On Mon, 25 Apr 2005 14:34:17 GMT, Gene Kearns
wrote:

This is all the buzz in aviation circles. It appears to me that marine
forecasts do not fall under the heading of "severe weather forecasts
and warnings designed for the protection of life and property of the
general public," and thus would be, under the new law, illegal for
dissemination by the NWS.

http://tinyurl.com/cfxzj

http://tinyurl.com/bhupd

Anybody have any other information on this.

I know that this isn't the first time Accucast, Intellicast and the
rest of the private companies have been after shutting down the NWS.

In the past, there really wasn't a lot of pressure as the private
companies were in the biz all by themselves. Now that the EU is
getting into the act, in particular the French with it's
"semi-private" weather corporation, and the Russians with their
forecasting system bidding on insurance, agricultural and business
forecasting systems our private corporations are feeling the pinch,
thus they want the NWS to get out of the act and leave the field to
themselves.

What is unique about this run at the NWS is that they want the NWS to
keep going, but provide the sophisticated information only to them and
not the public.

IN effect, it's a pay twice system. We pay NOAA for NWS data which
is given to private companies which happily sell that data back to the
general public.

To tell the truth, and as a amateur meteorologist, I'm not sure how I
feel about the whole thing. I can see benefits either way.

Later,

Tom