Seventeen miles per hour doesn’t sound very fast. It’s about what you have to drive through a construction site. And it’s the speed that our first Atlantic hurricane of the season is moving, westward, then north, hitting the East Coast, but forecasters are not sure exactly where yet.
And with the drastic cuts to NOAA ‘s research and forecasting service that our National Weather Service (NWS) relies on, we will not be getting even the warning we had with Sandy or Ida. Musk’s little cyberbots got 2,000 jobs eliminated at NOAA and 500 at NWS, so we had better brace ourselves.
Some of the 122 NWS offices no longer function 24 hours a day and others have no meteorologist in charge. Weather balloons are not being sent out daily. The Canadian Environment and Climate Change Department has worked with NOAA for years, but now it may have to go it alone. Wonder if the Trump tariffs will affect the life-saving information from being shared. After all, it may now come from Canada.
Prayer for the Day
Why is it, O God, that some people are afraid of science,
Which with using our minds we can help save lives?
Why is it, O Lord, that we shun the progress we have made,
Burying ourselves in myth and fantasy?
Bring us out of our dark times, our fear of the future,
So we embrace the knowledge that can benefit us all.
In the name of the One who was unafraid of the new,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
My greatest concern is the lack of people that will be available to actually do the work that needs to be done, whether it's collecting observations or making a forecast.
John Cortinas, a former assistant administrator for science at NOAA.
It's really a combustible mix to live in an era in which there is a higher chance that any tropical storm can become a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. We're getting more of the stronger hurricanes happening. Well, that's one element. Now we're going to mix it with degraded ability to study, monitor, forecast and warn … I'm very concerned.
John Morales, hurricane specialist, NBC6, Miami
The earth was made by God’s power and the world established by God’s wisdom;
And the heavens were established by God’s understanding.
God’s voice creates a tumult of waters in the heavens,
And the mist rises from the ends of the earth.
God makes lightnings for the rain and brings out the wind from the storehouses.
Jeremiah 10: 12-13