Pssssssssst! Just a reminder - ReTHUGs cut NOAA's hurricane research funds last year

[malaise]

I'm betting they have lots of regrets about now

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/04/08/the_u_s_government_has_cut_funding_to_a_key_hurricane_research_program_and.html
<snip>
An ongoing, largely successful effort to accelerate improvements in hurricane forecasts has been cut significantly, and meteorologists aren’t happy about it.

The Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program is a 10-year initiative that launched in 2010, and it’s designed to enhance scientists’ ability to anticipate rapid fluctuations in track and intensity for tropical cyclones, which routinely rank among the costliest and deadliest storms on Earth. In its first five years, HFIP has produced a state-of-the-art hurricane forecast model that’s helped to improve hurricane forecast accuracy by 20 percent since 2010, among other achievements. That’s amazing progress, essentially making a five-day forecast as accurate as a two-day forecast was just 10 years ago.



Hurricane-focused meteorologists say the most disheartening thing about the budget cut to HFIP is that NOAA is giving up on longer-term goals. Of the dozen or so meteorologists I contacted, reactions included shock and incredulity:

Eric Blake, a forecaster at NOAA’s National Hurricane Center: “It’s hard to believe this is a good program to slash funding when it appears to be working. I understand budget tightening, but a cut of two-thirds seems extreme.”

Kerry Emanuel, hurricane researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: “I do not know what kind of politics is responsible for this, but the decision clearly does not serve the interests of our country.”



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/04/07/funding-for-promising-hurricane-forecast-improvement-program-slashed/
<snip>
NOAA has slashed by more than two-thirds the budget for a National Weather Service program that has led to groundbreaking improvements in hurricane forecasts and that is on the brink of more. James Franklin, a manager at the National Hurricane Center, made this revelation in a presentation at the National Hurricane Conference in Austin, Texas last week.

Initiated in 2008, the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program (HFIP) had funding of $14 million in FY2014 which was reduced to $4.5 million in the current fiscal year.

Since it launch, HFIP has focused on achieving gains in hurricane intensity forecasts which had made little progress in the previous three decades, despite the significant strides in the accuracy of track forecasts.

-----------------------
Well done ReTHUGs

[GWC58]

1. Yeah, then have the audacity to say

NOAA can't do their job. FuckinIncredible!!

[malaise]

2. We need to remind everyone

I'm very worried about South Carolina and North Carolina

[Wounded Bear]

3. K & R ......for visibility..nt

[Matrosov]

4. Part of the Rethug playbook

Step 1: Cut spending for a government agency or program
Step 2: Wait for the reduced spending to result in the reduced efficiency/productivity for that agency/program
Step 3: Claim that the reduced efficiency/productivity is proof that government is inherently incompetent
Step 4: Profit by having dumbass Rethug voters fall for the trick and think government spending needs to be cut
Step 5: Go back to Step 1

[C_U_L8R]

5. That should be a headline in every coast state

Not the post photo opps they're sure to take

[OneBlueDotBama]

6. 2 Words, Joe Bastardi

They want to farm out this work to their climate denying bud Joe Bastardi of AccuWeather.

[former9thward]

7. Your links do not support the OP.

They say NOAA cut the funding. They do not say a word about Congress, or what the vote in Congress was, or why Obama signed it into law --- if in fact he did.

[geomon666]

10. NOAA gets its funding from the government.

If the government slashes its funding (which it has done routinely with President Obama's signature) then certain programs are going to suffer. This was one of them.

[former9thward]

12. What was the vote?

[gratuitous]

14. According to the second link (Washington Post story)

Initial funding for HFIP was established in 2008 (when Democrats held the Senate) was $14 million. As a percentage of the total federal budget, pretty small potatoes. By 2015, NOAA had to cut the budget for HFIP to $4.5 million, less than a third of the allocation seven years previously.

The timing of the allocation makes me think that this was part of the "unthinkable" sequester of the federal budget, the automatic, across-the-board cutting of federal spending that was to take effect if Congress wasn't able to put together a budget bill. As a newer program, I would guess that HFIP has a smaller bureaucratic defense team than other programs under the NOAA umbrella. NOAA is trying to make as many bricks as it can, but Congress keeps limiting the available straw with automatic budget cuts. Nobody's fingerprints are on the cuts, because nobody is voting for or against budget bills.

[former9thward]

15. I did a little digging in the weeds of the NOAA budget.

It turns out this had nothing to do with Congress. It was NOAA itself. NOAA is changing how it does hurricane prediction and is integrating this among several departments.

From the FY 2017 budget:


National Weather Service

$12 million for a new Integrated Water Prediction initiative at the recently minted National Water Center, headquartered in Tuscaloosa, Alabama;

A $5 million increase for the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System cyclical refreshment, to upgrade the cornerstone system of NWS field operations;

A $2 million increases to full fund the NOAA Weather Radio network to prevent the decommissioning of 235 transmitter station; and

A decrease of $3 million to ramp down the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project and refocus hurricane prediction efforts toward an integrated approach.

https://www.aip.org/fyi/2016/fy-2017-budget-request-noaa-research-78-major-growth-climate-science

[BadgerKid]

8. what about oil drilling?

Offshore or alaska?

[Blue_Tires]

9. wouldn't surprise me if it was related to this silliness:

Limbaugh Conspiracy: National Hurricane Center Is "Playing Games" With "Hurricane Forecasting" To Convince Viewers Of Climate Change

http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/10/05/limbaugh-conspiracy-national-hurricane-center-playing-games-hurricane-forecasting-convince-viewers/213557

[malaise]

11. Well he must be in a tizzy about now

President Obama Warns Hurricane Matthew Could Have 'Devastating Effect'

http://abcnews.go.com/US/president-obama-warns-hurricane-matthew-devastating-effect/story?id=42589589
<snip>
President Obama visited the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters today for a briefing from his homeland security team on the latest updates with Hurricane Matthew, which is currently barreling through the Caribbean and headed for Florida's Atlantic Coast.

Matthew is “a serious storm,” Obama said and asked residents in the storm's path to take evacuation orders seriously.

"Even if you don't get the full force of the hurricane we are still going to be seeing tropical force winds, the potential for storm surge, and all of that could have a devastating effect," Obama said. "So everybody needs to be paying attention and following the instructions of your local officials, and if you get an evacuation order just remember that you can always rebuild, you can always repair property, you cannot restore a life if it is lost."

Obama said the storm already appeared to have wreaked havoc on Haiti, and urged for Americans in a position to provide assistance to visit CIDI.org. As for Americans in potentially affected states, Obama said regardless of whether they have been given an evacuation order they should begin preparations by following guidelines available at Ready.gov.

“That will give you some really clear instructions about how to make sure that you are securing your property and keeping your family safe which is obviously the priority for all of us," Obama said. "This is something to take seriously. We hope for the best but we want to prepare for the worst."

[ffr]

13. Helping to drive democrats to the polls

Let's make this a referendum election about the GOP!