ATLANTA — For 25 years, they have been talking about the weather nonstop.

At The Weather Channel, which has its headquarters here, that talk once amounted to a reliable humdrum of forecasts and storm coverage in the United States and abroad. In addition to broadcasting weather reports, the channel has thrived by selling its utilitarian but appealing content to newspapers, radio stations and Web sites, and by developing specialty programs around everyone’s favorite elevator-ride conversation topic.

“The weather is not controversial, but people are very engaged with it,” Debora J. Wilson, the president of the network, said in a recent interview in her office.

The daily weather forecast is rarely controversial, but the broader topic of climate change has generated no end of debate.

As the network has seen its primary subject turn into a hot-button issue, it has had to grapple with how it wants to address it — and has decided not to tread gingerly.