Heat Miser

"Oh, some like it hot, but I like it really hot!"

- Heat Miser

The Heat Miser is a character from the Rankin/Bass television special The Year Without a Santa Claus. He lives in a volcano and controls the hot weather around the earth. He and his half-brothers Snow Miser and North Wind are the offspring of Mother Nature. (It should be noted that both Snow Miser and Heat Miser were not featured in the original poem that the special is based on.) Heat Miser lives within an active volcano with his 6 minions.

It is shown that Heat Miser is able to melt things with a touch, even objects that should combust, like a shovel's wooden handle and a spotlight. However, it is not shown if he can restore the objects he melts like Snow Miser can with the objects he turns to snow. He can also project intense heat from his mouth and fingers at will, even forming objects of flame that can endure independently for a few seconds. He also sings about his preference for hot weather. His mean, grumpy, hot-tempered personality comes from the fact that he feels that Santa Claus is unfair to him by giving Snow Miser lots of publicity while he gets none, and he believes that Mother Nature likes Snow Miser better.

Although Heat Miser lives in the southern hemisphere, he and his brother regularly patrol the border of the North Pole. At one point, Heat Miser attempts to attack Jingle, Jangle and one of Santa's reindeer, Vixen. With a flash of heat lightning, Heat Miser strikes them out of the sky, but the trio survives.

The elves later accompany Mrs. Claus to his lair within an active volcano to negotiate a deal for the weather in Southtown. There, it is shown that Heat Miser has a flair for the dramatic, and entertains his guests with a dance backed up by his minions. Unwilling to cooperate on the aforementioned deal, Heat Miser is later summoned to the realm of Mother Nature and forced to compromise the weather with his brother for one day.

Heat Miser and his brother later starred in the 2008 sequel, A Miser Brothers' Christmas, with George S. Irving reprising his role as Heat Miser. The special focuses on Heat Miser and Snow Miser learning to work together after they are forced to take charge of Santa's operations when their evil brother North Wind attempts to sabotage him.

In the  Christmas episode, "A Robot for All Seasons", Santa asks Jenny Wakeman if Heat Miser was the one who turned her against him.