Here we go again.  The phantom issue of "privatizing" meteorological data.  Yesterday, a hearing was held in the House of Representatives on a number of meteorological topics. "Privatizing" weather data came up, but I'm not sure why. No one is, or to my knowledge ever has, proposed the government's meteorological data be taken out of the public domain. The discussion about the (non-) issue of privatizing meteorological data transitioned into a conversation on Twitter this afternoon that has gotten a number of people confused. I'm going to try to fix the confusion, especially since this may make the news. Our federal government creates lightning data through its "total lightning mapper" on the new generation of GOES weather satellites. An example, from a few minutes ago, is below. The colored dots are the lightning. If you want to see it for yourself, go here ,  then click on the globe, then click "GOES Derived," then cli...