Top weather agency sides with Trump in furor over Hurricane Dorian threat to Alabama

“From Wednesday, August 28, through Monday, September 2, the information provided by NOAA and the National Hurricane Center to President Trump and the wider public demonstrated that tropical-storm-force winds from Hurricane Dorian could impact Alabama. This is clearly demonstrated in Hurricane Advisories #15 through #41, which can be viewed at the following link,” an unnamed NOAA representative said in a statement.

“The Birmingham National Weather Service’s Sunday morning tweet spoke in absolute terms that were inconsistent with probabilities from the best forecast products available at the time,” the representative added.

Members of the weather forecasting world were dismayed by the statement, expressing concerns about the president’s influence over NOAA.

“Let me assure you the hard working employees of the NWS had nothing to do with the utterly disgusting and disingenuous tweet sent out by NOAA management tonight,” tweeted Dan Sobien, who is the president of the union that represents NWS employees.

James Spann, a meteorologist based in Birmingham well known to Alabamians, said, “The tweet from NWS Birmingham was spot on and accurate. If they are coming after them, they might as well come after me. How in the world has it come to this?”

As Hurricane Dorian approached the Bahamas and then threatened the southeastern United States, Trump tweeted over Labor Day weekend that Alabama, among other states, could be hit hard by the storm.

“In addition to Florida – South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated. Looking like one of the largest hurricanes ever. Already category 5. BE CAREFUL! GOD BLESS EVERYONE!” Trump tweeted late Sunday morning.

About 20 minutes later, the National Weather Service station in Birmingham tweeted that Alabama would not see “any impacts” from Dorian because it was projected to remain too far east.

In a second tweet, the NWS Birmingham account explained that any showers in the area would have no association with Dorian.

News outlets seized on the tweets, reporting them as the National Weather Service correcting the president, who again mentioned Alabama during a Federal Emergency Management Agency briefing later that day.

“It may get a little piece of a great place — it’s called Alabama, and Alabama could even be in for at least some very strong winds,” Trump said. “This just came up, unfortunately. It’s the size of the storm that we’re talking about. So for Alabama, please be careful also.”

The Washington Examiner emailed the National Weather Service to ask if the Birmingham station’s tweet was sent in response to Trump or because of calls coming into the station from people concerned the hurricane would be turning towards Alabama.

NWS spokeswoman Susan Buchanan wrote back saying the latter was true.

“The National Weather Service forecast office in Birmingham responded to inquiries to assure the public that Alabama was not in the projected path,” she said.

Over the past five days, Trump has repeatedly defended his comments about Dorian, sharing old weather maps and tweets that show Alabama early on could have been in Dorian’s path and accusing the media of “fake news.”

The backlash he faced intensified when Trump presented a doctored map Wednesday in the Oval Office showing that Hurricane Dorian could hit Alabama. Added to graphic was a black semicircle next to the National Hurricane Center forecast cone that reached over the Florida panhandle and a part of Alabama.

When a reporter asked him about the add-on, Trump only said, “I don’t know.” However, a White House insider source told the Washington Post it was Trump himself who added the bubble.

As Trump railed against the media for reporting that his message for Alabama was outdated, while weather experts pointed out that by Sunday the forecast had largely dismissed the possibility of Dorian heading toward the state, a White House adviser released a statement Thursday explaining that Trump’s claim was based on a briefing he received.

The link shared by NOAA on Friday was the same one presented by Coast Guard Rear Adm. Peter Brown, Trump’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser a day earlier. It leads to a National Hurricane Center graphic showing the odds of low-end tropical-storm-force winds striking Alabama dropping significantly by Sunday, from 10% to 5%.

Trump appeared to take a victory lap Friday evening by tweeting out a video showing a CNN forecaster mentioning Alabama could be affected by Dorian and depicting the CNN logo as a car crashing and burning.

Dorian devastated the Bahamas over Labor Day weekend, killing at least 30 people and damaging or destroying at least 13,000 homes, before taking aim at the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas this week.