Going Blind

Surveillance Camera, Baton Rouge LA 4/2007 from Baton Rouge Blues
all reproduction rights reserved Wm. Greiner

Last week, the Associated Press reported that a U.S. hurricane satellite could fail at any time and it’s loss would reduce accuracy of landfall predictions (by 10%*)! That is the bad news.

What is worse news is that it’s replacement is not scheduled to be launched until 2016!

*If the satellite faltered, experts estimate that the accuracy of two-day forecasts would suffer by 10 percent and three-day forecasts by 16 percent, which could translate into miles of coastline and the difference between a city being evacuated or not.