Good evening everyone,

Well, we are still continuing to watch Tropical Storm Humberto as it plods slowly towards the Upper Texas Coastline. The storm as of the 8 PM EDT (7 PM CDT) Advisory from the National Hurricane Center, is located about 35 miles South of Galveston, and is moving slowly to the North-Northeast at 7 miles per hour. Maximum sustained winds remain at 50 miles per hour with gusts in upwards of 65 miles per hour while its minimum central pressure has dropped slightly to 998 millibars, or 29.47 inches of Hg (Mercury). Meanwhile, we still have Tropical Depression Eight well out in the Central Atlantic, and that may become a tropical storm as well. On top of all that, there are two new waves that haven’t been mentioned about much from the NHC, or any of the major news media, but were brought up in a conversation I had with Barometer Bob of Hurricane Hollow just a little while ago. So, in a nutshell, things are beginning to really pick up in the Atlantic as they’re supposed to this time of year.

Anyway, I wanted to take some time to convey my thoughts on the summer of discontent and controversy at the National Hurricane Center. As most of you on my mailing list probably know, and many of you, who follow the news, Bill Proenza was replaced at the NHC, and reappointed back to his old position within the National Weather Service of Director of the Southern Regional Office out of Fort Worth, Texas. Proenza was hired back in January 2007 to replace long time forecaster and previous NHC chief, Max Mayfield, who retired at the end of the 2006 Atlantic Hurricane Season. After being on the job for only a few months, Proenza, known to be a no-nonsense and outspoken individual from his last tenure at the Southern Regional Office, became very critical of NOAA’s management of the NWS and NHC.

One of the things that Proenza became passionate about was the QuickSCAT satellite, a vital tool in providing critical data used to assist forecasters in accurately forecasting a storm’s track. Within the past few years, the satellite had begun to show its age, and there were concerns that the tool would fail during the 2007 season. Proenza sounded the alarms on this issue by stating to the media that if the QuickSCAT satellite failed, then the accuracy and quality of a hurricane forecast would drop by as much as 10 to 16 percent. Proenza also criticized NOAA for spending an unnecessary amount of money on NOAA’s 200th anniversary, which he believed should have been better used to help the NWS and NHC improve forecasts.

Shortly afterward, when NOAA unveiled its initial 2007 Atlantic Hurricane Season forecast in May, Rear Admiral, Conrad Lautenbacher, the NOAA Administrator, was asked about Proenza’s recent comments, and acknowledged the former NHC director’s concern and passion about these issues. However, within weeks of that acknowledgement, Proenza was reprimanded by his superiors at NOAA. Shortly afterward, a team was sent down to the NHC to investigate what was happening down there. While this was all happening, the Atlantic Hurricane Season was underway. Two storms had already formed by the end of June 1st, the official first day of the season as Subtropical Storm Andrea formed in early May while Tropical Storm Barry developed within hours of the start of the new season.

Within weeks Proenza was fighting for his job while staff including prominent forecasters at the National Hurricane Center were calling for his ouster. Proenza was then put on leave shortly after that. The situation with Proenza from the reprimand to the staff revolt, makes one wonder especially in light of what the current administration has done to silence other scientists, who have opposing views on such things as global warming. Take NASA scientist Dr. James E. Hansen, who has been a vocal about the possibility that the planet is at a critical stage in its global warming crisis, and actions must be taken quickly to prevent significant effects from occurring in future years. Well, officials at NASA as well as those in the Bush Administration went as far as to edit his papers in order to silence him, and force him to write about the global warming crisis as if it wasn’t a really troubling issue.

Congress has begun to investigate the tumult not only within the NHC and NOAA, but also with NASA as well. Thank goodness for checks and balances. Between the bureaucratic blundering that occurred in the wake of not only Hurricane Katrina, but also Hurricane Wilma as well, the watering down of FEMA since the beginning of this decade, the addition of Homeland Security and the reorganization that resulted from it, the lack of concern over environmental issues, cutting of funding to critical programs such as the levee improvements needed in New Orleans prior to Katrina, and for the flood walls and barriers to be built on the Raritan River in Central Jersey, it is amazing how this current administration has been able to stay in power without one serious call for impeachment! How many more lives are we going to lose along our coastal regions before something is done?