No, I am just using one of the larger weather events, that was probably the worst example I could have picked. I am not saying government is going to be sponsoring anyone. I am saying FEMA, state, and local agencies are beginning to see how having their own trained people will cut the middle man out of the mix. Right now it goes, spotter, NOAA, then the agency has to find out how to get that information although emergency management usually has at least limited access it is still not efficient. It makes a lot of sense logically. If you can get direct information from someone who is on the agency you don't have to worry about the reliability of the information and ensures someone is out there. Every major event weather its a hurricane, tornado outbreak, or snowstorm it make a lot of sense to have trained agency personnel to be able to be available. We have had multiple situations on the fire department I am on where we had a HAZMAT spill and it was completely clear out but a trained and equipped spotter would have been worth their weight in gold so we could have access to local realtime weather info. We basically relied on someone staying at the computer and checking the noaa website. The data is collected from a location 25 miles away! Anyways, I think i kind of hijacked the thread so I am not going to get more into this, maybe I will start a new thread.
