This is a pretty clever idea. Click here for details. 

Yesterday, a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Oklahoma's Rep. Ralph Lucas regarding amendments and additions to the 2017 weather bill that passed Congress. Per the above graphic, it was already passed out of committee. You can find the bill here .  The bill is extremely long and so "I went through it so you don't have to." 😏  Below, you will find brief summaries of the bill's features and my comments about each. Unfortunately, there is nothing about a National Disaster Review Board.  The usual people were writing that this bill would prevent the public from getting public forecasts and storm warnings. Of course, it does the opposite . The very first item is to emphasize the NWS's public safety mission with the emphasis on "public." Agree 100%. The NWS sometimes strays too far from its core mission and I was glad to see that emphasized.  With regard to the above, here are some specific items: There will be research money into ge...

1:04am The waves have reached Hawaii but at heights smaller than forecast, even though the water left the beaches as seen on several webcams. Very relieved! That said, I'm turning in for the night.  12:06am CDT = 7:06p HST This is a webcam in west Maui. The tsunami is expected soon. Not how the water has withdrawn from the normal beach.  11:50pm,  11:38pm,   11:31pm, this is a big deal. At Midway, the tsunami was 5'. This is a big deal  because when tsunamis get into shallow water, they grow considerably.  9:31pm: nothing has changed since the last update. Update: 8:37p:   This is a downgrade from the watch.  Update: 8:15p Central:  Video of the tsunami hitting Kamchatka, Russia.  Update: 7:57p Central = 2:57p Hawaiian Time. Tsunami warning just issued for the Hawaiian Islands. The first wave is forecast to reach Hawaii at 7:17pm HST. The area in red (western Aleutians) has a tsunami warning. Yellow is a tsunami watch. I'll have more wh...

Good Friday morning. I have bumped yesterday's post (below) about cuts to the NWS to the top of the blog and am adding the information in blue pertaining to yesterday's cuts. These points are in no order. Please note: if you scroll down, you find that the reference to cuts was in the context of public safety.  No public safety cuts have been made.  I am aware of cuts made to the NWS during the Obama Administration. I have been sounding the alarm about increasingly serious issues in the NWS for 14 years!  Where was everyone who is complaining now when all of this began? Or, is this merely politics to the critics? The USA is $38 trillion  in debt which is going to sink us all unless stopped! Cuts must be made, even to things we like.  No cuts affecting public safety were made yesterday. Yes, provisionary jobs at the tsunami warning centers (TWC) were cut. However, TWCs are a mess. The Pacific tsunami warning center is in Honolulu and the Atlantic center is located...

As many of you know, there was a tsunami warning for the Caribbean Sea area last night due to a strong underwater earthquake near the Cayman Islands.  Fortunately, the warning was cancelled when further analysis indicated the earthquake was not the type to cause major tsunamis.  Today, we learn: Craig is the chief meteorologist for one of the largest cruise lines. CCM = certified consulting meteorologist, which is a high achievement.  I've known Craig for years and he is highly ethical and talented.  NOAA always seems to have money to hand out to climate change advocacy groups but doesn't spend the money needed to keep its earth-ocean-atmosphere data gathering system reliably working.  My point is that NOAA is increasingly  failing  in its mission to provide weather and oceanic safety. The United States desperately needs a National Disaster Review Board to prevent the next mega-disaster. 

Crescent City, California, is uniquely vulnerable to tsunamis. They are trying to attract tourists by marketing that fact in a manner somewhat akin to storm chasers visiting tornado alley. The Los Angeles Times  has the story.

I spent a good part of today talking with people about this. Here is our updated statement on the erroneous tsunami warning sent by the National Weather Service. Updated Statement:  AccuWeather Stands by Original Conclusion on Miscoded NWS Tsunami Warning AccuWeather Global Headquarters - February 6, 2018 -   AccuWeather has further reviewed recent National Weather Service statements related to the miscoded NWS tsunami warning of February 6, and stands by its original conclusion. It seems clear that the NWS codes were the problem. When AccuWeather users clicked on the NWS tsunami warning on the AccuWeather properties they saw that the message was a "Test."  The AccuWeather computer issued the NWS warning because the NWS computer coding indicated it was either real or a test.  The NWS coding was conflicted.   The National Weather Service carried the warning itself on a page on its own website and it was not marked as a "Test." Other sources show ...

in the wake of Japan's tsunami as a sweetshop rebuilds. The correct link is here . Thanks to the commenter for bringing the incorrect link to my attention. My apology! A great story for a Sunday morning from The Wall Street Journal . 

Statistically, the peak time of year for flash floods in the United States is the latter half of summer and early autumn. You have often heard the National Weather Service exhortation, "Turn Around, Don't Drown." Here is a video taken from inside an automobile during the March, 2011, tsunami in Japan that illustrates why you do not want to be inside your car in a flash flood or tsunami.  Be sure and play it to the end. Hat tip: Stephen Locke