An Iowa weather forecaster who quit his job after receiving a death threat and harassing emails for his coverage of climate change revealed he and his wife had to hide in a hotel for their safety and have surveillance cameras installed in their home .
Chris Gloninger, the senior meteorologist for KCCI Channel 8 News in Des Moines who had covered climate change and the weather, resigned from the news channel on June 21, a position he had held since 2021.
This month he penned an essay in The Boston Globe, sharing his story of the ordeal and how he and his wife Cathy returned to his hometown of Boston after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
He said the station’s managers “took the threat seriously” and were the ones who put him and his wife in a hotel. “We were minutes from where we lived but hid for our safety,” he wrote. “We bought security cameras for our home, but the stress continued to mount.”
He also pointed out that the police acted professionally and kindly throughout the harrowing incident, but Gloninger later revealed that with every new email he received, it was “harder to recover.”
Chris Gloninger, the chief weather forecaster for KCCI Channel 8 News in Des Moines, resigned from the news channel on June 21, a position he has held since 2021 after receiving a series of disturbing emails and a death threat in response to its climate coverage the news channel had received
Gloninger, pictured with his wife Cathy, told The Washington Post last month how concerned he was when he was working late shifts and his wife was home alone
Gloginger has reported on climate change and the weather for KCCI-TV since 2021 and had retired from television after 18 years
Gloninger received several threatening emails last summer, some of which asked for his home address. Others said he was a “worthless Biden puppet” and should “go east and drown before the ice cap melts.”
After reporting the messages to authorities, police identified a man in Lenox, Iowa, who admitted to sending them. Danny Hancock, 63, was subsequently charged with third-degree molestation. He pleaded guilty and was fined $105. He was also ordered to pay $76 in court costs.
Glonginer has used his position at KCCI to raise awareness of the effects of climate change, often sharing clips on social media discussing the negative effects.
“I am very proud to have educated the public about the impact of climate change throughout my career,” he wrote in a note on Twitter announcing his departure.
Glonginer released screenshots of some of the abusive emails last July, and the Iowa Capital Dispatch reviewed court and police records to uncover some of the others.
The first message on June 21 at around 5:35pm read: “Your liberal conspiracy theory about the weather, climate change, every day, always, always, that you’re spreading nothing but a Biden hoax, tired of it, go back there, where you are.’ came from.’
A few days later, Hancock wrote, “You are a worthless Biden puppet, a liar, a conspiracy theorist and an idiot!!!” “You give Iowa a bad name go home b****.”
Hours later came perhaps the most ominous piece of news, in which Hancock referred to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“What is your address? We conservative Iowans want to give you an Iowan welcome you will never forget, a bit like the freedom JUSTICE KAVANAUGH gave!!!!!!!” he wrote.
Sharing some of the troubling emails, Gloninger confessed that the experience was “mentally draining and I wasn’t feeling well at times.”
The veteran weatherman sent a farewell tweet last month, detailing his new endeavor in solving the climate crisis and expressing the gratitude he has for his fans and the news channel for his “so great understanding”.
He told The Washington Post last month that the trauma caused by the threats made him fear not only for his safety but also for that of his wife, who often stayed home alone while he worked the late shift.
“I wasn’t sleeping,” Gloninger said. “I had bags under my eyes.”
“I’m trying to put it behind me,” he told the newspaper. “But at the same time, I think it raises awareness of what journalists face every day when breaking news.”
He said he’s sad to be leaving his role but is also looking forward to the next chapter.
“Have you had a dream since you worked as a TV meteorologist in second grade?” Gloninger told the Post. ‘Yes. I will miss it. I just hope this is my next chapter even more fulfilling than the last 18 years.”
In his essay, he shared, “Something had to change, but one thing was certain: I did not let that stop me from addressing an issue I saw as an existential global crisis.”
After his announcement, many of his fans took to social media to praise him for his authenticity. One person wrote, “The earth needs people like you… able to communicate the science behind our changing climate.”
Three days after his retirement, he took to Instagram to update his followers.
“Life update: After 18 years struggling with the threat of my #climate reporting and family health issues, it’s time to retire from TV.” “Excited for our next step,” he wrote.
Many wished him well, others were happy to see him back in Massachusetts.