Thread by @MichaelRLowry

It's disappointing major weather media groups that exist off NOAA/NWS data have been deafeningly silent about federal staffing hits and proposed cuts to NOAA. No letters of support. No news reporting on their detrimental effects to forecasting. Just glaring editorial omission. 🧵

Before anyone retorts "it's their job to stick to weather, blah, blah, blah," these networks have dedicated news desks, entire news teams, journalists, news directors. They regularly report on the ongoings of NOAA and the NWS, including new tech, forecast tools, and products.

Many of these same tools, labs, and state-of-the-art computer models that private weather companies regularly use are now facing almost immediate annihilation. Why would a dedicated weather news network ignore that story?

The billion-dollar private sector weather enterprise has a longstanding, even formal, partnership with NOAA and NWS. They directly profit from the data and forecasts at risk of being dismantled. Failing to report on threats to NOAA's very foundation feels disingenuous at best.

The two largest professional meteorological organizations in the U.S. – the AMS and NWA – teamed up to urge their stakeholders to expeditously speak out on the "almost certainly disasterous" federal cuts, yet weather platforms with the widest reach have chosen not to cover.

While I and a handful of my colleagues haven't shied away from reporting on the myriad ways the proposed NOAA cuts would decimate weather forecasting, it's unfortunate it's left to local, independent, unaffiliated, or retired meteorologists to stick their necks out on this.

Kudos to folks like @JohnMoralesTV, @mattlanza, @AndyHazelton, @spann, @afreedma, @FranklinJamesL, @EricHolthaus, @WeatherSullivan, @ssdance, and others who have stayed on this issue.

Finally, since I have so many friends and colleagues that fall under the "weather media group" umbrella, let me be clear: these are management/corporate decisions. Even if prominent meteorologists at the networks wanted to cover the story, in many (most? all?) cases, they can't.