PROPOSED NOAA BUDGET CUTS RATTLE SCIENTISTS
The White House is proposing a 17% cut to the nation’s top weather and climate agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Washington Post reported, and many scientists are worried.
NOAA is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce and oversees the National Weather Service. It “is the lead agency for the nation’s weather forecasts, weather satellites, fisheries, ocean services and climate monitoring,” University of Georgia meteorologist Marshall Shepherd wrote in a commentary for Forbes magazine. A drastic cut could “place American lives and property at risk,” Shepherd said.
NOAA also operates the large fleet of weather satellites and multimillion-dollar computer models that warn Americans of dangerous weather.
MADAGASCAR BRACES FOR DIRECT HIT FROM CYCLONE
“Dangerous” Category 4 Tropical Cyclone Enawo plowed toward Madagascar on Monday and is expected to make landfall on the island nation on Tuesday morning, the Weather Underground predicted.
The storm was upgraded late Monday from a Category 2 to a Category 4, with winds estimated at 144 mph, according to WeatherBell meteorologist Ryan Maue.
The storm “is likely to unleash a destructive siege of damaging winds, storm surge flooding, rainfall flooding and mudslides in the island’s strongest landfall in at least four years,” the Weather Channel warned.
CONTROVERSIAL U.S. MISSILE DEFENSE ARRIVES IN S. KOREA
U.S. missile launchers and other equipment needed to set up a controversial missile defense system have arrived in South Korea, the U.S. and South Korean militaries said Tuesday, a day after North Korea test-launched four ballistic missiles into the ocean near Japan.
The plans to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, by the end of this year have angered not only North Korea, but also China and Russia, which see the system’s powerful radars as a security threat.
Washington and Seoul say the system is defensive and not meant to be a threat to Beijing or Moscow.