Veteran Philadelphia TV weatherman Glenn Schwartz writes 'cli fi' thriller titled "The Weathermaker"

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by staff writer Dan Bloom for The Cli-Fi Report

They don't call him "Hurricane" Schwartz for
nothing. In fact, Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz has been a TV  meteorologist for more than
35 years. How did he get the nickname? Read on the very bottom to find out!

"I was the first storm chaser for The Weather Channel," he tells this
 blogger in subtropical, typhoon-tossed Taiwan.

But now "Hurricane" has his sights set on the writing game and in
particular the newly emerging literary genre of ''cli fi,'' (a short
nickname for "climate fiction" in the sci-fi sense of things). The
novel he has written is titled "The Weathermaker" and the 60-something
Philadelphia climate sleuth is aiming for the paperback market. A good climate
thriller to read during a September hurricane ... or a January polar vortex.

"Extreme weather is my specialty and I already see the changes,"
Schwartz says. "It's very scary and people need to be aware of the
seriousness of this."


"The story goes like this," the Philadelphia-born Shwartz tells me in
a recent email. "The
main character, Neil Stephenson, is a TV meteorologist and a rising star in
Philadelphia. During a snowstorm that isn't producing as much snow as
predicted, Neil discovers his gift: that he can actually make the snow
increase or decrease, and make it rain or stop raining."

"It takes a public experiment, with the world's media watching, to
prove that he can indeed control the weather," Schwartz adds. "Now the
question becomes
what to do with this power. His TV station uses it for increased
ratings, but Neil is more interested in helping to prevent various
types of weather disasters. He goes to Albany in upstate New York to
lessen a major
flood threat, and later weakens an F-4 tornado, causes rain to limit
wildfires in California, minimizes flooding due to the monsoon in
India, and even weakens a major hurricane threatening Miami."

The
backdrop to his novel is that of all of this is how man-made global
warming has increased disasters
around the world. Schwartz says. Will readers agree with his thesis?
Will scientists around the world agree on this? So far it's a very
contentious discussion, but Schwartz hopes his novel will add to the
debate in an entertaining, escapist kind of way.

With Neil's  power, come complications and costs," the first-time
novelist says. "Organized crime
figures a way to try to use his gift in a major gambling operation. The
government tries to recruit him to create flooding for military
purposes. And there is possible evidence that, by weakening one storm,
others around the world strengthen. Lawsuits, criminal charges, and
even death threats follow."

I don't think President Trump wants to go near this book. But Schwartz
says he hopes he does.

"Yes, I would love for this book to land on our president's desk, to
read over a stormy weekend," the "Hurricane" Schwartz says.

There's more. A Hollywood tries to seduce
Neil in order to convince him to go to Africa to save millions there from
terrible droughts. A big insurance conglomerate wants him to use
his powers to prevent billions of dollars in damage in developed
countries. The novel is both a cli-fi thriller and a who-dun-it.

"My book is "cli-fi" thriller that covers tornadoes,
hurricanes, and floods all over the world," Schwartz says. ''There's
romance, sex and
some very real personal, ethical, and moral conflicts. And there are
even Biblical
overtones to the story, but without preaching. I feel that readers
will be able to decide for
themselves why Neil was given this 'gift', what it means, and what he
should do about it."

Schwartz notes that the first draft of "The Weathermaker" was written in 2006 and was
maybe way ahead of its time.

"There was no such thing as 'cli-fi' back then," he says.

Schwartz, who co-wrote a nonfiction book titled "The Philadelphia Area
Weather Book" with a fellow meteorologist, says he hopes his fictional
take on climate issues as a paperback and maybe even a
Hollywood movie someday will add some insights to the climate battle we are in.

And there's more:

For Glenn Schwartz in Philadelphia, writing a cli-fi novel about the weather came easy. He's a certified broadcast meteorologist who has done the weather on TV for 40 years of his 47-year career. His specialty has been in forecasting and severe weather, especially hurricanes. He co-authored the award-winning “Philadelphia Area Weather Book” in 2002 and was inducted into the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2010. His debut novel is titled "The Weathermaker" and is written under the byline on the cover by Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz.

It goes something like this, but you'll have to pick up a copy of the 200-page book to see for yourself the story meanders from storm to storm. At this time in American history when climate change issues are on TV and in newspaper headlines every day, this is a very timely novel.

It goes something lke this, Schwartz told me in a recent email: "The main character's father warned him not to do it. Neil Stephenson can control the weather — but should he? He is already a rising star TV meteorologist in Baltimore. During a snowstorm that isn’t producing as much snow as predicted, Neil discovers his gift: he can make the snow increase or decrease and make it start or stop raining."

How's that for a hook? You won't want to stop reading once you start. I've known the author for two years when I helped him find a publisher for a manuscript he sent me by email. I recommended Sunbury Press in Pennsylvania and pub;isher Lawrence Knorr took Schwartz's  book on.

Stephenson's superpower comes with a few problems: While the latest science shows that extreme weather has increased in frequency and severity due to climate change, being able to prevent some of those disasters sounds great, but weakening one hurricane in the Atlantic could strengthen a typhoon in the Pacific. Preventing floods in one country might lead to drought in a neighboring naion. Under this scenario, imagine a national leader in Canada saying of the United States: “They stole our rain!”

According to author Schwartz, his main character is torn between preventing disasters that save the insurance industry billions and saving lives from drought in Africa.

"The most famous actress in Hollywood seduces him so he will do the latter<" Schwartz told me. " The military and organized crime want to use him, too. He becomes a national hero to many. On the other hand, lawsuits, criminal charges, and even death threats follow his actions."

You could say that "The Weathermaker is a “cli-fi” genre-bending thriller, with the action aspects of the Hollywood movie "Twister," the tragic aspects of climate change (like the 2004 movie ''The Day After Tomorrow''' and “the cure is worse than the disease” of the Korean movie ''Snowpiercer.'' There is also evidence that controlling nature can lead to disaster as readeres will remember if they saw "Jurassic Park."

The added bonus to this 200-page novel is that the author is a [professional meteorologist, and ''the science,'' as Greta Thunberg like to say, is accurate. In additionm 40 years as a TV weatherman has given Glenn Schwartz a lot of “inside TV news” stories.

When I was asked to write a blurb for the novel in my capacity as editor of The Cli-Fi Report, I blurbed: "This is both a cli-fi thriller and a who-dun-it, written by a professional TV meteorologist. In this age of eco-anxiety over floods, droughts and hurricanes, this novel is both a grippping read and an entertaining wake up call."

"Schwartz gives us that true rarity in fiction: an entertaining story that also has great meteorology. Tornadoes, droughts, hurricanes, winter storms, and how climate change may be affecting them are all featured as the hero meteorologist travels the world," wrote Jeff Masters, a former Hurricane Hunter, a co-founder of Weather Underground, and an extreme-weather and climate change writer for Scientific American.

People are fascinated by meteorological phenomena, and Schwartz has taken explaining extreme weather to another level. Climate science journalists like Andy Revkin, Sarah Kaplan, Emily Atkin and Andrew Freedman will love this book, I think. Art mirrors life.

Even acclaimed climate scientist Michael Mann read the book and said: "It's been said that 'Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it'. Well, in 'The Weathermaker,' however, Philadelphia’s legendary TV Meteorologist Glenn Schwartz spins an entertaining yarn about a meteorologist who does indeed do something about the weather. And in the process, he tells 'a cautionary tale' about the threats posed both by human-caused climate change and perilous 'geoengineering' quick fixes that have been proposed to deal with it."

The book has humor, too. Says veteran journalist at Yale Climate Communications Bud Ward: "In the increasingly strange world of long-term climate change and every-day weather -- and especially in the words of a masterful practitioner and communicator of both -- one can only hope that "Hurricane" Schwartz's story-telling remains just that: engrossing and creative fiction, with a clarity and sense of purpose that sucks the reader in with tornadic zest. If his Weathermakers really come to be, we'll all be in for far more than just stormy days ahead, but at least this wizened Philadelphia weathercaster will have given us a few needed laughs along the way."

Schwartz graduated from Penn State University with a degree in meteorology in 1972. His first forecasting job was at AccuWeather. From there, he went to the National Weather Service (NWS) at the National Hurricane Center, working with many internationally-recognized authorities. After transferring to the NWS office in Atlanta, his title became “Disaster Preparedness Meteorologist” for the state of Georgia.

Glenn was recruited into TV in 1979 after doing a live interview on WAGA-TV in Atlanta as Hurricane Frederick approached. He has also worked in several other TV stations around the country. He covered Hurricane Andrew on his first day at WINK-TV in Ft. Myers and returned to his hometown of Philadelphia in 1995 where he has been a widely-recognized on-air presence in commercial television for the past 24 years.
 In 1985-86 he became the first “storm chaser” at The Weather Channel and was one of their designated “Hurricane Specialists.” He got his nickname in New York City after a TV anchor saw a video of him being blown around during one of his hurricane chases.

Glen graduated from Penn State University with a degree in meteorology in 1972. His first forecasting job was at AccuWeather. From there, he went to the National Weather Service at the National Hurricane Center, working with many internationally-recognized authorities. After transferring to the NWS office in Atlanta, his title became “Disaster Preparedness Meteorologist” for the state of Georgia.

Glenn was recruited into TV in 1979 after doing a live interview on WAGA-TV in Atlanta as Hurricane Frederick approached. He has also worked in several other TV stations around the country. He covered Hurricane Andrew on his first day at WINK-TV in Ft. Myers and returned to his hometown of Philadelphia in 1995 where he has been a widely-recognized on-air presence in commercial television for the past 24 years.

 In 1985-86 he became the first “storm chaser” at The Weather Channel and was one of their designated “Hurricane Specialists.” He got his nickname in New York City after an anchor saw video of him being blown around during one of his hurricane chases. He lives in the Philadelphia suburbs with his wife, Sherry, and is a lifelong Philadelphia sports fanatic.