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Should All, Or Parts, of the NWS Be Privatized?

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A n advertisement by WSI for the for-profit, fee-based NWS Nexrad Service  Today was Day 3 for the unavailability of NWS radars along the northeast Gulf Coast (they finally came up about 2pm Eastern time). While the radars were available to the controlling NWS office, they could not be used by anyone else. This was just the latest of the increasingly common NWS/NOAA fiascos that started about 20 years ago and have become much, much worse in recent months.  The NWS has no announced plan to fix this. In fact, the NWS has indicated it has no interest in improving the radar network .  While the radars were unavailable, flash flooding was occurring in the area. There is some threat of a tropical storm or hurricane the end of this week. The Weather Channel's legendary meteorologist Jim Cantore offered a suggestion on Twitter/X Monday morning: One would have thought he suggested tearing down the Statue of Liberty. "Free" weather -- no matter how poor the quality -- is treated li...
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The Surveillance State Grows Bigger

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With Flock cameras and their competitors, we are now being (illegally, I believe) monitored in most of the places we go via our cars.   Now, the surveillance state takes another huge step with  surveillance inside our cars.   My car was in the shop last week and, as usual, Hatchett Genesis in Wichita, a great dealer, gave us a current year SUV as a loaner. Unfortunately, it was equipped with the new Congress-mandated surveillance system (orange rectangle, below). In addition to its inability to accurately detect drunkenness, when I wanted to turn right, I put my right hand on the steering wheel at the 11 o'clock position. That blocked the sensor with my arm which led to a tone and a scolding message on the display screen (not shown). It claims to be able to tell if you are impaired by your eye movements. Here's more via AI: Key Features Monitoring Mechanisms -- Infrared Cameras : These cameras track the driver's eye movement and pupil dilation. -- Sensors : Additiona...
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UPDATE, Monday, 11am: NWS's Major Infrastructure Issues Continue

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It is now Day 3 of the NWS's communications issues which make the radar data (red) unavailable. No restoration time has been announced.    -- original post -- From Alan Gerard a few minutes ago: Comms issue continues to impact eastern Gulf Coast NWS offices Flash flooding to be a risk here today as well as in south Texas. Record heat continues in California. OCT 4 Starting off today with an update on the  communications outage impacting the eastern Gulf Coast NWS offices in Mobile and Tallahassee . Unfortunately, the outage persists this morning, more than 24 hours after it started. RadarScope shows that data from the five Gulf Coast region radars from Mobile to Moody AFB, GA (KVAX) remains unavailable. Alan is a recently retired meteorologist with the NWS/NOAA. It is in no way an exaggeration that the NWS is falling apart. Why there isn't more concern from Congress or the Trump administration is baffling. 
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Sunday Fun: All Types of Rainbows

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My friends at AccuWeather have put together a brief video of many types of rainbows. Just click here . 
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Updated: Extended Flock Tracking Illegal Without a Warrant

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Per the Washington Post,  Federal District Judge Sara Hill determined this is "indiscriminate mass surveillance" -- what many of us concerned about our Constitutional rights have said all along.  I believe the threshold for a warrant should be higher than usual because these cameras are wrong 71% of the time!  We have already had multiple people jailed for a week or longer ... one for 30 days! ... because of Flock's incorrect data and lazy police work. Judges should be asking the question, "How do you know the Flock data is correct?" with the burden of proof on the agency requesting the warrant.  It is a sad commentary on today's police forces, which take oaths to "support and uphold the Constitution," love these things. 
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A Source of Car-Train Accidents

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If you watch this very short video, you will see one of the main sources of dangerous car-train accidents . What happens is a car will go around the gates, even if they are still down, thinking the danger has passed. Then, the second train will come roaring into the intersection.  Never go around lowered gates or flashing lights!
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Downbursts and Aviation

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Earlier this week, I was sent an image via LinkedIn from a pilot who took this photo while in flight.  I wanted to point out aspects of the extreme hazard of a downburst. In the foreground is a downburst in progress on the ground. There are also two downbursts descending from the cloud base.  You can see a downburst curl in this excerpt from a PBS documentary.  This photo shows descending downbursts. For flight safety, it is important for pilots to be able to visually identify these signs of extreme danger. 
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