The lease mentioned in the article that concerns me more is the weather radar support facility in Norman. Last time I looked into weather data, prediction quality was much worse in the places where the WSR-88D radar coverage is spotty (the West, notably the Rockies) and the models have to rely on satellites and ground sensors; and it seems like Tornado Alley will totally get screwed if the long-range radars that can see wind start to fail?
Also the weather shall only be produced by starlink satelites. For this they need to install approx 1Bn "special" Dishes for the gift price of just 5k$ each.
More likely someone involved in the decision to close down free weather data has an economic interest in a company selling the same data, or some other interest that stands to make money knowing about the weather forecast before the plebes do.
This is about privatization of weather data, unsurpisingingly.
There has been a big industry push to lobby noaa out of existance, cause LEO satellite networks can sell lots more data if there's no noaa service.
Also - main customers are insurance providers, who need accurate forecasting for rate setting.
Edit for sources:
Federal Budget Cuts and Restructuring: The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk under the Trump administration, has initiated significant budget reductions and workforce downsizing across federal agencies, including NOAA. Reports indicate plans to cut approximately 50% of NOAA's workforce and reduce its budget by 30%, raising concerns about the potential privatization of weather services and the impact on public safety during extreme weather events. [1]
Project 2025 Initiative: The conservative policy blueprint known as Project 2025 proposes dismantling key components of NOAA, including the National Weather Service (NWS), and suggests privatizing weather forecasting services. Critics argue that such measures could undermine public access to essential weather data, leading to increased risks during natural disasters. [2,3,4]
AccuWeather's Lobbying Activities: AccuWeather has been reported to actively lobby for the privatization of weather services, aiming to limit public access to free NOAA data. Discussions highlight concerns that such privatization efforts could restrict the availability of critical weather information to the public. [4]
As a side note - I interviewed at a good number of weather satellite companies before my current role - it was a stated goal to "supplement noaa gaps in weather data" for "insurance & investment companies".
In a previous administration, a previous CEO of AccuWeather was appointed to run NOAA.
This is extremely common, since who better to run a weather forecasting organisation, than someone who previously ran a weather forecasting organisation.
If anything, that's evidence that even when Trump had ample opportunity to privatize NOAA, he didn't.
And yet, despite having all the levers to do so, Trump never privatized it.
Since you're conflating anecdotes with evidence, perhaps you should also consider the "evidence" that Trump has already decided not to do exactly what you're seemingly convinced he wants to do.
AccuWeather isn't a weather forecasting organisation. They merely provide an interface to data gathered by others.
Trump had zero opportunity to privatize NOAA because you can't do that via executive order furthermore that would be were it even true useless in discerning whether he or indeed others in his circle wanted to do that now.
Well if anything is true about Musk and his servant Trump, it is corruption and sending Federal Dollars to the top 1% is more important than people's lives.
To be fair to Republicans, they have wanted to privatize Social Security for decades, for exactly the reason you state. Imagine what the 2% commission for Assets under Management (AUM) looks like for a hedge fund boss when trillions of dollars could be entering those funds one day.
Even though Russia and China own Elon and Trump, they should be against this. Every country, including them, relies on NOAA's weather data. I imagine the end result of this is Elon being granted a contract to provide weather data through his infrastructure much like this Sovereign Wealth Fund will be used to invest in Trump-allied companies. The entire thing is a big shakedown.
Although this is more like a Great Leap Backwards. Expect the same death toll, but on average none of the US will be more modernized or industrialized afterwards.
You could pretty much say the same for the Great Leap Forward, tbh. I think people, appalled at the human consequences, tend to miss that it was also a failure in its industrialisation goals; that came later.
The lease mentioned in the article that concerns me more is the weather radar support facility in Norman. Last time I looked into weather data, prediction quality was much worse in the places where the WSR-88D radar coverage is spotty (the West, notably the Rockies) and the models have to rely on satellites and ground sensors; and it seems like Tornado Alley will totally get screwed if the long-range radars that can see wind start to fail?
Let me guess - all weather prediction workloads now have to run on some Tesla cluster?
Also the weather shall only be produced by starlink satelites. For this they need to install approx 1Bn "special" Dishes for the gift price of just 5k$ each.
That plus selling off the pieces to AccuWeather
If they run. Might be on the resources of some other Mar-a-Lago supplicant. Or they just won't be run.
More likely someone involved in the decision to close down free weather data has an economic interest in a company selling the same data, or some other interest that stands to make money knowing about the weather forecast before the plebes do.
Bezos has been doing a lot of toadying the last couple of weeks, guess AWS needs more customers..
This is about privatization of weather data, unsurpisingingly.
There has been a big industry push to lobby noaa out of existance, cause LEO satellite networks can sell lots more data if there's no noaa service.
Also - main customers are insurance providers, who need accurate forecasting for rate setting.
Edit for sources: Federal Budget Cuts and Restructuring: The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk under the Trump administration, has initiated significant budget reductions and workforce downsizing across federal agencies, including NOAA. Reports indicate plans to cut approximately 50% of NOAA's workforce and reduce its budget by 30%, raising concerns about the potential privatization of weather services and the impact on public safety during extreme weather events. [1]
Project 2025 Initiative: The conservative policy blueprint known as Project 2025 proposes dismantling key components of NOAA, including the National Weather Service (NWS), and suggests privatizing weather forecasting services. Critics argue that such measures could undermine public access to essential weather data, leading to increased risks during natural disasters. [2,3,4]
AccuWeather's Lobbying Activities: AccuWeather has been reported to actively lobby for the privatization of weather services, aiming to limit public access to free NOAA data. Discussions highlight concerns that such privatization efforts could restrict the availability of critical weather information to the public. [4]
As a side note - I interviewed at a good number of weather satellite companies before my current role - it was a stated goal to "supplement noaa gaps in weather data" for "insurance & investment companies".
[1]https://www.businessinsider.com/federal-agencies-musk-doge-t... [2]https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/08/trump-projec... [3]https://www.reddit.com/r/weather/comments/1e5xacu/accuweathe... [4]https://www.theverge.com/24279329/project-2025-tech-policy-g...
[flagged]
Yes? https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/14/politics/noaa-nominee-accuwea...
It doesn't take more than three seconds of Googling to get your answer. No wonder American media literacy is at an all-time low.
That's not evidence?
In a previous administration, a previous CEO of AccuWeather was appointed to run NOAA.
This is extremely common, since who better to run a weather forecasting organisation, than someone who previously ran a weather forecasting organisation.
If anything, that's evidence that even when Trump had ample opportunity to privatize NOAA, he didn't.
> If anything, that's evidence that even when Trump had ample opportunity to privatize NOAA, he didn't.
If you read the article, you might notice that this is an ongoing lobbying operation that has been fighting congress since 2005.
And yet, despite having all the levers to do so, Trump never privatized it.
Since you're conflating anecdotes with evidence, perhaps you should also consider the "evidence" that Trump has already decided not to do exactly what you're seemingly convinced he wants to do.
Nor has Congress.
Trump didn't have all the levers. NOAA cannot be defunded by an executive order.
AccuWeather isn't a weather forecasting organisation. They merely provide an interface to data gathered by others.
Trump had zero opportunity to privatize NOAA because you can't do that via executive order furthermore that would be were it even true useless in discerning whether he or indeed others in his circle wanted to do that now.
Well if anything is true about Musk and his servant Trump, it is corruption and sending Federal Dollars to the top 1% is more important than people's lives.
To be fair to Republicans, they have wanted to privatize Social Security for decades, for exactly the reason you state. Imagine what the 2% commission for Assets under Management (AUM) looks like for a hedge fund boss when trillions of dollars could be entering those funds one day.
Even though Russia and China own Elon and Trump, they should be against this. Every country, including them, relies on NOAA's weather data. I imagine the end result of this is Elon being granted a contract to provide weather data through his infrastructure much like this Sovereign Wealth Fund will be used to invest in Trump-allied companies. The entire thing is a big shakedown.
China doesn't interrupt its enemies when they're making a mistake. In this case, America jumping headfirst into its own Great Leap Forward.
Although this is more like a Great Leap Backwards. Expect the same death toll, but on average none of the US will be more modernized or industrialized afterwards.
You could pretty much say the same for the Great Leap Forward, tbh. I think people, appalled at the human consequences, tend to miss that it was also a failure in its industrialisation goals; that came later.
Let's see. I expect it's someone else angling for the contract.
It's Accuweather. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Weather_Service_Dutie...