Look For Less Accurate Weather Forecasts In the Near Future

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The National Weather Service (NWS) launches weather balloons twice a day (more often when extreme weather is forecasted to occur) to gather information on the pressure, winds, temperature and humidity aloft. This data is absolutely vital, especially during tornado season, to the accuracy of storm forecasts and warnings.
The NWS officially announced this morning that we will be losing about 10% of our rawinsondes during tornado season -- when they are needed the most -- because of contract and other issues. 

The preservation and improvement of the meteorological database is the National Weather Service's Job One because, without that data, neither it nor anyone else can make accurate weather forecasts and, when it comes to tornadoes, accurate warnings. 

I'm not the only meteorologist with that opinion. The NWS's own Roger Edwards of their severe storm prediction center says,
A "RAOB" is meteorologists' shorthand for the data radioed back by the weather balloon's instrument packages. 

The National Weather Service is in a downward spiral that, increasingly, is putting the lives and property of the American public at risk. 

I don't know of a solution except my proposed National Disaster Review Board. There is still time to contact your senators and representatives. 

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