NWS Cannot Pay Its Bills -- Really

[Mike Smith]

Things continue to deteriorate at the National Weather Service. Due to a systems screw-up, it cannot pay its bills. Latest Disaster for National Weather Service: Paying Its Bills

My thoughts and suggested course of action are here:
Please take a look at this: Unbelievable! The National Weather Service Cannot Pay Its Bills

Please note the data interruptions that have already occurred (I talk about a couple in my piece that aren't in the Bloomberg story). What happens when the plug is pulled on a radar (voracious consumers of electricity) on a tornado day because the NWS hasn't paid the bill?

On the strategic level, almost nothing occurring with the NWS is in the right direction. That is why I so strongly am advocating for an expert agency that will provide the NWS, FEMA and others with advice and guidance.

It is easy to contact your congresspeople using their web sites. Since many are from Oklahoma, you can email a congressperson with just two clicks:
https://www.lankford.senate.gov/contact/email/

Good luck on Monday, everyone!

Mike

 

[JamesCaruso]

It’s concerning that life-saving services may have been shut down, but I’m not so sure this raises any particular flags about NWS. This kind of thing happens more often than you might think when organizations change back-office financial systems. I speak from experience.

Most interesting thing about the article is to see that Rich Thompson is now based in L.A. Is he no longer with SPC, or do SPC forecasters work remotely now?

 

[Sean Ramsey]

The image of Rich Thompson in the article out of LA is not the same Rich Thompson at SPC who did the tornado forecasting class.