Another Governor Throws the NWS Under the Bus. Blame Game on Buffalo Snow .. but NWS was Spot On!

You can't make this stuff up.  As always when weather gets bad politicians blame the weather people who do the forecasting. Unfortunately, they have amnesia and rarely remember that the forecast was .. in the forecast. They fail to read the small print in the National Weather Service forecast that warns of historic snow storms. Whether it's the mayor of NY refusing to close the schools unless the NWS can GUARANTEE a foot of snow (???) or Cristie in NJ or the Mayor of Atlanta or the Governor of Georgia who also blamed the truckers stuck on the road to the newest blame game person of the week Governor Cuomo. Seems he blamed the snow fiasco on the weather men and insisted he needs his own personal weather forecasters as he cannot trust the NWS. Really no words. The highest political figure in the state refuses to trust the weather people who work for the government forecasting for his area. And, to add in here forecasters who warned days in advance of the Buffalo snowstorm in historic epic proportions. They mentioned the roads being a problem. They even nailed the heavy snow per hour that fell. My husband, who was raised in up state NY and is rarely impressed with snow totals, made me repeat the amount the NWS warned of in their forecast discussion. I told him "ummm yeah that's how you get 6 feet of snow... do the math"

This is what the Governor said:

Note details from the larger discussion shown below. Yes, the devil is always in the details. Perhaps before politicians blame the NWS they might want to check back and look at the details. If you don't have time have your aids check the details. 5 inches... it said "up to 5 inches per hour" and this was updated in real time to be even more serious.

Unless he is going to channel up Miss Cleo I seriously don't know where he is going to get a more on the money, spot on forecast that the one the NWS put out.

This is the forecast on Monday BEFORE the snow fell in Buffalo. It's in a post from Twitter.. one of many asking what they were talking about ... as it WAS in the forecast.

I won't repeat most of what was on Twitter this week regarding Cuomo as I try not to use that language in my blog.

It's time or people to stop reading sound bites, asking a friend or assuming based on what usually happens what the weather will be like when the NWS Discussion for every city and state is online.

This link can be used by ANYONE who has a computer or smart phone.

www.weather.gov

You can go to your favorite weather drug of choice or favorite blogger ... but the NWS is out there working 24/7 around the clock 365 days a year to provide excellent forecasts. They are not done in hindsight, therefore they are not exact but a forecast. But, often they are spot on or as close as you can get as WEATHER IS UNPREDICTABLE...

But, the NWS does a great job of getting it as perfect as possible.

And, oh they have specialists working on specific areas so why would Governor Cuomo want to reinvent the wheel and use Hurricane Sandy funds to create a weather department for his own use when he ignores the one he has?

Something to think on...

And, note they have this neat trick where you click on a link and it shows you the changed or updated forecast. They update in REAL TIME... Please have someone explain to the Governor how this works...

http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&issuedby=RAH&product=AFD&format=ci&version=1&glossary=1&highlight=off

See how it reads. This is all updated. They really work so hard at the NWS.

You can watch it on TV on Ye Olde Nightly News or your App or your favorite site online.

http://www.spaghettimodels.com/

Besos Bobbi

Ps... Mike has lots of great WINTER LINKS