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I’d also like to add with my “casual hobbyist” understanding of meteorology on why violent storms like hurricanes are notoriously difficult to forecast, because YES, conditions are in constant flux.

If there’s a vast nimbostratus promising to pour down rain all day, that’s pretty easy to forecast. You can even observe it from the ground - if the skies go gray with the sun half visible through the clouds (altocumulus), it’s likely going to rain soon.

Meanwhile, if it’s a more vertical cumulonimbus brought on by surface heat that rages for a few hours before being spent, that’s harder to track. Hurricanes may be big, but they’re constantly rotating with the heat, then slows / weakens when it makes landfall.

Here’s a video from MinuteEarth that goes into it a bit more:

The more you know, guys & yes, certain folks would like to privatize/dismantle NOAA, meaning natural disasters like hurricanes will be a lot harder for regular folk to prepare for, let alone follow. 🌧️

(PS: if you watch the video to the end & hear “AI” from their sponsor, this is the good kind that help us calculate things like weather forecasts more accurately, & not the bad kind that steals your data or your creative content 😅)

This is especially frustrating because the only reason we know the wind speed is because NOAA's Hurricane Hunters literally fly into the hurricane and collect vital data. They fly in and out of the storm over and over in 8 hour shifts.

This brave team flies two identical Lockheed P3s called Kermit and Miss Piggy.

You can see the dangling ornaments in the videos to determine which plane they are in.

And when I say they fly into the hurricane, I mean they fly *into* the hurricane.

Here they are in the eye of Milton.

And here they are in the eye of Irma.

As you may notice, this flight was in Kermit.

So the next time you see live data about a hurricane's wind speed and pressure, just remember how that was collected and don't be a giant turd about it.

And please vote because conservatives want to kill NOAA.

Sorry v_v;

(slight TW?)

A little earlier, I posted a screenshot from a news story that upset me, about FEMA’s hurricane relief efforts in NC. I took it down because this seems to be a developing story, & didn’t want to accidentally spread misinformation.

What we currently know about it is 1) there was a man arrested for making an armed threat against FEMA employees, & 2) due to violent threats driven by recently spread misinformation, FEMA had to pause their door-to-door help out of safety concerns.

All I’m hoping this is the last we hear of anything like this, & that these organizations that help in natural disasters like hurricanes (FEMA, NOAA, etc) will be allowed to continue the good they do for those who welcome it.