A new name for the National Hurricane Center?
Administrators at the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) are making moves to promote their "Corporate Identity" by renaming the National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service, according to an article published yesterday in the Miami Herald. The new organizations would be called the "NOAA Hurricane Center" and the "NOAA Weather Service". The proposed changes are being vigorously opposed by new NHC director Bill Proenza, who said, "what's happening is scary."
The issue at hand is money. Everyone has heard of the National Hurricane Center (NHC) and the National Weather Service (NWS), but the public is not that familiar with their parent organization, NOAA--part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. By taking over the name of two of the government's most visible, well performing, and trusted organizations, NOAA wants to position themselves to take credit for the fantastic job these organizations do. The result, they hope, will be increased funding for NOAA in the future, thanks to increased name brand recognition. "If NOAA achieves a strong presence in the eyes of the people who use its varied services, the agency will be more successful in budget matters," said Anson Franklin, NOAA's director of communications.
The problem with this is that there are no guarantees that increased funding for NOAA will result in a bump in funding for NHC or NWS. For example, NOAA has an annual budget of over $4 billion, and NHC's budget is just $6.3 million. With NHC losing its identity, its funding may become diluted by NOAA, and will have to fight harder for dollars. Another problem is that the public, who like and trust the NWS and NWS brands, may see the change as an attempt by NOAA bureaucrats to take unwarranted credit for what these organizations do. In addition, it will cost plenty to change the names of these organizations, which may be viewed as a waste of taxpayers' money.
Proenza also complained that NOAA is spending between $1.5 million and $4 million on a "bogus" 200-year NOAA anniversary celebration (NOAA was founded in 1970, although some of its component organizations are 200 years old). I do believe that NOAA has a name recognition problem, and that it needs to spend some public relations money to get their name more recognized by the public. Public relations campaigns are essential for any organization to succeed in today's world. However, I think NOAA is going about their public relations campaign the wrong way. The amount being spent on the 200-year anniversary celebration is excessive, given NOAA's stinginess in funding important hurricane research. Furthermore, NOAA should leave the names of the National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service alone. Departments of NOAA should be named, recognized, and funded based on their individual missions and function, not based on those of their parent organization. NHC and NWS have worked hard to earn their name recognition, and it would be wrong for NOAA to change their names.
NOAA has made a web page available for the public to see the proposed changes to its web pages that would result from its reorganization. You can comment on the proposed changes until June 13.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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Notice the NHC says FIRST wave of 2007! Not second or third, there was some discrepancies a couple of weeks ago on this subject, hope this clears it up!
I used to get excited by hurricanes, even enjoyed the ones that hit or came near. ERIN rolled right over us as a CAT1 knocked down a bunch or trees and limbs but didn't bring much surge. OPAL 2 months later passed about 30 miles east of us. It did bring surge, but the west side of the storms seemed to be weakening as it made landfall and wasn't as bad as ERIN in my neighborhood. GEORGES passed about 90 miles west of us and brought an extended period of rain and wind but not that much real damage. So when IVAN threatened, I took the usual preperations but didn't get too worried.
I thought I'd seen a hurricane before....
IVAN redefined my definition of a hurricane. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. The storm surge was 11 feet. My home sits 13 feet above the bayou about 1 1/2 miles from the gulf as the crow flies, water got into most of my neighbors homes but through shear luck and geography mine sits a little higher. It was a wild and scary night. When the the sun came up, I was awestruck by the magnitude of the destruction along the waterfront in and around my home. I lost 13 pine trees in my yard, fortunately only one scored on my garage the rest landed on my fence or fell harmlessly across the road and into my neighbors yards. My home is not waterfront but I do have a waterview. My neighbors with waterfront all had their homes destroyed. Lots of them still haven't been rebuilt. I guess the bottom line is this...I'll never put myself and family at risk again by riding out a storm so close to the coast.
Great site! Have been using it since last week. Thanks for adding the learning page. Im sure lots of folks will find it helpful =)
Visible in the upper right of the image, seems to be loosing it's punch as it traditionally would this time of year in that area. Hopefully the wave can hold together and fuel some good rains further west.
I am a former resident of Pensacola and my mother and various aunts and uncles still live there. My mother lives in Myrtle Grove on high ground so only had srtuctural damage. However two uncles and a cousin live on Grande Lagoon, and you know what happened there. Their houses were built 13 feet up on stilts, higher than all around them (they are right on the water). Their three houses were the only ones standing after the storm, and two dead bodies were found near their houses. It still took 8 months for them to be able to move back in. I had always thought of living near the water, but not anymore.
Welcome to your National Weather Service (NWS) National Hurricane Center (NHC). Our primary goal is to provide timely and accurate forecast warnings to protect life.
Currently, 50 percent of the US population lives within 50 miles of the coast and the latest DOC/Census figures indicate the coastal population growth is even higher than projected. This lends directly to the importance of the NHC preparedness and warning activities.
Upon landfall of a tropical cyclone, the forecast and warning responsibility is led by the National Hurricane Center on a large scale and picked up by the National Weather Service local Forecast Offices on the local scale. The history of our Nation's southern and eastern coasts including our Caribbean Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands have shown to be the most active tropical cyclone landfall areas in the world. All National Weather Services' forecasts and warnings are disseminated in collaboration with the local and state emergency management communities, government officials and first responders, the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, and the media.
We ask our fellow Americans, neighbors and visitors to join us in a partnership in preparing ourselves and families for tropical cyclones before they threaten our communities. We encourage you to browse our web site and learn more about our products and to get tips on what you can do to be prepared. We also have several presentations available for download. Please feel free to contact us with any comments, questions or suggestions. Link
I'm near Pensacola, FL. This morning on our local news station WEAR3 they talked about nine (9) hurricanes predicted to hit the U.S. this season. Yes they said NINE!! This is the first I have heard of this prediction. Has anyone else heard this and to what basis are using to make this kind of statement? If this is true, and after riding out through Ivan, I'm going Hurricane shopping ASAP!!
Six week old twins!?!...Bless you!
Thanks.
I went to the WEAR ABC website...
WEAR Website info...
Hurricane Predictions For This Season
The Hurricane Research Team that *accurately predicted last year's storm season, is out with this year's projections....
Researchers at North Carolina State University say we will have eight to nine hurricanes, four or five of those major.
The team also estimates there is a 56 percent chance that a major hurricane will strike the Gulf Coast....and a ten percent a major hurricane will strike the Southeast Coast.
In 2006, the team at N-C State predicted one or two hurricanes would strike the east coast....and five or six hurricanes would form in the Atlantic Ocean.
Five hurricanes formed and none made landfall.
Most likely you heard someone repeating Joe Bastardi's of ACCUWEATHER's forecast of 13 - 14 storms and Joe Bastardi goes on to predict that 6 or 7 huricanes will make landfall. Joe is much better at winter events, you can get at least the same accuracy as Bastardi on this blog!
I remember thinking back in 1979, that Grande Lagoon had it bad from Frederick, then came IVAN, no comparison. That whole stretch of beach on the south side of Gulf Beach Hwy from Warrington west looked like a warzone after Ivan with Grand Lagoon being ground zero. Unreal.
SSTs remain warm over Northern Australia despite being only a week out from moving into winter officially, does not bode well for later in the year when summer comes.
Link
Also Typhoon Yutu is breaking down under increasing shear as it approaches Iwo Jima.
Impressive (and concerning) for a Pacific storm to be a strong Category 4 in May whilst La Nina conditions are prevalent.
Yutu Dvorak: Link
Typhoon Yutu arose with the MJO shifting back into gear in phase 7, after stalling for some time previously. Phase 7 coincides with very favourable cyclogenisis conditions in the Western Pacific during the austral winter.
However the MJO will cross over into Phase 8 over the next few days will cause the Atlantic ITCZ to fire up and make things interesting for you guys up there.
Current MJO situation: Link
Additionally concerning the MJO, it can be expected that it will shift into Phase 1 in the days around June 1st.
Phase 1 conditions tend to give rise to above average tropical storm development in the Nth Atlantic, particularly the Caribbean and GOM. (Indeed during 2005 the MJO spent an unusual amount of time in this phase and we all are aware of what happened then).
All those in the Panhandle should get prepared, conditions are lining up for a lot of potential during the first week of June.
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