Storm brews over budget

Proposed cuts could hurt hurricane intensity predictions, forecaster says

MIAMI – Recent progress in forecasting the intensity of hurricanes — which has lagged behind storm track forecasting — could be undermined by proposed cuts in federal funding for tropical weather research, says the retiring chief of a team U.S. hurricane specialists.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration launched the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program in 2009 with a $13 million budget. Funding has shrunk to less than half that, and President Donald Trump’s proposed budget includes further cuts to NOAA and the National Weather Service.

“It’s hanging on really by a thread in terms of funding,” said James Franklin, who oversees the National Hurricane Center team that releases tropical storm forecasts and warnings.

During his time at NOAA, Franklin was on research teams that made breakthroughs in tropical storm forecasting and in the understanding of the winds circling a hurof ricane’s eye. His research with dropsondes — sensor-filled tubes that send weather data as they fall through hurricanes — helped improve forecasts of storm tracks and led NOAA to buy a “hurricane hunter” jet that’s still used today. He also helped develop new GPS dropsondes that showed how eyewall winds vary.

Franklin retired June 30, ending a 35-year NOAA career that included 83 flights breaching hurricane eyewalls.