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The acting chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration does not seem happy with the agency’s bootlicking support of Donald Trump’s Alabama hurricane predictions and plans to investigate. After Trump claimed that Hurricane Dorian would hit Alabama, the National Weather Service in the state issued a correction. Trump’s sustained temper tantrum over being wrong got to the point that NOAA officials put out a statement defending Trump and taking the NWS office to task for denying Trump’s original mistake “in absolute terms.”
To recap: Trump was wrong. The National Weather Service let Alabamians know they didn’t need to be worried about being hit by a hurricane. Trump got mad. NOAA got Trump’s back and told the NWS not to let people know they didn’t need to panic.
Acting chief scientist Craig McLean now says he’ll investigate that NOAA response, which he criticized sharply.
”The NWS Forecaster(s) corrected any public misunderstanding in an expert and timely way, as they should,” McLean wrote in an email obtained by The Washington Post. “There followed, last Friday, an unsigned press release from 'NOAA’ that inappropriately and incorrectly contradicted the NWS forecaster. My understanding is that this intervention to contradict the forecaster was not based on science but on external factors including reputation and appearance, or simply put, political.” This stuff matters, because “the content of this press release is very concerning as it compromises the ability of NOAA to convey life-saving information necessary to avoid substantial and specific danger to public health and safety.”
That being the case, McLean is “pursuing the potential violations of our NOAA Administrative Order on Scientific Integrity.”
So … how quickly do you think the Trump administration will find a way to get rid of this guy?