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| In issuing this statement last night, NOAA's top brass decided to soothe Donald Trump's fragile ego with this lie. |
Yes, this goes back to Donald Trump's obsession with Alabama and Hurricane Dorian. Things with this got much worse late yesterday.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, an unnamed NOAA official bowed and curtsied to Cheeto Trump and said that Trump was right all along, that Hurricane Dorian did indeed threaten Alabama, despite what the expert National Weather Service meteorologists in Birmingham, Alabama, and pretty much everywhere else said.
Yeah, some unnamed NOAA Trump cultist threw Alabama scientists under the bus. Very blatantly and wrongly, too. As you might remember from a previous post in this here blog thingy, Trump on Sunday listed Alabama as one of the states threatened by Dorian. The NWS office in Birmingham, Alabama, issued a tweet 20 minutes later, assuring Alabamans that Dorian was not threatening them.
These meteorologists wisely tried to avoid panicking people with an incorrect forecast. You know, trying to protect the public. Like they're supposed to do.
But screw the public. Above all else, Trump the baby has to be appeased. He's been incredibly whiny all week that no, he was right, Alabama was threatened by Dorian. He just couldn't drop it. He's too insecure to admit to being wrong. Even though his original Alabama forecast was just a case of him misspeaking. Something every president since George Washington has done.
All Trump had to do is correct his statement, and move on. Everyone would have forgotten about it. But Trump, who seriously needs counseling, kept pushing all week. All. Friggin. Week.
Which led to last night's idiotic, gaslighting statement which read in part: "The Birmingham National Weather Service's Sunday morning tweet spoke in absolute terms that were inconsistent with probabilities from the best forecast products available at the time."
This statement from NOAA is totally, 100 percent pants on fire a lie. The best forecasting and probabilities - actually basically all of them - indicated that Dorian would definitely miss Alabama.
I went over this in a post the other day. Go ahead and re-read it.
And forecasters turned out to be correct. It turns out Dorian's effects on Alabama consisted of a few wispy cirrus clouds that briefly decorated the sky over the far eastern part of the state.
Besides, if the NWS meteorologists in Birmingham were wrong last Sunday, why didn't the head honchos at NOAA correct them then? When Dorian was supposedly threatening Alabama. When the public needed to be protected. The answer is everybody knows the Birmingham meteorologists were correct.
Here's what really gets me. Who is this damn NOAA official who's so afraid of a mentally challenged, oranged-skinned idiot who somehow found his way into the Oval Office to blatantly lie like that? To absolutely insult and dismiss some of the nation's finest, most diligent scientists?
I find it telling that unlike so many press releases, this one from NOAA was unsigned. We don't know exactly who wrote it, but I'm sure our investigative journalists will find out.
Predictably, pun intended, the reaction to this outrage from the NOAA spokespeople from meterologists, other weather geeks and the general public is, well, outrage.
David Titley, a former NOAA chief operating officer tweeted: "Perhaps the darkest day ever for @noaa leadership. Don't know how they will ever look their workforce in the eye again. Moral cowardice."
Texas Meteorologist Matt Lanza said this, also not mincing words: "This is a complete and utter disgrace. The NWS in Birmingham's tweet was 100% spot on with the absolute terms it chose at that time, and anyone telling you otherwise is a liar. Trump is taking NWS, arguably the most effective government agency & trying to ruin it to save face."
You tell 'em, Matt!
James Spann, a revered longtime Alabama meteorologist who never delves into political issues, did this time, tweeting: "The tweet from NWS Birmingham was spot on and accurate. If they are coming after them, they might as well come after me. How in the world has it come to this?"
"The Weather Service's mission is to protect life and property. By releasing the statement admonishing the agency for an accurate forecast, NOAA may be seen as putting politics before facts. This could undermine forecasters' abillity to carry out their mission to the point where people may come to see its weather forecasts as political and untrustworthy."
National Weather Service employees are understandably demoralized. "The hard-working employees of the NWS had nothing to do with the utterly disgusting and disingenuous tweet sent ot by NOAA management tonight," said Dan Sobien, president of teh NWS Employees Union.
As noted, I don't know who wrote the bogus NOAA release last night. But the director of communications for NOAA is Julie Kay Roberts.
I hope journalists hound her with the following questions (and any additional good questions):
1. If Alabama was under threat as of last Sunday, why were residents of that state not warned then? Why did you wait until Friday night to contradict the meteorologists at the NWS office in Birmingham. Wasn't Friday too late?
2 NWS in Birmingham's Sunday statement that Alabama was not threatened by Hurricane Dorian turned out to be totally accurate. So what's the issue?
3. Since it turned out Alabama was not affected by Dorian, should we have been paying more attention to the Carolinas, which were affected?
4.Do you believe the meteorologists at NWS Birmingham or any other NWS office are incompetent? If so, what are you doing about it
5 Are you concerned the statement released last night would cause the public to lose confidence in NWS forecasts, and thus ignore potentially life-saving warnings?
We're waiting for answers.
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