate, beginning in July 2021. Then, a viewer threatened him. His story since then is deeper than a two-minute goodbye on KCCI.

According to NASA, climate change is "a change in the usual weather found in a place," which could include how much rain a location receives or a shift in typical temperatures. "Severity of effects caused by climate change will depend on the path of future human activities," the agency said.

On June 21 of last year, Gloninger received the first of about six to eight threatening emails, according to a West Des Moines Police Department report obtained by the Des Moines Register.

"Getting sick and tired of your liberal conspiracy theory on the weather, climate changes every day, always has, always will, your pushing nothing but a Biden hoax, go back to where you came from," the writer said.

For a year, he suffered from PTSD. Gloninger began experiencing medical issues that his doctor could not explain, such as a rash on his leg from stress, acid reflux and a persistent cough. His parents became worried after heavy bags appeared under his eyes. He and his wife were unable to sleep from constant fear.

More: KCCI's Chris Gloninger exits after Friday's noon newscast, citing 'death threat' from viewer

When the East Coast-born weatherman left KCCI this summer, the story drew national headlines about a meteorologist leaving the Midwest because of his candid on-air coverage of the climate.

From New York to the Des Moines metro

Gloninger first dreamed of becoming a meteorologist in second grade, when Hurricane Bob hit his hometown of Sag Harbor, New York, in 1991. He was mesmerized by the power of Mother Nature as he watched out the windows of his childhood home and wondered about the causes of hurricanes.

Later, Gloninger graduated from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire and worked at news stations in Rochester and Albany, New York, and Saginaw, Michigan.

He committed his career to climate change coverage after Hurricane Irene devastated upstate New York in 2011. The following year, another hurricane affected his hometown when Hurricane Sandy decimated Sag Harbor in 2012.

"Climate change really wasn't on my radar until Superstorm Sandy and then, for NBC, I worked on a hurricane task force where I would go to these hurricanes and cover them for all of these NBC-owned stations," he said. "And after (Hurricane) Harvey and 50 inches of rain, I was like, 'Holy s---, we need to do more.'"

In 2013, Gloninger moved to Milwaukee, where he married his wife, Cathy, and joined KCCI's sister station WISN.

By 2016, Gloninger joined NBC 10 Boston in Massachusetts, where he developed the nation's first local TV series on climate change. He earned a master of science degree in emergency management from Pennsylvania-based Millersville University in 2018.

Other stations took notice.

In spring 2021, he received an email just before Memorial Day from a recruiter at KCCI's parent company, Hearst. The recruiter's emails were followed by messages from a station manager.

He covered climate change once a week in Boston, but KCCI managers told him a move to Iowa would allow him to expand upon that passion. The Gloningers were curious about the opportunity.

"Cathy heard everything I heard, and she said, 'I'm so happy that you found someone that is excited about your skill set. It sounds like they really want you to talk about climate,'" Gloninger recalled.

More: KCCI taps Boston meteorologist Chris Gloninger as its new chief meteorologist

In June 2021, KCCI announced that Gloninger would replace departing longtime KCCI meteorologist Kurtis Gertz in the chief meteorologist role. The station refocused the position to emphasize analysis on the climate's effect on weather patterns in Iowa, according to former and current TV journalists with knowledge of the situation.

In December 2021, Hearst announced it was launching the "Forecasting Our Future" initiative. In 2022, the company called the concept "a group-wide initiative to inform communities about the local impact of weather and climate" in its first-ever sustainability overview.

More: KCCI's Chris Gloninger exits after Friday's noon newscast, citing 'death threat' from viewer

During his first year at KCCI, Gloninger weaved the climate's impact on weather in Iowa into his forecasts. On March 1, he posted a GIF of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer standing up and sitting back down.

"Finding out it will be 71 tomorrow, but then finding out it'll be in the 30s with possible snow on Thursday. Because of the climate crisis, these weather whiplash events are becoming more and more common. It's clear we need to take immediate climate action," Gloninger wrote on his KCCI official Facebook page.

The post garnered nearly 4,000 reactions and 1,300 comments.

On April 23, KCCI launched its first "Forecasting Our Future" special, co-hosted by Gloninger and current morning meteorologist Jason Sydejko. On social media, Gloninger said they were "looking at the impacts of all aspects of climate change across the nation." He noted that in Iowa, those impacts were not "as visual," but said that in other parts of the country they were "already devastating."

Then, the threats arrived.

Former TV meteorologist Chris Gloninger: 'Mentally, I was freaking out'

Gloninger returned home from a haircut on a Friday afternoon in June 2022 and opened his inbox. The sender, who lives in Lenox, had started sending harassing emails days earlier.

"What's your address?" the sender asked. "We conservative Iowans would like to give you an Iowan welcome you will never forget, kinda like the libtards gave JUDGE KAVANAUGH!!!!!!!"

The email was an apparent reference to a California man who wascharged with attempted murderfor showing up with guns and other weapons at the home of Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh earlier that month.

"Mentally, I was freaking out and I just kept looking at the 'what's your address line' and it's not that hard to figure out," Gloninger said.

Glonginer froze in his West Des Moines living room. He called Cathy.

"You need to come home," he told her.

In August of last year, after Gloninger received more threatening emails from the Lenox man, West Des Moines police charged the sender with harassment. The man pleaded guilty in September 2022 and agreed to pay a $105 fine.

"If this happened in a state where there were gun laws and penalties worse than $105 for a death threat, I don't think I would've been worried," Gloninger said.

Gloninger said the couple would experience "emotional triggers" when their home surveillance cameras detected movement. Later that summer, an Urbandale therapist diagnosed Gloninger with PTSD.

"I don't know what a man in Lenox, Iowa, is willing to do to take a stand," Gloninger said, "which is scary."

KCCI response to threat 'left a bad taste' in Gloninger's mouth

Steve Karlin, who retired as a KCCI lead anchor in March, said Glonginer told co-workers “pretty much every day for months” that he feared for his family’s safety.

Former KCCI news director Dave Busiek said the threats fit a pattern of increased attacks on local TV news reporters. Viewers began harassing local reporters more frequently in 2016, when former President Donald Trump won the presidency, he said.

“We had a president and a White House that disputed obvious facts, tried to skew those facts, and basically told his followers, 'Listen to me. Don't listen to the media,'" Busiek said.

Gloninger said KCCI was “super supportive” in most respects after the Lenox man's threats. He said Hearst higher-ups provided a home security system, paid for a hotel room for him and his wife, and hired guards to protect the station.

But he said KCCI managers asked him to avoid climate change coverage, which “left a bad taste” in his mouth.

"Management told me that, 'We take notice when we get emails saying that people don't want a science lesson,'" Gloninger said.

Karlin worked alongside Gloninger with co-anchor Stacey Horst during the nightly newscast. He said he felt the former meteorologist was very professional and said Gloninger's forecasts were fact-focused instead of "preachy."

Karlin said KCCI managers succumbed to viewer pushback and said managers "chose not to support the truth."

"Chris does climate change and some people push back. So, the station comes to him and says, 'Don't use the word climate change.' They put handcuffs on a guy that they hired to do the job they wanted him to do,'" Karlin said.

The station did not issue a public statement during the initial threat incident. KCCI did not provide a public statement during or after Gloninger's departure and has not responded to multiple requests for comment about it.

Gloninger speaks out about Iowa's political climate

This is not the first incident involving a KCCI reporter that has drawn national attention in recent years.

In June 2016, former KCCI reporter Emmy Victor, who is Black, was involved in a physical altercation with the mother of a suspect in a criminal case. The woman shouted racial epithets at Victor including the N-word and put her hands on Victor during coverage ofan officer-involved fatality in Boone.

In an email statement provided to the Des Moines Register, Victor said she understood parts of Gloninger’s experience.

"While many viewers I met during my time in central Iowa were wonderful and welcoming, the occasional negative reactions to the color of my skin in person and online simply became overwhelming," Victor wrote.

Victor left KCCI in August of that year and is now a reporter for AccuWeather in Chicago. She left the state partly because of local TV viewers’ racist statements toward her and said the N-word incident was “one of the final straws.”

Gloninger said the increasingly politicized environment in Iowa contributed to his exit from the state.

"Just because 2016 polarized everything and made people feel emboldened and entitled and this is more what I'm upset about is the political environment," Gloninger said. "Not a single Republican leader in this state reached out to me and that's pretty telling because silence is deafening and that's what's wrong with this state."

Gloninger said numerous Democrats have reached out in support of his climate coverage. Gloninger cited December 2022 research from Yale that found an opinion audience of 11% of Americansare defined as climate dismissive.

"I know that there are really good people here," Gloninger said. "But that 11% that are climate dismissive, I think that you could say accurately that they're the people that are reaching out and think that it's OK to attack members of the media."

Gloninger compared "Iowa nice," a cultural label coined to describe welcoming attitudes among Iowans, to those who are "climate dismissive."

"For them, Iowa nice is only if you look like us, sound like us, and think like us. And that isn't for everyone. That's not everyone's philosophy, but they still think they're being 'Iowa nice,' but that's your requirements to fulfill their kindness towards you," Gloninger said.

How Chris Gloninger plans to find sunshine after cloudy period in life

On the morning of July 7, moving trucks arrived at the Gloningers' West Des Moines home hours before his on-air goodbye.

He fought back tears and said farewell to 18 years on local TV. Then, the Gloningers drove back east. He joined Woods Hole Group, a climate consulting firm, as a senior scientist in climate and risk communication.

During the week that he left KCCI, the earth recorded its warmest week on record at the time, according to data from the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyzer.

Gloninger appeared on cable news programs such as "The Reid Out with Joy Reid," "The Rachel Maddow Show," "American Voices with Alicia Menendez," "CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta," and "The Beat with Ari Melber," where he discussed his experiences in Iowa, the threats he received and his observations on climate change.

On July 11, Gloninger posted a selfie on Twitter with his wife at a beach in Falmouth, Massachusetts. She clutched a white coffee cup, and a sandwich sat on his lap.

Baseball caps perched above their sunglasses. They both grinned.

"Much needed after a crazy month," the caption read as waves rippled behind them.

Register reporter Nixson Benítez contributed to this article.

Jay Stahl is an entertainment reporter at The Des Moines Register. Follow him onInstagramor reach out atjstahl@gannett.com.