In a separate video during these same hours, CNN weather anchor Derek Van Dam mentioned that the average number of large wildfires has increased in California, calling it a “fingerprint of climate change."

Later that morning on New Day, CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera gave his take on the fires: “Each year they just keep getting worse and worse as we talk about our climate crisis here and the droughts that are prolonged and these conditions that are typical for California -- the winds are. But when you have dry vegetation, you have certainly what we need to fuel the fires.”

CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir also connected the wildfires to climate change in five segments, all of which aired after October 30. He invoked the phrase “climate crisis” in four of these segments. CNN’s two other climate mentions occurred during the 8:30 a.m. edition of New Day on October 25 and the 6 p.m. edition of The Situation Room on October 29.

MSNBC mentioned climate change in just five of its 99 wildfire segments (5%), all of which aired after October 29. A great example of how to cover the issue came from co-anchor Ali Velshi on the October 29 episode of MSNBC Live With Velshi and Ruhle, when he used Climate Central data to show how climate change has affected the wildfires. In another example, former Obama climate aide Jake Levine and The Uninhabitable Earth author David Wallace-Wells discussed climate change’s role in fueling the wildfires on the November 1 episode of MSNBC Live with Katy Tur. The segment lasted over eight minutes.

MSNBC’s other climate mentions were brief and came on the October 29 episode of All In with Chris Hayes, the October 31 episode of MSNBC Live with Velshi and Ruhle, and the November 1 episode of MTP Daily.

Fox News aired 179 segments on the wildfires, the most out of the cable networks. Just three of them — 1.7% — mentioned climate change. And similar to Fox’s coverage of other major climate-related issues, the segments mostly mocked or downplayed climate change when talking about the fires. Two of these segments, both on Fox & Friends, downplayed the role of climate change in the wildfires. On October 30, Chuck DeVore of the industry-backed Texas Public Policy Foundation claimed that “President Trump was right about this last year when he criticized California for not properly maintaining their forests.” On November 1, New York Post writer Miranda Devine claimed that California is trying “to be seen as pure on climate change,” so the state forced utility PG&E to generate more electricity from renewables because of “their ideology.” The other climate mention came during the October 29 episode of Fox and Friends First.

One positive note amid this majorly lacking climate coverage is the number of segments that featured meteorologists talking about climate change. The public has a high degree of trust in TV meteorologists, and studies show that TV weathercasters can play an important role in getting public opinion to shift on climate change. It's great that weathercasters like Roker and Berardelli are talking about climate change in the context of the wildfires. Another way to start normalizing discussion of climate change is to talk about it during non-news segments. The candid discussions on Today’s third hour are a good step in that direction.

However, with climate change increasingly impacting the California wildfires, there is really no excuse for national news shows to downplay or outright ignore it in their wildfire reports. Good on some of the meteorologists for mentioning climate change during this 12-day period, but overall, these outlets must do better.

Methodology

Media Matters searched transcripts on the Nexis and iQ media databases for the term “California” within the same transcripts as variations of “wildfire” or “fire” on the three broadcast news networks' morning and evening news shows and Sunday political talk shows; PBS NewsHour; and original programming on the three major cable networks, CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC, from October 21 through November 1, 2019. We then searched within those transcripts for the terms “global warming” or “climate change.”

Segments included news headline rundowns which mentioned the wildfires within announcements of top stories of the day. We also counted weather reports which included mentions of the wildfires within a meteorologist’s report or a general discussion of weather. We did not count teasers or rebroadcasts.

Charts by Ceci Freed of Media Matters.