The Government Shouldn’t Limit the Role of the National Weather Service

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, and a post I read on the WeatherSurge Blog reminded me of the subject. Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania introduced a Senate Bill 786 that would limit the data that the National Weather Service could provide to the public. Essentially, the bill says that if weather information could be provided by the private sector, then the weather service is prohibited from providing it directly to the public.

The argument is that private weather services, such as Accuweather.com and Weather.com provide day-to-day forecasts that duplicate Weather Service efforts, and for that reason, the weather service should concentrate its efforts on reporting hurricanes and serious weather events.

On the other hand, the practical effect of the bill would be to limit weather data from being provided by the weather service, leaving a virtual monopoly to the weather giants who rely on advertising for revenue, and don’t like seeing free competition.

This site gets much of its data, including the weather forecast, from feeds provided by the NWS. In addition, I get ideas and information from the weather service that is published on this blog. If this bill were to be passed, I might no longer be able to do that.

But, it’s not only hobbyist sites like mine that could be limited. General aviation pilots, school systems trying to decide whether to declare a snow day, and sailors could be required to subscribe to a provider like Accuweather.com in order to get the weather information they need in order to make decisions.

Keep in mind that you, as a taxpayer, are already paying for this information to be gathered. Even if this bill passes, you will still be paying for the information to be gathered; you would have to go to a third party in order to get it, and will be charged for it, either by paying a fee, or through advertising.

You can read more about this issue in this article from the Palm Beach Post. If you want to get involved, you can contact your senator and congressmen, and let them know what you think about the bill.

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