MV Times
The Island always feels vulnerable when extreme weather conditions like last weekend’s early-season nor’easter start heading our way. 
This time was no different, especially as forecasts became more and more dramatic and television meteorologists breathlessly updated viewers from windblown shorelines, reciting scripts filled with dire warnings about heavy rain, high winds, and coastal flooding. The Steamship Authority made a decision on Friday to cancel all ferries for the rest of the afternoon and evening, as well as the entire day Saturday. On reflection, it seems the forecasters and Island officials may have been a bit over-the-top in their assessments, and in some cases, they were. 
What is important to remember is that forecasts are only as reliable as the data compiled by the National Weather Service (NWS), the publicly funded cornerstone for U.S. weather information, public forecasts, and storm warmings under the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and these days, with draconian budget cuts by the Trump administration in place for government agencies as well as climate research, there are mounting concerns about the reliability of the information we have about weather, especially when it’s extreme.
A country that was once a global leader in climate research has been stripped down by the Trump administration, and the chief executive has sought to eliminate what he sees as unneeded domestic spending. He’s withdrawn the country from global scientific leadership, fired much of the scientific workforce, including at NWS, and defunded and canceled climate research. Included in the line of fire is the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, the primary research arm of NOAA, as well as other NOAA federal programs that provide weather forecasting data and research from 80 universities, and work to improve the agency’s warning and forecast capabilities. 
Without continued funding, there are fears that long-term data sets will be disrupted, and the NWS’ ability to inform disaster preparation and provide accurate and timely weather tracking could be at risk. 
The Trump administration’s current budget calls for a $1.7 billion cut to NOAA’s budget, according to Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Slashing some 1,500 staff members has also prompted the Ocean Conservancy to issue a warning this week that these cuts of up to 30 percent would threaten the National Hurricane Center’s operations and weaken domestic storm surge and flood warnings. The Ocean Conservancy said the cuts were a direct threat to public safety, and issued a warning that the cuts could result in the loss of lives if a serious weather event goes untracked.
For this storm, it seems most of the forecasts were close to accurate, and public warnings were made in a timely fashion for the 60-mph winds and up to eight inches of rain. But the specter of unreliable forecasts raises concerns across the Cape and Islands, and across the country. So many scientists and advocates for addressing climate change are sounding warnings that cuts in funding threaten to undo the web of research required to provide the most up-to-date information to the public. The administration has said that it will increasingly seek to rely on artificial intelligence (AI) to compile threat assessments for extreme weather brought on by climate change, but the fact is that AI is only as good as the data it has to make predictions. And right now, the data gathered is being compromised by insufficient funding.
The Times wants to add our editorial voice to the chorus that is rising up to call for federal funding to be both restored and maintained, to provide adequate resources for the research we all need to understand the risks that climate change poses to our shores and lives. In Woods Hole, many of the world’s top scientists are pushing back and demanding that our tax dollars flow to the research and policy work that is needed for us to confront the challenges of climate change, specifically the rise of extreme weather that places Island communities like ours in peril. The way we will find a way forward is through doing more research, not less, and giving greater support to the scientific community in places of excellence such as Woods Hole — not by abandoning the important work they do. Our sustainability as an Island and as a planet depends on robust funding for the science of climate change. 
We will need that funding in place if we are going to have an accurate measure of the threat posed by extreme weather. This time, we circumnavigated any serious calamity, but next time, we may not be so lucky.
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Why do you think the just-passed nor’easter was a “washout”? I thought it was pretty impressive.
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