U.S. Department of Defense announced Tuesday it would no longer process and deliver data essential to most hurricane forecasts

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Defense announced it would immediately stop ingesting, processing, and transmitting data essential to most hurricane forecasts.

The announcement was formalized on Tuesday when NOAA distributed a service change notice to all users, including the National Hurricane Center, that by next Monday, June 30th, they would no longer receive real-time microwave data collected aboard three weather satellites jointly run by NOAA and the U.S. Department of Defense.

The permanent discontinuation of data from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS) will severely impede and degrade hurricane forecasts for this season and beyond, affecting tens of millions of Americans who live along its hurricane-prone shorelines.

The news on Tuesday sent users across the weather and climate community – including those monitoring changes to sea ice extent in the polar regions – scrambling to understand the rationale behind the abrupt termination. Though not immediately clear why the real-time data was suddenly discontinued, the decision appears to have stemmed from Department of Defense security concerns.

Officials at the National Hurricane Center were also caught off guard by the announcement and are preparing their team for the loss of critical forecast data for the rest of the hurricane season.

  • fluxion@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    edit-2
    2 hours ago

    Apparently hurricanes, which are the only outside force that regularly invades and obliterates American cities on American soil, costing billions in damages, multiple times a year…

    … are not as important as these undisclosed “security concerns” that DoD somehow finds more important/immediate.

    What’s the real story? Protecting Americans from hurricanes is too “woke” or something?

    • nuxi@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      53 minutes ago

      Probably the longstanding GOP goal of privatizing everything. To get public support for that, they first have to cripple the public service.

      • Jyek@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        59 minutes ago

        Well, the data won’t change the fact that a hurricane is coming or not. Just Trump’s ability to react to said hurricane. His house would be gone with or without the data.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    4 hours ago

    You know what?

    Go ham. The south Atlantic coast and the gulf coast voted for this. Now comes the “find out” part. I am genuinely out of fucks to give. Enjoy your hurricanes and the non-response you’ll get from the now-gutted FEMA. See if I fucking care. Have fun machine-gunning your own foot.

  • Gumby@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    3 hours ago

    scrambling to understand the rationale behind the abrupt termination

    Stop trying to look for any rationale behind anything this administration does. There is none.

  • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    4 hours ago

    including those monitoring changes to sea ice extent in the polar regions

    Ah, there it is. Kicking climate change under the carpet again, I see.

  • SabinStargem@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    23
    ·
    7 hours ago

    As ever, the Trump Regime is a colony of dumb and malicious assholes.

    Trump is making himself the enemies of farmers and coastal communities alike. If I were an evil overlord, I would want my logistics to be rock solid.

    🤦

  • foggy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    8 hours ago

    Other than this being Putin Puppetry, I have no idea who would think this is good.

    We’re castrating FEMA and NOAA. What is the benefit?

    • Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      5 hours ago

      Can’t afford to rebuild? Zillow will take that pesky property of your hands for a fraction of the price it’s worth.

      That’s the benefit. It’s a great idea honestly if your goal is to destroy the housing market for short term profits

    • Typotyper@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      7 hours ago

      Fuck Florida? Fuck MAGA voters down south? Crash insurance and banking markets? Crash US dollar and raise inflation?

  • collapse_already@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    7 hours ago

    I gues we shouldn’t have made fun of moron for thinking Georgia was Alabama. Disrupting climate change tracking is just an added bonus for super petty grudge holder. Prosecutorial immunity for elected officials was a terrible mistake.

  • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    58
    ·
    12 hours ago

    About project 2025:

    The plan, spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, says that the weather service should “fully commercialize its forecasting operations” and focus on providing data to private companies.

    It also calls for a “review” of the work of the National Hurricane Center. It acknowledges that the center provides important public safety information, but also says its data should be presented “neutrally” rather than in a way that makes points about climate change.