The retiring chief of the hurricane specialist unit at the National Hurricane Center in Miami says further cuts to tropical weather research threaten to undermine recent improvements in hurricane intensity forecasts.
James Franklin has overseen the forecasters who release tropical storm forecasts and warnings since 2009. He says he's worried that the U.S. government's Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program will lose more funding.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) launched the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program in 2009 with a $13 million budget. Funding has shrunk to less than half that, and will include further cuts to NOAA and the National Weather Service under President Donald Trump's proposed budget.
The hurricane center issued its first advisories for potential tropical cyclones in June, alerting the U.S. Gulf Coast and Venezuela's Caribbean coast of strong winds and heavy rains a full day before tropical storms Bret and Cindy were officially named.
Franklin says those advisories reflect both forecasting improvements.