Say Nothing About the Failing Satellite

The QuikScat satellite used for predicting the intensity and path of hurricanes could fail at any time (it's already past its designed lifetime). Without this satellite, the accuracy of US forecasters' predictions could be degraded by up to 16% — and there are no plans for any replacement. Bill Proenza, director of the National Hurricane Center, has been outspokenly critical of his superiors on this situation, but he has been warned to stop commenting on it.

Comments

16% of nothing is still nothing.

[binaryspiral]

the accuracy of US forecasters' predictions could be degraded by up to 16%

16% more crappy forecasts... great.

Recently our simple, midwest 3 day weather forecast has changed drastically four time... going from mostly rain and storms to 92F with full sun.

I'm not sure if global warming(tm) is to blame for less accurate weather models - but it's my opinion the weatherman's predictions are getting worse no matter how many satellites you give them.

Re:What it REALLY means

[dammy]

"Wish I had some mod points to rid you of the "Flamebait" moniker, because that moderation is blatantly unfair considering the fact that you have some good points - in particular that there might be some far better way to improve hurricane prediction than to launch more satellites. Perhaps better study of the dynamics of hurricanes or even ground based observation radar would be more cost effect and accurate."

Guess they can't take it that I'm a 45 year old native of Florida and live through enough hurricane tracks predictions to understand what is going on. And they don't.

Dammy