Five Priorities for the National Weather Service

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Jason Samenow of the Washington Post offers five priorities for the National Weather Service in a provocative article.

My thoughts are similar but I would express them this way:

  1. Build the best weather observing and data gathering system the world. The best model will not live up to its potential unless excellent data is used in its initial analysis. Better data will make all of the models' (European, Canadian, etc.) forecasts better. Yes, this includes fixing the satellite gap Jason writes about. It also includes looking out a few years at aging radars and other pieces of the NWS's infrastructure. 
  2. Build state-of-the-art mesoscale models. While I would like to the see the U.S. overcome the European's advantage in medium to long range modeling, the fact is the tornadoes, thunderstorms, aviation turbulence, blizzards, and ice storms are best forecast with fine-grained "mesoscale" models.  
  3. Overtake the Europeans in medium range (five to fifteen day) forecasts. 
  4. The entire weather community needs to better understand the value of its work when trying to make its case to Congress.
Those are my thoughts. Feel free to post yours in the comments. 

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