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The 114th Congress is wrapping up and though it will not be recognized as particularly productive. However, despite outward appearances, there were some truly bipartisan bills moving around. One of those was a bill to give the first meaningful overhaul of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in decades. It was to significantly bolster the ability to make medium-range forecasts (2 weeks to 2 years out) and it also addressed a number of issues that NOAA suffers from, such as an improvement in its hurricane and tornado research, it directed them to put sensors on subsea telecommunication cables to improve tsunami warnings, it expanded its efforts in uncovering prehistoric tsunamis, it ordered an evaluation of how well the public understands and responds to its cryptic system of "watch" and "warning" weather alerts, and it directed them to utilize weather data from outside their satellite system. The bill sailed through the Senate on 1 December and it was looking to do the same in the House until it became a victim of a regional water spat between Georgia, Florida and Alabama:
For decades, the states have battled over the Apalachicola River and its two tributaries, the Chattahoochee and Flint. In the 1950s, Georgia dammed the Chattahoochee to create Lake Lanier, which has fueled Atlanta's rapid growth. In Florida's view, this has reduced the freshwater reaching the Gulf of Mexico, causing brackish water and threatening oysters. The conflict has reached the highest levels, with the Supreme Court expected to rule next year on a lawsuit Florida has brought against Georgia.
When the bill was sent back to the House, a section was added by Senator Bill Nelson (D–FL) calling for a three-year study of the water management of the Apalachicola and on ways to improve the system with special emphasis on environmental protection. That addition drew the ire from the Georgia representatives, who viewed it as another attempt by Florida and Alabama to interfere in the dispute through congressional action and the bill was not brought up for a vote before the House adjourned for the remainder of the year. Because of the broad support for the bill, this is optimistically seen as a minor setback for science; however, since the bill did not make it to a vote by the end of the congressional session, it will have to start the whole legislative process over from scratch with the 115th Congress in January.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday December 14 2016, @10:28PM
it ordered an evaluation of how well the public understands and responds to its cryptic system of "watch" and "warning" weather alerts
Its an average population IQ level problem.
There's nothing cryptic about it at all. A watch means watch the fuck out because a tornado could appear. A warning means there's an actual funnel overhead, somewhere. Or a watch is proactive, yo the odds are tomorrow afternoon someone getting fucked up somewhere. Whereas a warning is reactive, yo someone got fucked up at such and such place about 30 seconds ago roll the fire rescue teams and if you're nearby get out of the way. That's really all there is to it. You tell people to "watch" out when they step in the road because there's a chance they'd get hit although they haven't gotten hit yet. If they already got hit you'd say "oh shit" or "I hope you got medical insurance" but not "watch out". In contrast you "warn" someone of the zombie uprising when actual brain eaters are seen roaming the earth.
I was able to understand it when I was about 7 and got interested in weather and meteorology (you know, the study of meteors, and if you fall for that old joke you are never going to understand watch vs warning, so ...).
If you want to mess with people start giving out forecasts in METAR format as taught in aviation ground school (or used to be). You could play a game, is that obfuscated C, non-obfuscated Perl, or a valid METAR? Back in the days when a teletype party line was the information stupor highway they needed a way to put an entire weather observation and forecast into a couple alphanumeric characters, one line at most, and it worked but was incredibly ugly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 14 2016, @11:55PM
Its an average population IQ level problem.
That is almost never the case. You can say its an education problem, but rarely is it actually a "everyone else is a blithering idiot" problem.
I've never lived in an extreme weather area so watch/warning meant nothing to me. I was going to recommend changing the words, but everything I came up with could be argued... Obviously the need a better system, as for your mastery of something you are obviously interested in: good for you little buddy