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Remember When House Republicans Voted Against Hurricane Forecast Funding?

In the US, we rely on the National Hurricane Center to forecast storms. The NHC is in turn a division of the National Weather Service, itself a part of the NOAA. Which, in the GOP's 2011 budget bill, had its funding slashed by $1.2 billion from what...

In the US, we rely on the National Hurricane Center to forecast storms. The NHC is in turn a division of the National Weather Service, itself a part of the NOAA. Which, in the GOP’s 2011 budget bill, had its funding slashed by $1.2 billion from what was proposed in the president’s own budget bill, a bill that very notably included a $700 million increase over the previous year to cover needed upgrades to the satellites that gather the data that gets crunched in order to predict storms and weather in general.

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And that’s not just hurricanes, of course. In February, ThinkProgress put together this neat little list of all the stuff that the NOAA’s satellite program actually contributes to.

* The $700 billion maritime commerce industry moves more than 90 percent of all global trade, with arrival and departure of quarter-mile long container ships timed to the minute to maximize revenue and efficiency. Shipping companies rely on accurate forecasts to set their manifests and itineraries. * Forecasting capabilities are particularly strained at high latitudes and shippers have estimated that the loss of satellite monitoring capabilities could cost them more than half a billion dollars per year in lost cargo and damage to vessels from unanticipated heavy weather. * When a hurricane makes landfall, evacuations cost as much as $1 million per mile. Over the past decade, NOAA has halved the average margin of error in its three-day forecasts from 250 miles to 125 miles, saving up to $125 million per storm. * Commercial fishing is the most dangerous profession in the country with 111.8 deaths per 100,000 workers. A fisherman's most valuable piece of safety equipment is his weather radio. * When disaster strikes at sea, polar-orbiting satellites receive emergency distress beacons and relay positioning data to rescuers. This resulted in 295 lives saved in 2010 alone and the rescue of more than 6,500 fishermen, recreational boaters, and other maritime transportation workers since the program began in 1982. * Farmers rely on NOAA's drought predictions to determine planting cycles. Drought forecasts informed directly by satellite data have been valued at $6 billion to 8 billion annually. * NOAA's volcanic ash forecasting capabilities received international attention last spring during the eruption of the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallaj¶kull. The service saves airlines upwards of $200 million per year. * NOAA's polar-orbiting satellites are America's only source of weather and climate data for vast areas of the globe, including areas key to overseas military operations. Their data are integral to planning deployments of troops and aircraft""certain high-atmosphere wind conditions, for example, can prohibit mid-air refueling operations.

Not that the GOP budget bill was destined to go anywhere but, anyhow, seems like a timely reminder. Carry on with the battening and provisioning and so forth.

Reach this writer at michaelb@motherboard.tv.