More spew from Accuweather

[vbhoutex]

They actually answered my return email which simply said "what spew you send" or somethng quite similar. I know I used spew. Here is their reply.

We thank you for reading our email regarding the Senate bill and we would like to respond to your concerns.



Some members of the media have not been correct in describing SB 786.



For example, the bill does not require, or even suggest, that citizens pay for weather information. Steve Root, President of the Commercial Weather Services Association, and a well-known national speaker on such government data issues, endorses the bill because it requires that government data be made freely accessible to everyone.



He has also pointed out that: "The bill does not target any particular government activity for elimination." And, Barry Myers, Executive Vice President of AccuWeather (and a leading national expert on these issues) has said, "There is no objection whatsoever to NWS information going on the Internet and the bill allows for this activity to continue. Rumors in the press to the contrary are just wrong."



It is possible that the misunderstanding stems from inaccurate comments made to the press a few weeks ago by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-FL, one of only a handful of members of Congress to accept political donations from the union representing National Weather Service employees.



In fact, the bill would, for the first time, write into federal law a requirement that National Weather Service forecasts and warnings (and I quote from the bill) "...shall, to the maximum extent practicable, be issued in real time, and without delay for internal use, in a manner that ensures that all members of the public have the opportunity for simultaneous and equal access to such data, information, guidance, forecasts, and warnings."



NOAA and the NWS want to compete with private companies, using your tax dollars to develop services that are already offered in the competitive marketplace. This bill requires the Secretary of Commerce, who directs and controls the operations of NOAA and NWS, to determine what those competitive and duplicative activities are and requires oversight reports to Congress. Nowhere is the weather industry given any right to decide what the public gets; that decision remains in the hands of the government, where it is now.



While focusing on this competition with the private sector, the NWS is more and more neglecting its core mission - to issue weather watches and warnings to protect the public, to get the data out to you and to me, and to stop giving favored treatment to individual businesses and industries. Just last Friday, information, from hurricane hunter planes, regarding the strengthening of Tropical Storm Arlene, was withheld from the public, the professional meteorologists in the weather industry and in the media, and even weather hobbyists for over three and a half hours. The bill would put a stop to this government control and manipulation of data.



This NWS effort to compete is designed to weaken the meteorologists in the private sector who notice NWS problems such as the above and speak out against them. What does the NWS have to hide?



Don't be misinformed about this issue. Get the facts. Read Senate Bill 786 and the background information - and decide for yourself. We urge you to take a look at the website FreeTheWeather.com for more details.

[senorpepr]

Errr... the hold recon withholding issue ticks me off to no end. Accuweather is the one that needs to get the facts straight...

[Stephanie]

NOAA and the NWS want to compete with private companies, using your tax dollars to develop services that are already offered in the competitive marketplace.

Isn't it the other way around? NWS was around first, I believe. Plus our tax dollars are already being used to support NWS. THEY are also using the NWS information to help them with their forecasts. Who the heck are they trying to kid?

[Skywatch_NC]

I hope all this ends up BITING INaccuweather in the butt BIG TIME after all is said and done!!!

[ALhurricane]

Apparently Accuweather doesn't like data to be quality controlled.

For one the three and a half hour delay is bogus. Secondly, data will be minutely delayed just so it can undergo the QC process. Apparently that is not important to some.

I will refrain from saying further at this point, but it does get my blood boiling. I will say this however, the notion that the NWS is trying to compete with private weather is absurd. All the NWS is trying to do is serve the taxpayer who pays for those services. It is as simple as that.

[Anonymous]

This is a bunch of crap---NWS watches/warnings/forecasts on the internet are in real time and Ive even viewed the warning online on the computer the minute it was issued and before noaa wx radio alarm went off. I think online weather info is more timely than NOAA radio and a valid replacement.

On this post, http://www.storm2k.org/phpbb2/viewtopic ... highlight= it took me 4 minutes to get the warning, copy and paste it here on the warning at the bottom of that page. The warning was probably available 4 minutes earlier online at the iwin site but I didnt look for it till I heard my wx radio go off that day. So accuwx is full of it.

Also, the NHC has explained why there is a delay in recon data and it sounds legit to me....This taken from their site... http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutrecon.shtml

Code: Select all

Misunderstandings exist about how NOAA's National Hurricane Center/Tropical Prediction Center (NHC/TPC) obtains aircraft reconnaissance and surveillance data and how those data are disseminated. Some have concluded incorrectly that NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) delays release of some data. We expect the information below to clarify these issues.

   1. All NOAA G-IV and P-3 aircraft data except "Vortex Messages" are transmitted from the aircraft automatically and immediately through National Weather Service (NWS) dissemination systems to reach users.
   2. Remaining aircraft data (including "Vortex Messages" from the U.S. Air Force C-130s and NOAA P-3s) go through a quality control (QC) process by the aircrew and by the U.S. Air Force unit--the Chief, Aerial Reconnaissance Coordination All Hurricanes (CARCAH)-- collocated with the NHC. CARCAH, not the NWS/NHC, disseminates these products after the QC process is complete.
   3. Preliminary reconnaissance data are often shared by CARCAH with the collocated operational hurricane forecaster before CARCAH completes the QC process. NHC products and/or media interviews sometimes reflect this preliminary data up to a few minutes before the QC process is complete and CARCAH generates and disseminates its Vortex Message product.
   4. The time stamp on the CARCAH Vortex Message product from the C-130s is actually the time the crew on those aircraft locate the center of the tropical cyclone. It can take up to 20 minutes for the crew to complete their data analysis process and for the information to make its way to CARCAH and the NHC facility from the aircraft. More time is required for data QC, product generation, and dissemination. This is the reason customers may receive the product 30 minutes, give or take, after the vortex message time stamp, and this could be a source of the misunderstanding.

In short, there is no intentional delay in releasing hurricane reconnaissance data by NOAA or by the Air Force.

Note: Once the Air Force Reserves switch from using the older C-130H models to flying the newer C-130J models, a software change is expected to enable CARCAH to time stamp the product with the actual time the Vortex Message is generated, rather than a time that precedes completion of the data gathering, analysis, QC, and product generation process.


[TexasSam]

The text of S.786
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c109:./temp/~c1095Wvltr

[Pebbles]

The text of S.786
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c109:./temp/~c1095Wvltr

What was this hun? I'm getting a search has expired type of page.

[VanceWxMan]

Hi all.. a senior member of AccuWeather joined my site and is now TRYING to defend this bill.. You can see the action here This all started when I got a personal email from them regarding a banner (SAVE THE NWS) on my site.
The discussion is getting good. If you have any questions that you want to field to AccuWeather.. feel free to do so.. I will open up guest posting for that forum.

Good to see you all again.. I have been real busy with my job. Oh and I made Tech Sergeant and will be moving to Wyoming in October..baby is due on the 3rd of October #5 child for us.

Aaron