A Michiana meteorologist is issuing a severe warning about the Trump administration’s cuts to federal agencies that study and track the weather. He says the cuts threaten more than just knowing how to dress your child for the bus stop.
If you’re one of the 430,000 people who follow Meteorologist Matt Rudkin on Facebook, you know you’re far more likely to hear about his beloved rescue dog Doppler or the Purdue Boilermakers than you are to hear him get political.
But last week when the Trump administration laid off 600 people at the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Rudkin posted, “This is a huge, huge mistake. Let me blunt: THIS IS STUPID.”
Rudkin says he wants people to know the data he works with comes from those federal workers.
"The big part I think most people don't understand is the National Weather Service or NOAA, that is where every bit of data comes from," Rudkin says. "So when you start cutting the funding for that, not only is the accuracy, especially down the road, longer range, going to get worse, but you really do put lives at risk, because if you think about it, the radar in your phone, the ones you see on TV, all of it comes from National Weather Service radar sites."
He says there’s surely some waste broadly across the federal government, but targeting experienced scientists who provide critical information for weather communicators like him will make people less safe during severe weather.
"Unfortunately some of the people that were cut in the first round here were technicians that maintain this. So when it goes down, which it inevitably does — it's a giant satellite dish that rotates all day long — you're going to have delayed responses in getting that equipment back up.
"During tornado season, especially in the Plains or hurricane season down in the Gulf and near Florida, you can't see what's happening without that data."
Rudkin says employees from the two federal agencies do far more than the typical TV weatherperson. And he says the data the agencies create touches just about every aspect of our daily lives.
"It's why it's in the Department of Commerce and why it's so important. So every single dollar, from agriculture, energy, travel, every airline uses this data to determine the best route and where it's safe to fly and where it's not safe to fly. Amazon, one of the ways they can get you one- and two-day deliveries, is they use some of this data to determine the best routing from where your package comes from.
"Some things you probably don't think about. In front of hurricanes, the National Hurricane Center, which is a part of NOAA, big box stores use that data and information to get products to the areas that will be impacted before the storm gets there."
