Marsha Blackburn on NOAA & Oak Ridge National Lab Extreme Weather Modeling

NOAA and Oak Ridge National Lab Partnership

• 🤝 Senator Blackburn highlights the crucial partnership between NOAA and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, emphasizing its importance for predicting and mitigating severe weather events.
• 💡 The collaboration leverages Oak Ridge's supercomputing capacity to run advanced models for disaster prediction and severe weather forecasting.
• 🎯 The goal is to provide better forecasts to help Americans avoid catastrophes and recover from the impact of extreme weather, which can be felt for years.

Prioritizing Partnerships and Data Transfer

• 📈 Mr. Jordan agrees on the importance of the NOAA-Oak Ridge partnership and commits to strengthening it to utilize Oak Ridge's expertise for better forecasting.
• 🗣️ He stresses the need to push this information to local decision-makers and emergency responders.
• 🚒 A key focus is on improving data transfer to local EMS and first responders, who are the first on the scene.

Enhancing Local Emergency Response

• 📍 Encouraging the embedding of weather service employees with local emergency managers is seen as vital for leveraging local expertise on topography and specific impacts.
• ✅ This direct collaboration ensures that forecasts are tailored to local conditions and needs.

River Navigation and Forecasting Tools

• 🚢 Dr. Jacobs discusses NOAA's forecasting tools for river navigation services, particularly for the lower Mississippi River, which is vital for barge traffic and port commerce.
• 📊 The river forecast centers and national water center run critical water models, with ongoing development in coastal models and gap sensors.
• 🚤 The data provided, including water level forecasts and navigation charts, is considered very high priority for supporting ports and barge operators.

Undersea Cables and Permitting

• 📞 Senator Blackburn raises concerns about NOAA's two-year pause on special use permits for submarine cables in marine sanctuaries.
• ⚠️ She argues that these cables are critical for communication infrastructure and have a minimal environmental footprint, suggesting that NOAA should permanently exempt them from duplicative permitting requirements.
• ❓ Dr. Jacobs, if confirmed, expresses a willingness to learn more about the issue and support priorities related to undersea cables.