Do We Properly Value the Storm Warning System?

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Recently, I have spoken to a number of civic groups throughout the Midwest and asked the question, Do we as a society properly value the storm warning system?

 I believe the answer is clearly "no." The National Weather Service budget keeps getting cut (no, not "cut" relative to inflation but actually cut). In that presentation, I talk about the instrumental systems -- essential for accurate forecasting -- that we will likely lose.

So, I was pleased to see The New York Times with a article about the looming crisis in our weather satellites.

The meteorological infrastructure and storm warning systems are one of the few areas in the federal government where we get more than our money's worth. The NWS budget is 1/39th (no kidding!) the size of the budget of the Department of Homeland Security.

Where do you think we are getting the better value?



By the way, you are looking for a professional speaker (and they say I "talk the same as I write"), please contact Ms. Mindy Cook, the marketing director of Mike Smith Enterprises, LLC. Her email is mindy@mikesmithenterprises.com .

Comments

  1. darlyOctober 28, 2012 at 7:45 PM

    Hello, Do you have the hard numbers on the NWS budget cuts? I have been curious about this and attempting to piece together the numbers on the NOAA budget website are tricky, for me at least. What I come up with is:

    2005 824.8mil
    2006 804.3mil
    2007 838.3mil
    2008 911.4mil
    2009 958.9mil
    2010 999.8mil
    2011 990.4mil
    2012 991.9mil

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mike SmithOctober 28, 2012 at 7:57 PM

    The number I have for FY 2012 is $970 million. They are supposed to get a 2% cut for '13.

    ReplyDelete

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