Fair Weather Effective Partnership in Weather and Climate Services (2003) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 11-22
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From page 11... ...
Although it is not easy to estimate the number of lives saved or injuries avoided as a result of improved weather information, the number of fatalities from tornadoes and hurricanes in the United States has declined significantly since the 1930s, despite changing demographics, which place a growing number of people and supporting infrastructure in areas vulnerable to extreme weather events.2 Such extreme events are projected to increase over the coming century,3 further magnifying their social and economic costs. Short-term fluctuations in weather can cause or aggravate health ailments ranging from allergies to rheumatism to heat stroke, 1Bureau of Economic Analysis figures reported in National Research Council, 1998, TI7e Atmospheric Sciences Entering tI7e Twenty-First Century, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., p.
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to carry out its respective mission: broadly speaking, NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) is responsible for protecting life and property and enhancing the national economy;5 academia is responsible for advancing the science and educating future 4World Health Organization Fact Sheet 266, December 2001, |
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On the other hanci, although created for different purposes, some of the products and services offered by the different sectors are similar, which creates potential friction and inefficiencies in the weather enterprise. A number of attempts have been macle to better differentiate the roles of the sectors, but with limited success (see "History of the NWS-Private Sector Partnership" below)
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From page 14... ...
The stresses affecting the sectors providing weather services and the sectors providing climate services are similar, but weather issues are the most contentious and receive the most attention. Friction among the climate sectors is not yet a serious problem, although it could become important when improved understanding of the atmosphere draws private companies into making longer-term forecasts for events such as E!
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Army Signal Corps until 1890, when Congress created a Weather Bureau in the Department of Agriculture.9 For more than 50 years, the Weather Bureau operated as the primary organization for conducting weather research, making observations, issuing weather warnings, and providing forecasts and other weather information to the public. However, the return of Air Force and Navy meteorologists from World War II battlefields led to a rapid expansion of commercial weather services.l° To clarify the relationship between the Weather Bureau and private meteorologists, the American Meteorological Society (AMS)
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In 1978 the NWS updated its policy on industrial meteorology, specifying that NWS products were to be provided to the private sector on a nondiscriminatory basis and that specialized services should be provided by the private sector.l6 Beginning in the early 1980s, Congress began a sustained effort to privatize government functions. The transfer of civilian meteorological satellites to the private sector was considered and rejected,l7 but the privatization of products and services gained 13Advisory Committee on Weather Services, 1953, Weather Is the Nation's Business, Department of Commerce, U.S.
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From page 17... ...
.20 This policy was in line with a long-standing NWS practice of providing affordable data to all (Table 1.1~.21 However, the formal data policy and restrictions on NWS activities did not settle the debate about roles and responsibilities of the public and private sectors, and in the late 1990s the Commercial Weather Services Association spearheaded a lobbying effort to change the NWS Organic Act and prevent competition with the private sector.22 These efforts have not succeeded, and the debate continues today.23 Law 98-365) prohibits the "leasing, selling, or transferring to the private sector, commercializing, or dismantling any portion of the weather satellite systems." 18The National Weather Service and the Private Weather Industry: A Public-Private Partnership, 56 Federal Register 1984, January 18, 1991.
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forecast is made by a meteorologist for a client Private meteorological instrument company is formed Vaisala in Finland Carl-Gustav Rossby demonstrates the usefulness of linearized perturbation equations for numerical weather predictions Operational radiosonde networks are established around the worldb First aircraft flight into a hurricane to collect observationsa National radiosonde network enables the prediction of a hurricane directly into a surface high-pressure systema Eye and spiral bands of a tropical cyclone are observed by radar on a U.S. Navy shipa Weather forecasts for next few days convince General Eisenhower to delay D-day from June 5 to June 6f First group of private weather service companies begins operationsd First weather forecast is presented on television First successful forecast of a tornado" First experimental 24-hour forecast of 500-millibar heights over North America on the ENIAC computerh Operational radar networks are establishedb Weather radar is first used on a television weathercastC First operational numerical weather prediction)
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From page 19... ...
Lord, and R McPherson, 1998, Maturity of operational numerical weather products: Medium range, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, v.
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In the past, most data were freely shared, but increasing costs, declining budgets, and different philosophies about the role of federally funded meteorological services have led some countries to fully or partly privatize weather services. For example, New Zealand created a government-owned corporation (New Zealand MetService)
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From page 21... ...
a commissioned paper that provides an overview of the NWS-private sector partnership. Finally, biographical sketches of committee members and a list of acronyms and abbreviations are given in Appendixes F and G
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From page 22... ...
Minster, and S Sorooshian, 2000, SuomiNet: A real-time national GPS network for atmospheric research and education, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, v.8 1, p.
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