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Presents information on a study which determined if the sense of strange weather is accompanied by shifts in the amount of media coverage devoted to extreme weather events. Data and results; Extreme weather event index for television; Network coverage of global warming; Possible effects of television coverage of extreme events; Conclusions.

This article extends recent work on the public arenas approach to social problems (Hilgartner and Bosk 1988) by examining changes in audience receptiveness to claims- making activities. Scientists' claims about global warming lulled to attract much public attention until the extraordinary heat and drought of the "summer of '88" created a social ware. That is, environmental claims arc most likely to be honored-and accelerate demands in the political arena-when they piggyback on dramatic real-world events. The dynamics of this social problem over time reveal that both demand attenuation and issue redirection processes have diminished global warming's standing as a "celebrity" social problem. Social scares hold potential importance for prospective social problems that revolve around new technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]