Aiming to advance weather research and technology and arm U.S. forecasters with better tools, lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives passed the ”Weather Forecasting Improvement Act of 2014” Tuesday. The Congressional Budget Office estimates it would infuse $360 million into NOAA between 2015-2017 , if it passes through the Senate and is signed into law by the President.
A key driver for the legislation is to enhance U.S. forecast modeling which lags the Europeans in computer power and accuracy. For example, the European computer model provided more lead time for Superstorm Sandy compared to its U.S. counterpart, the GFS.
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