CARIBOU, Maine — The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee dropped a poorly received proposal that would have consolidated 122 National Weather Service forecast offices to six regional offices.
Some feared the action would lead to the closing of NWS offices in Caribou and Gray to the detriment of Maine residents, farmers, recreational areas and other businesses that rely on the localized forecasts.
A bipartisan substitute measure expected to be considered by the committee Thursday instead focused on improving the weather service’s communication of severe weather risks to the public, according to Frederick Hill, communications director for the Senate Committee on Science, Commerce and Transportation.
The new measure centers on getting the NWS to assess its system for issuing severe weather watches and warnings so the public more effectively can respond to these alerts, Dan Sobien, president of the national labor union that represents NWS employees, said Wednesday.
That union, the National Weather Service Employees Organization, strongly opposed the original bill.
Committee Chairman Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, who submitted the initial bill, S. 1573, introduced the substitute proposal with Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.
The consolidation proposal that was dropped would have left one “warning coordination meteorologist” in each community office to serve as a liaison with emergency management officials for storm preparedness and response activities as well as to conduct media and public outreach. The community offices also would have continued to maintain radar instrumentation.
It swiftly received a stormy response from meteorologists, the National Weather Service Employees Organization and members of the state’s congressional delegation.
Supporters of Thune’s original bill said it would modernize and streamline NWS forecast operations and reduce costs. They also stressed any savings from the consolidation effort over the next 10 years would be invested in supercomputing capacity and research to improve forecasts.
Opponents, however, insisted regionalizing the forecasting into six offices would result in a degradation of the accuracy and reliability of local forecasts.
Sobien said Wednesday he was happy the original bill failed. He believes the new proposal has some good points in it, such as a provision to have the NWS consult with federal, nonfederal, broadcast media and emergency management agencies in obtaining ideas for how to improve its communication of weather hazards so the public would be better prepared in emergencies.
