Weather agencies in turmoil
The weather forecast for summer and perhaps our future is in.
The weather, like the agencies responsible for forecasting what’s ahead, is in turmoil and this could enhance any disasters as they unfold.
Knowing and preparation are necessary if we are to be ready for the next Big One. Unfortunately, recent cuts, layoffs and firings to our weather services are not going to help.
Research into our atmosphere is necessary to gain a better understanding of what makes our weather and in recent decades much progress has been made. The five-day weather forecast is as good as the two-day forecast of several decades ago and our Climate Prediction Center has a range of forecasts that do a decent job of giving us an outlook for the coming week as well as outlooks for several weeks and the season.
I have found these outlooks to be extremely helpful in looking at the general trends in upcoming weather, such as cool and wet, or temperatures way above normal along with rainfall below normal.
Simply put, we need our weather service to provide the warnings and forecasts and the upcoming weather trends much more that we need tax cuts for those who do not live in harm’s way and can quickly recover from any storms that enter their lives.
What about the folks in North Carolina who still have not recovered from Hurricane Helene? It takes time to rebuild or find a new home when your family is displaced by a storm.
Look at what happened in nearby Wheeling this past weekend when neatly 4 inches of rain fell in 35 minutes. The 100-year record rainfall in Uniontown is 4.34 inches in 24 hours.
Are we ready if 4 inches falls here in less than an hour? Are we ready for a Helene type of storm?
Disasters are on their way and we need to get prepared and quit kicking the can down the road. More heat from a warmer planet produces more energy for storms. This is real. Drought is already enveloping much of the west from Montana to Arizona. Phoenix was 115, Las Vegas 112, and much of Texas was in the 100s, and it is only early June. Fires are burning in Canada and tornadoes have brought destruction to large areas of the mid-section of our country.
With the hurricane season looming it’s hard to believe the actions of politicians who know nothing about the weather to impose the type of cuts and decisions that have been made to our weather services.
An article this week on Apple News discussed the failure of the weather service to employ the services of Saildrone that has been used for the past four years to assist in gathering data to help determine the severity of hurricanes.
Saildrone is an unmanned water vehicle that is able to provide continuous direct observations of hurricanes’ strongest winds near the surface of the ocean and temperatures of the warm water that fuels these storms.
Closer to home it looks like summer weather will be in the forecast for this week as temperatures soar into the low 90s and lots of sunshine is predicted.
With this information we can plan a swim day and get ready for the heat. Stay safe!