Don't worry, soon enough NOAA will be prohibited rfom telling you about any tropical depressions that don't have a US projected path, thanks to Santorum. If you don't know, you can't worry about it, right?
I live in florida and i tell you what... I'm expecting a worse year than last.
Yes I know, here's the article from yesterday's Key West Citizen regarding this idiocy.
http://www.keysnews.com/283480349010353.bsp.htm
Federal bill threatens to limit weather information
BY BECKY IANNOTTA
Citizen Staff
KEY WEST — A Pennsylvania senator's effort to preserve almost 400 jobs at commercial weather service companies in his home state has riled some Florida Keys residents who fear National Weather Service information will be blocked from the public.
Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said the National Weather Services Duties Act of 2005 is designed to prevent the federal agency from duplicating efforts of commercial weather forecasting companies, like AccuWeather, which is based in Pennsylvania.
"The NWS can best serve the American taxpayers by focusing on its core responsibilities — utilizing its resources to provide the best possible forecasting information — rather than using limited public resources to aggressively compete with existing private sector forecasting services," Santorum wrote in a May 6 column posted on his Web site.
The National Weather Service provides satellite data and weather advisories that many Keys residents use, especially during hurricane season.
Santorum said his legislation would not eliminate public information that was available as of December 2004, like hurricane tracking maps and satellite images. The secretary of commerce, who oversees the National Weather Service, would determine which services would be available to the public in the future, an aide to Santorum said.
Keys residents reacted angrily to the proposed legislation.
"We already pay for this, for [NWS] to gather information and put up satellites," said Bob Smith, a resident of Key West for 15 years. "It looks like we're going to have to pay for it again."
A June 4 New York Times editorial took Santorum to task under the headline "Overcast in Pennsylvania." The editorial said Santorum's bill "basically would require the service to give much of its data only to those private weather forecasting companies. A dozen of those businesses happen to be located ... in Pennsylvania." The editorial went on to say that Santorum accepted $2,000 for his re-election campaign from a weather service company two days before introducing the legislation on April 14.
Santorum sought to deflect criticism of his bill in his May 6 column. His goal is to get the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Weather Service to re-enact a policy in place from 1991 through 2004 of not duplicating or competing with commercial services.
"Taxpayers pay for accurate and timely severe weather warnings by NWS. Funding for NWS then should be directed toward that core mission and toward fulfilling its duties to taxpayers," Santorum said. "The cost of receiving weather information will not change, and NWS will not cease dissemination of regular daily forecasts, weather information and climate data."
Santorum's aide could not provide specifics about the type of weather information Santorum considers duplicative of commercial services.
Virginia Altobello, a resident of Old Town Key West, said she sent an e-mail to Santorum's office inviting him and his family to spend August, September and October in Key West without access to weather data from the National Weather Service.
"They still haven't responded," she said.
Santorum cites last year's hurricane season as a reason for his legislation. In his column, Santorum points to "inadequacies" of the National Weather Service during Hurricane Charley in 2004. As the storm approached the west coast of Florida, two P-3 Orions that could have collected the most accurate hurricane data were busy studying monsoon effects in Mexico and air pollution in New Hampshire, he said.
riannotta@keysnews.com