NOAA Facing Minimum 18-Month Gap In Weather Satellite Storm Warnings w/i 5 Yrs. If Cuts Proceed

[hatrack]

Without money to build a new satellite, the federal government will no longer be able to forecast severe weather events far enough in advance for communities to take life-saving action five years from now. That was the message that Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, delivered on Wednesday at a town-hall-style meeting in Denver.

Speaking at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on a day when the weather forecast warned of possible tornadoes and golf-ball-size hail east of the city, Dr. Lubchenco said there would be a gap of at least a year and a half, and possibly much longer, during which NOAA has no operational satellite circling the planet on a north-south orbit.

The polar-orbiting satellite enables scientists to predict severe storms five to 10 days before they hit. “Whether the gap is longer than that depends on whether we get the money”— $1 billion — “in the next budget,” warned Dr. Lubchenco, an environmental scientist. “I would argue that these satellites are critically important to saving lives and property and to enabling homeland security.”

NOAA also announced on Wednesday that with four months to go, 2011 has already hit the record for billion-dollar disasters — that is, droughts, floods, blizzards and other severe weather events that cause more than $1 billion in damage.

EDIT

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/17/weather-alerts-are-imperiled-noaa-warns/#more-111183

[kestrel91316]

1. Who needs accurate weather forecasts when we have prayer??