Dear Abby: I worry that the TV weather report will harm emotionally vulnerable people

DEAR ABBY: My local TV meteorologists and reporters have a terrible habit of calling rainy weather “miserable,” cloudy weather “gloomy,” and any other non-sunny day “dreary.” With so many horrible events in the news on a daily basis, reporting the weather this way seems irresponsible and reckless.

For some emotionally vulnerable members of our community, these negative words could be dangerous.

Weather is weather. When we were kids, my friends and I would play outside in the rain and none of us ever thought of it as gloomy, dreary or miserable. Using such a powerful medium as television in this way could have a negative impact on people who are already in a dark place.

IT’S RAINING BUT NOT DREARY IN DELAWARE

DEAR IT’S RAINING: Thank you for speaking up, but you are addressing your comments to the wrong person — they should be directed to the manager of your local television station.

While some weather forecasters may speak off the cuff, others usually read from scripts. So whoever is preparing the weather forecaster’s monologue may need to be advised to use different adjectives.