Cuts for the American agency responsible for forecasting weather and climate science have meant that scientists on this side of the border concerned about data reliability need Canada to predict dangerous events, conduct accurate flood forecasts and understanding wider climate change.
At the end of February, the administration of President Donald Trump reduced over 1,000 jobs in two rounds – one of 500 and one of 800 – at the National Weather Service and its home organization Noaa, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Former scientist Noaa said The Associated Press. That's about 10 percent of Noaa's workforce.
Danny Blair, an climatologist who is the co -director of the Prairie Climate Institute and a geographical professor at the University of Winnipeg, called cuts “amazing and discouraging.”
While the loss of the ability to predict such as blur, tornado, storms and tsunami “will almost certainly cause that more and more people will be used” in the US, will also be affected by Canada.
“The production and dissemination of accurate and timely forecasts requires an army of qualified and experienced staff, as well as collecting data and research that are behind the development and improvement of these forecasts,” said Blair.
Blair said that with climate change, making the weather even more dangerous, the United States should develop and not reduce, complement the weather forecasts and climate scientists. He noticed that a significant part of the world was based on American weather and climate sciences.
“To understand what is happening with the climate of the prairie, you can't just look at the data collected on one side of the border,” Blair said.
Flood forecasts count on US data
Manitoba flood forecasts also largely rely on the data collected by the National Weather Service USA, because over 85 percent of the Red River pool lies south of the US border, said Jay Doering, a retired professor of land engineering at the University of Manitoba.
He said that the Hydrological Center of Manitoba Forecasts requires that US data understand soil moisture, snow and other factors that determine the seasonal flood risk and the rest of the Red River valley.
“These data come from two sources: the National Climate Data Center and the National Weather Service, which both belong to the umbrella Noaa,” said Doering.
“Many of this data are collected from local equipment, and the US have many more satellites in orbit than monitoring things related to weather conditions.”
In February, Trump's administration ordered NOAA scientists to obtain prior consent before communicating with Canadian counterparts. This meant a change in close cooperation between scientists on both sides of the border.
Historically, meteorologists from the National Weather Service in the Grand Forks in the state of ND worked with the environment and climate change in Blizzard, Tornado and Thunderstorm warnings, said Jared Marquis, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks.
“The weather does not understand the boundaries. The weather crosses the borders all the time, “said Marquis.
He said that the National Bureau of Weather Service in Grand Forks was so little staff before Trump's administration began to freeze in January, that meteorologists as far as Kansas published warnings and forecasts regarding the Eastern Northern Dakota and North -Western Minnesota.
Marquis, which works closely with the National Weather Service, which works closely with the National Weather Service, which works closely with the National Weather Service, which works closely with the National Weather Service.
“When you start to reduce the number of employees or by increasing stress on these employees, while they still have the same number of tasks to perform, at some point something will have to break. I hope that this is not something that has no key mission, something that will not affect life, “he said.
The Marquis said that now there are more questions than answering the future of data collection and analysis by the National Weather Service.
“There is a place in the upper air that ceased for an indefinite period in northwestern Alaska. These pages are important because they introduce weather balloons to get information about what is happening to our weather at a higher level, “Marquis said.
“We have news about potential solutions for a lease agreement for such as the Environmental Modeling Center (in Maryland), where the United States perform most of their weather models. It will take a long time to transfer this equipment and specialist knowledge to any other place. “
The National Weather Service USA refused to comment on cuts, citing “long -lasting practice” around “internal staff and management issues”.
The service continues “providing information about the weather, forecasts and warnings in accordance with our public security mission,” said a public official in a statement based in Maryland.