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Article: Forecast at U.S. Weather Service: Shortage of Funds for Modernization;Planned Radar Network May Lack Essential Computer System
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- March 14, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Everyone talks about the weather and how often the forecasts are
wrong.
But the National Weather Service is having trouble trying to do
something about it.
The weather service, once the world's premier meteorological
forecasting organization, concedes it is now a second-class operation
struggling to improve. The White House, which some say is still
pressing an old ideological battle to "privatize" the weather
service, is refusing to invest more money in it, however.
The weather service acknowledges that its forecasts are wrong too
often.
In 1986, for example, the service was able to forecast and issue
warnings for only 59 percent of the severe storms that developed.
That year, 62 ...