Told you so - back on May 2nd, 2012 to be exact
Wrote a
post about this possibility over a year ago and now it has come home to roost.
The post linked to this article at
USA Today:
Report warns of weather satellites' 'rapid decline'
Predicting the weather is tricky enough. Now a new government-sponsored report warns that the USA's ability to track tornadoes, forecast hurricanes and study climate change is about to diminish.
I also looked and found out that in 2012, the US Government allocated
0.3% of their budgets (2012 figures) on Space flight, research, and supporting activities.
The feds also spend 16.2% on Pensions, 17.2% on Health Care, 15% on Education, 10.8% on Welfare and 14.4% on the Military. Our tax dollars at work.
Well, the chicken has come home to roost -- from the UK
Independent:
Hurricane season fears as warning satellite fails
A satellite designed to track severe weather in the US, has failed on the eve of the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season.
Experts fear it could not have happened at a worse time. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the satellite, which provides coverage for the entire US eastern seaboard, is relied upon to track hurricanes threatening cities along the coast. The NOAA gave a warning that this year's hurricane season � the first since hurricane Sandy devastated the New York and New Jersey shorelines last October � is likely to be "extremely active".
The Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season begins this week and lasts for six months. The NOAA has predicted as many as 13 to 20 tropical storms could threaten homes, with half of those likely to strengthen.
The NOAA announced that a spare satellite had been activated while attempts are made to fix the failed one, but added there was currently "no estimate on its return to operations".
As for the 2013 Hurricane Season being more active than usual, people like Joe Bastardi were predicting this back in
April of this year. Weather channel
agrees.
Posted by DaveH at May 26, 2013 5:17 PM