By WEATHER WORLD on Jul 8, 2011, at 7:00 AM Updated on 7/08 at 11:14 AM
WEATHER WORLD
At the cookout I went to Sunday evening, it was tank top, cutoff jean shorts and flip flops. My friend said to me, “you look ...
This blog was inspired by some of our early morning commenters on the weather forecast story .
Yes, as one of you pointed ...
The deluge earlier this month was exciting. For a second, I though that maybe the near-record parched May was just a fluke ...
A storm is raging in Washington D.C. right now. How do our leaders make a sensible budget that provides the things we have come to expect without putting us in the poorhouse?
Well, I don't pretend have an answer. The point of this blog is the weather, and meteorologists' ability to predict that weather could be hindered with budget cuts as some of our weather satellites could be on the chopping block.
The Appropriations Committee in the House of Representatives in their 2012
budget recommendation for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calls for a $103 million cut in the current spending level of $4.59 billion. Part of that could affect the administrations new
Joint Polar Satellite System, a replacement for the administrations' satellite in the polar orbit that is expected to expire around 2016.
The current satellite helped to predict the time frame and severity of the tornado outbreak in Mississippi and Alabama in April and snowstorms that hit the eastern seaboard in 2010, Kathryn Sullivan, NOAA's deputy administrator,
told NPR.
It appears the satellite will go up, but the problem could come with a gap between when it does and when one of the current polar satellites goes offline.
The good news is that there is still time before that happens, and the mess in Washington is just that. Things could change, and for the sake of accurate weather forecast, lets hope it does.
--Jerry Wofford
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