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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The GFS has this thing barely moving to the W/WNW. Later on it shows it heading toward the GOM and than to Florida, not as a storm but as a beneficial rain maker. But you know how the GFS can be so far out.
The ECMWF shows our little disturbance move into the E. Pacific and become a storm.
GFS run I looked at yesterday showed the same thing! Into the Pacific, develops storm, quickly moves N, then ENE back over Mexico, into the Gulf, re-intensifies and crosses Central Florida!
Model craziness!
from lowercals blog: Link
May 19
Spectacular close pass of Venus and the crescent Moon!
You may even be able to cover them both with your thumb. Venus and the Moon will appear in the the constellation Gemini (the Twins) as the Twins stand together above the western horizon.
You can see the twin stars above and below Venus slightly left of it in the Later photo. They will be brighter later
Come to my blog for Realtime satellite images.
Nice pics Patrap.
Instead of using 4 Million USD from tax payers money to celebrate in a bogus 200 year anniversary (NOAA was founded in the 1970's) give that money to the National Hurricane Center. Use our tax money to fund monitoring of climate change, sea levels etc; these issues alone cost money to many stakeholders, private and public, including the regular Joe and Jane in the street, whose food and other items are affected by weather, and climate, in the long term, I suppose that's why there is a weather derivatives market. Instead of a tacky PR campaign which will create a bad rap for the agency, enjoy the prestige the NWS and NHC give NOAA by being part of the agency. I'm sending a copy of this to my congress person. I live in Florida, and passed through several hurricanes, including Andrew.
Nation's top weather officials resign
Sat May 19, 2:52 PM ET
WASHINGTON - One day after its hurricane forecasters complained of budget cuts, the head of the National Weather Service and his deputy announced they will retire next month.
David Johnson, the director, and John Jones, the deputy director, plan to bow out at the end of June, according to an internal memo they sent Friday to staff of the nation's weather agency.
On Thursday, the AP reported that the director of the Miami-based National Hurricane Center, which is part of the weather service, believes the government is wasting millions of dollars on advertising while shortchanging his hurricane forecasters' budget.
Bill Proenza, the center's director, said in an interview that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the parent of the weather service, is spending up to $4 million to publicize its 200th anniversary while cutting $700,000 for hurricane research. A NOAA spokesman said the agency plans to spend $1.5 million.
The day after that report, the weather service's top two officials, Johnson and Jones, announced their resignations to staff, but did not mention Proenza's criticisms.
Johnson has been head of the weather service since 2004 and formerly was a brigadier general in the Air Force. He told co-workers that the agency faces many challenges but his job has been "a superbly fulfilling opportunity."
Their departures were first reported by the Miami Herald.
NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher thanked Johnson and Jones for their service.
Lautenbacher said he is naming assistant administrator Mary Glackin as acting head of the weather service and Vickie Nadolski, director of the service's western region, as acting assistant administrator.
from:Link
Link
I've found it wonderfully useful.
Keep in mind, though, that weak circulations don't necessarily result in anything, and not all closed circulations are shown.
Wind barbs in rainfall have a low certainty for speed, and are not perfect at showing direction.
"Currently, hurricanes are classified with the Saffir-Simpson scale, which gives them a 1 to 5 rating based on the strength of a storm's winds, the pressure at the center of the storm (also called it's eye) and the amount of ocean water the storm's winds push on shore, called storm surge. (A Category 1 hurricane's winds blow at 74 to 95 mph and Category 5 storms rage faster than 150 mph.)
But these factors don't always give the full picture of how violent and destructive a storm will be, researchers say, pointing out that the area of a storm and how far out from its center the strong winds reach also influence the amount of damage it can do.
The Saffir-Simpson scale has been a very valuable tool in warning people about hurricanes," said engineer Timothy Reinhold of the Institute for Business & Home Safety, a non-profit agency that does research aimed at reducing the social and economic effects of natural disasters. "But we have known for some time that the level of surge and surge-related damage is not well correlated with the maximum wind speeds at landfall." -- excerpt from LiveScience writer, Andrea Thompson.
... booger salami.
The national weather service has two goals: Accurate forecasts, and making people aware of these forecasts. Neither can be neglected, and the upcoming publicity campaign is not pointless. It is more expensive than I think reasonable, though.
...'nuff said.
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
205 AM EDT SUN MAY 20 2007
CARIBBEAN SEA...
A SFC TROUGH EXTENDS FROM PANAMA NWD TO CUBA ROUGHLY ALONG 81W.
THIS FEATURE WAS WELL DEPICTED BY LAST EVENING'S QSCAT PASS
WHICH SHOWS MODERATE ELY TRADES E OF THE TROUGH AXIS AND LIGHT
NELY WINDS TO THE W. ALOFT...A SPRAWLING RIDGE IS CENTERED
OVER NRN VENEZUELA. S-SWLY FLOW ON THE WRN PERIPHERY OF THE
RIDGE IS TAPPING MOISTURE FROM THE ITCZ AND SPREADING IT
ANTICYCLONICALLY AROUND ITS CIRCULATION...ALMOST ENTIRELY
CONTAINED W OF 70W. MOST OF THE MOISTURE IS ONLY IN THE FORM OF
A MID-HIGH LEVEL CLOUD DECK...ALTHOUGH THERE COULD BE ISOLATED
SHOWERS EMBEDDED ESPECIALLY S OF 15N W OF 78W CLOSER TO THE DEEP
MOISTURE SOURCE AND N OF 18N BETWEEN 76W-80W IN A WEAK UPPER
DIFFLUENT ZONE. THE ERN CARIB IS EXPERIENCING TRANQUIL
CONDITIONS UNDER A SUBSIDENT ENVIRONMENT. MOST OF THE GLOBAL
MODELS SHOW THE WEAK SFC TROUGH BEING PUSHED VERY SLOWLY W BY
THE LOW-LEVEL ELY FLOW AND THE MOISTURE SWATH GENERALLY BECOMING
LESS DENSE OVER THE NEXT COUPLE DAYS.
Link
No such thing as a free lunch !!
It isn't wise to cut out $700,000 from potentially life-saving Hurricane Research to make banners and advertisements for your anniversary or Corporate image drumming. I seriously hope these dollars do not come back to haunt you with lost lives as a trade off. Become efficient. Strenghten the program and then do the pzazz! Not the other way around.
I know how we all love accuweather -- but find it interesting that around the 29th and 30th the tampa forcast is for rain and very windy -- are they picking up on the GFS too with the low coming across central florida
They must be. I like reading/hearing what Bastardi says. Others may disagree...but he does a good job to me.
Thanks Ike -- I agree for long range generalities I think he does a good job !
You're right about Tampa....
"Tuesday Night, May 29
Low: 75 F RealFeel: 72 F
Very windy with rain"
Viewing: 451 - 501
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