An update from NASA yesterday stated that the satellite feed that hurricane forecasters use to determine storm intensification and for other purposes, which was scheduled for termination June 30, has been extended. The NASA post announcing the news said that the critical data will be available until July 31, the start of the most intense period of hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic.
As Trade Only Today reported yesterday, Michael Lowry, a hurricane and storm-surge expert for WPLG in Miami, explained the significance and value of the satellite data to forecasters in a Substack article about the data stoppage, posted last week.
In the article, Lowry said that the “permanent discontinuation of data from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder will severely impede and degrade hurricane forecasts for this season and beyond, affecting tens of millions of Americans who live along hurricane-prone shorelines.”
