‘Reality is scary’: climate culture war heats up for UK meteorologists

Discussing the weather has been a British pastime for a long time, with forecasters relying on bad weather to ruin bank holidays and good weather to give good news.

Extreme temperatures hit England last month, with records smashed and highs of 40.3C (104.5F).

Laura is the chirpy weather forecaster. She's popular with viewers and has a large following on the social networking site. She has found herself spending her time battling climate deniers as her job has tipped from giving updates on the mildBritish weather to charting the terrifying advance of the climate crisis.

She said that when she did her forecast at 6.15am on Tuesday, she sat and looked at her map and cried. I said it was going to happen and it would happen. It was not believable in the community. I was very sad about it.

Some of her viewers accused her of scaremongering and complained on social media when she linked the heatwave to climate breakdown.

The UK is facing a shortage of water in August.

Some people said they switched off when they saw her on television. Some called for her to be put in jail and others called her a doom.

She said that people think it's someone else's problem and they don't want to hear about it. People don't want to be told what to do.

In contrast to many who face abuse and complaints on social media, Tobin responds to climate deniers on air, answering their questions.

Climate change is communicated to the public via meteorology.

We have a responsibility to explain the science and why it matters. What we know, what we are saying isn't being alarmist - what we are seeing is frightening. The truth is scary, but not scaremongering.

It's part of the job to convince people that the climate crisis is real. Even if they are one in a million or one in a thousand, you have to convince them that they are wrong. I have done it before, I have spoken to complete climate deniers and sceptics and shown them the science in a non-condescending way.

She doesn't mind the angry comments as she believes it's her call to warn people about the climate emergency.

"Anything that somebody can say that might be having a go at me or negative, my feelings about climate change blow that out of the water."

There will be hundreds if not thousands of deaths due to the fires that started and the temperatures that were forecast. Care homes and schools were prepared because of the warnings.

Comments said the Met Office should not tell people what to do. I asked if it was a bad thing that all of these things would have saved lives. We suggest people bring an umbrella if it's going to rain, no one has a chance at us for that, so why can't we suggest that people prepare for extreme weather?

Scott Duncan uses social media to show the change in climate. Many of these were shared thousands of times.

You get a lot of people coming out with pitchforks and torches. He said that when people bash the weather forecaster on social media it is not on.

The media and celebrities have started pile-ons for the weather service to warn of extreme heat.

It was not helpful when Jeremy Clarkson said that France didn't declare a heatwave. People don't take it as seriously as they should.

He has begun posting less because of the emotional toll of reading the comments.

I have had to restrict comments because I have seen horrible arguments break out among the comments. You used to be surprised to see these things but now you don't.

I wanted to take a break after the reaction.

They will continue to tell the world about the climate emergency.

The scale of these record breaks definitely deserved the highest level, as the air we were breathing was hotter than our lungs, which had never been above 30 degrees. When would you use it if you didn't have a warning?

It is my job to give people more knowledge. I will continue to do it.