Storm Forecasts Off Course

Bradenton Herald ^ | 9 October 2005 | Debbie Cenziper

[NautiNurse]

Checked to determine whether this was a front page above-the-fold paid advertisement from Accuweather. First of a four part series, nothing but criticism about the NHC, NWS, and NOAA.

[NautiNurse]

First of four part thoroughly negative NHC, NWS, NOAA series. Paving the way to privatize our weather services.

[NautiNurse]

First of four part thoroughly negative NHC, NWS, NOAA series. Paving the way to privatize our weather services.

[PeteB570]

A hurricane gets stronger and changes course.

Its the bouy's falt?

[NautiNurse]

Katrina was devouring bouys in her path, along with everything else that got in her way.

[gridlock]

Looks like the National Hurricane Center is looking to score some of that sweet, sweet Katrina booty! It's the standard, "We've screwed up, so pay us more" line of FedGuv agencies...

[Texas_Jarhead]

Yet our govment agreed to help pay for a tsunami warning system in the Indian ocean.

[NautiNurse]

Santorum has critical words for forecasters in the wake of Katrina

[AmericanChef]

-officials said they kept quiet because they feared for their jobs.-

Oh, dear! Their JOBS! Guess they don't fear so much for people's lives? Follow the money!

[HiTech RedNeck]

In August as Katrina steamed toward Florida, budget constraints forced the Hurricane Center to limit missions on the government's $43 million Gulfstream jet even though it's uniquely equipped to track the steering currents that can alter the course of a storm.

They talking about water currents? Why does it need a $43M jet to do that? What about buoy readings?

[flair2000]

Sounds like Joe Bastardi and Rick Santorum co-wrote this article.

"Want a three day forecast for your town? We take Visa, MasterCard, and Discover."

[leadpenny]

Maybe there's a reason they're called hurricanes and not himicanes?

Ducking!

[laz]

What a hit piece. I stopped reading after the first few paragraphs.

[laz]

It wasn't until Aug. 26 - about 2½ days before the storm's landfall - that New Orleans was included in the potential strike zone.

I guess what happened in NOLA isn't Nagin's fault, or Blanco's fault. Yup, it was Max Mayfield's fault./sarc

[NautiNurse]

What a hit piece.

Indeed

[NautiNurse]

Sounds like Joe Bastardi and Rick Santorum co-wrote this article.

Will be interesting to see if Santorum or his pet project Accuweather come up in the succeeding articles in the series. Was surprised he wasn't mentioned in this one.

[Amelia]

This year, while NOAA's administrative costs grew to $446 million - $90 million more than last year - the Weather Service had to cut $37 million from its budget. Put on hold: fixes for equipment and training for forecasters.

Former Hurricane Center Director Frank said those kinds of cuts continue to weaken the nation's warning system against hurricanes.

"People are going to start asking, 'What in the world is going on here?' And that's going to turn this thing around," he said.

...snip....

...next summer in the height of hurricane season, one of NOAA's hurricane hunter planes heads to Texas - to study air pollution.

A lot of the article sounds to me as if they are blaming NOAA for (1) not providing the necessary funding to the NHC, (2) diverting resources from the NHC, and (3) not allowing NHC personnel to say what's going on.

And it sounds to me as if they want people to lobby Congress to make sure that money is available & gets where it needs to be.

[NautiNurse]

They talking about water currents?

steering currents = winds

[SkyPilot]

This news feature was nothing more than a money grab by NOAA and NWS to strike while the post-ATM of Katrina/Rita was still operating.

Despite all their sobs about aircraft and hurricane hunters, there was not one (not one) mention of the C-130 Hurricane Hunter AF Reserve Squadron that does the heavy lifting of hurricane data collection, tracking, and monitoring by flying directly into the storms.

Hurricane Hunters.

Hey, can I get on this bandwagon? My property taxes in New Jersey went sky high--I bet this was because of Hurricane Katrina.

Can I have some Federal Gubment money?

[quantim]

multibillion-dollar...system run by the federal government, have failed...during nearly half of the

Not that this statement needed parsing. Privatization seems to be a good place to start.