The Airline Cutbacks: Weather Forecasting Will Suffer

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The news last night that American Airlines will ground most of its widebody fleet and cut 75% of its international flights is bad news for weather forecasting.

While weather satellites take measurements over oceans, they are not as precise as those from instrumented aircraft and just about all of the widebody's have instruments.

The primary effects, I think, will be on the west coast of North America as well as on forecasts of more than three days' duration.

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