(This story has been updated to add new information.)
WHO 13 meteorologist Jeriann Ritter has announced that she is facing a career-ending diagnosis.
In an interview that aired on Tuesday, Feb. 24, she said doctors believe that she has an aggressive form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Doctors have told her there is no treatment and no cure.
Ritter wants people to know that she is not scared. She wants to finish this race strong. Through tears, she said she’ll miss out, but she will have fun doing it.
“I didn’t forecast this storm hitting. It’s raining right now, and I’m just trying to find the sunshine,” Ritter told co-worker Keith Murphy. “But I’m gonna do what I’ve always been doing for almost 50 years of my life. I’m gonna live, and I’m gonna love. That’s what I’m gonna be doing.”
Ritter, who worked on newscasts at noon and 4 p.m., has been a meteorologist at WHO since 2004. She previously worked on the morning show before changing shifts in 2022.
When did ALS symptoms start for WHO Jeriann Ritter?
Ritter first noticed that her speech sounded different in October, she said.
Initially, she went to her dentist, saying, “I think my teeth are moving. Like, something’s weird.” Her dentist thought she had symptoms of a stroke, which set off a long chain of referrals to various other doctors. It took months for her to schedule the appointments that finally led to a neurologist.
That day, the neurologist found something on her tongue that led her to believe Ritter had bulbar ALS. Ritter wasn’t prepared for that diagnosis. She was in denial.
Bulbar ALS is a fast-progressing form of the disease that first targets muscles in the face, throat and neck instead of in limbs.
Ritter has tried speech therapy to see if relaxing her muscles could help her speak. Unfortunately, relaxing the muscles means they will weaken even faster. When she is officially diagnosed, she can visit an ALS speech therapist – albeit at the high cost of $500 per hour.
How have viewers responded to WHO’s Jeriann Ritter’s speech issues?
Viewers started sending her messages asking about her health in late November. She recalled someone asking her, “Are you drunk?” Ritter said it was hard to hear that when she had been desperately trying to disguise her speech issues.
“It is killing me that something that came so easy is so hard,” Ritter said.
Ritter didn’t want her struggles to become apparent to her audience. But when her sister sent a clip of Ritter speaking a year ago, she realized just how severe her condition had gotten.
The meteorologist first discussed her health issue publicly in a social media post on Jan. 12, telling viewers that she was having issues with her voice, but that she was feeling good and receiving medical attention. She said she feels like the luckiest person alive with all the support she’s been given from random strangers.
“Thank you so much for your concern. I know all of us have stuff going on, but when my greatest joy is talking and it’s becoming harder to do, it’s kind of a bummer right now,” Ritter said at the time.
In the newest interview, Ritter recalled a viewer who had reached out to her around 2016. He was battling a “bad cancer,” she said, but watching Ritter on the news every morning brought him joy. When he wrote to Ritter, he asked her, “What brings you joy?”
Now, her answer to that is: Living life for the moment. Having God in her life. Having a great family.
She was reminded of that viewer recently because that’s the reason why she kept going on-air for as long as she did. Ritter said she could help remind people that “she’s struggling, but she’s still going on.”
What’s next for WHO’s Jeriann Ritter?
Ritter says she still hopes doctors are wrong about her diagnosis, but she wants to put her energy into spending time with her family. She wants to keep on living her life, no matter what happens.
One of her doctors said Ritter should continue taping herself. Because she’s been on the air for so long, Ritter said she may have the ability to help others with ALS because she has a record of how her speech issues progressed.
“I’m probably done telling you about the weather, but I still have a lot to say,” Ritter said. “I’m trying to figure out what that new race or journey looks like, but I want it to be about spreading love.”
The diagnosis doesn’t seem like reality yet, Ritter said. She misses talking to people. She’s missing her co-workers. Her co-workers miss her too, with many posting memories of Ritter or requests for prayer on social media accounts in recent days.
“I am so lucky,” she said, knowing that her husband will be there to support and care for her as the disease progresses.
As the interview came to an end, Ritter responded to a question on what people can do to help her.
After thinking for a moment, Ritter said, “Keep living. And loving. Maybe if more of us do that, this world will be a better place, and that would be a gift to me.”
WHO did not respond to a request for comment.
Lucia Cheng is a service and trending reporter at the Des Moines Register. Contact her at lcheng@gannett.com or 515-284-8132.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Jeriann Ritter faces ALS diagnosis, likely exit from WHO weather team
Reporting by Lucia Cheng, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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