New Hurricane Director Wants Research Money

Posted Apr 5, 2007 by The Tampa Tribune

Updated Apr 5, 2007 at 01:12 PM

By Neil Johnson
The Tampa Tribune

NEW ORLEANS - The nation needs to spend more money, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars, on additional research into hurricanes, the new head of the National Hurricane Center said at a press conference Wednesday.

Talking to reporters before the start of the National Hurricane Conference in New Orleans, Bill Proenza said expanded research to improve forecasting models is the only way to better predict a storm’s track and strength.

“The nation is in a particularly vulnerable position for hurricanes and tropical storms,” he said.

As in past years, the research focus should be on forecasting rapid changes in a storm’s intensity that has lagged behind improvements in predicting a hurricane’s track, he said.

“Improvements have been essentially flat since 1992. There has not been significant improvement,” Proenza said.

He said there was no real increase in this year’s budget for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that oversees the hurricane center operations.