On Tue, 31 May 2005 12:24:11 +0000, Shortwave Sportfishing wrote:


The NWS has several local offices at various places around the country and
are staffed with full time meteorologists who are familiar with local
conditions, patterns and information. AccuWeather and the Weather Channel
cannot hope, even with the information, to provide that kind of local
"nuance" with respect to weather.

I'm four square on the side of the NWS on this one - if AccuWeather or the
Weather Channel want the real time data, let them access it as a cost of
doing business - it will help offset the costs of the NWS to boot. :)

Sorry for the rant.

First, I don't consider it a rant, and I'm quite interested in your take
on this. I'm a little confused here. I've always thought that the
private weather services generally did use NWS data for their forecasts.
Correct? What does this bill propose to change? Is it just for
eliminating the lag time?

Personally, I don't much like the sound of this bill. It seems to leave
too much to the discretion of the Secretary of Commerce, among other
things.