Keep Weather Forecasts Free and Accessible

Target: Howard Lutnick, Nominee for U.S. Department of Commerce

Goal: Do not weaken agency responsible for weather forecasting.

With storm seasons becoming increasingly more intense and longer in duration, communities across the nation rely on weather forecasts for essential preparation. In the United States, weather data is studied and delivered via the National Weather Service and is supplemented by other divisions of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). If implemented, a portion of the notorious Project 2025 plan for widespread government changes could place the important work of this agency at risk.

Project 2025 paints NOAA as “an instrument of climate change alarm,” which means the agency would likely be targeted simply for reporting the facts of climate change. More specifically, the plan recommends that NOAA “be broken up and downsized.” As a consequence, the ability of meteorologists to gather the necessary information for accurate and prompt weather forecasts would be seriously compromised. Even more troubling, the plan suggests “commercializing” weather forecasting. Due to this vague language, some experts are concerned that the free distribution of weather information would end and that regions would be charged to access this information.

Sign the petition below to help prevent this worst-case scenario from coming to pass.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Mr. Lutnick,

Project 2025 calls for the elimination or weakening of several federal agencies. One of the most consequential of these suggestions rests in the four pages that the blueprint devotes to NOAA. Words like “broken up,” “downsized,” and “commercialized” dot the document in regard to this division of the Department of Commerce. If the agency is targeted, weather modeling and forecasting could suffer serious blows, and forecasting itself could transform into a for-profit industry.

With the increase of extreme weather and its outsized impact on small communities, such actions could prove devastating economically and socially. Please do everything in your power to protect NOAA and its essential work.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo Credit: Manfred Langpap