Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Governor Cuomo Tries to Do Something About the Weather

After the ferocious storm that unloaded more than seven feet of snow in Western New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo at first blamed the National Weather Service for not giving his constituents enough warning. Then he talked up his $18.7 million plan to create a state weather service, which he promised would do the job a lot better than the folks around Washington.
Well, not exactly. New York’s weather service would not actually be “a forecast system,” according to weather service spokesman Christopher Vaccaro.  The Cuomo sensors could help assess current conditions —collecting and analyzing temperatures and wind speeds and other climate data.  But it would not predict storms like the one that hit parts of Buffalo last month.

Mr. Vaccaro explained that predicting weather is a hugely complicated operation.  The nation’s weather experts use sensors and data collection devices from all over the world. They get readings from satellites. They use super computers. Expert meteorologists watch the way weather conditions move, not just within the borders of New York State, but in Canada, the Midwest, even as far away as the Pacific Ocean.

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