Agency reverses course on Trump's Alabama hurricane claim

A federal agency reversed course Friday on the question of whether President Donald Trump tweeted stale information about Hurricane Dorian potentially hitting Alabama, upsetting meteorologists around the country.

On Sunday, Trump had warned that Alabama, along with the Carolinas and Georgia, was "most likely to be hit (much) harder than anticipated."
The latest defense came out Friday evening, when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a statement from an unidentified spokesman stating that information provided by NOAA and the National Hurricane Center to the president had demonstrated that "tropical-storm-force winds from Hurricane Dorian could impact Alabama."
Friday's statement also said the Birmingham NWS tweet Sunday morning "spoke in absolute terms that were inconsistent with probabilities from the best forecast products available at the time."
"What the Birmingham NWS office sent out Sunday morning was correct and served the public well," Read continued. "It clearly let the public know that they were not at risk from the impacts of Hurricane Dorian." Dan Sobien, president of the union representing weather service employees, tweeted Friday, "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."
"I am thankful for the folks at NWS Birmingham for their work in keeping the citizens of Alabama informed and up to date on weather hazards."
Furtado said NOAA's statement and the president's Twitter "war on weather" are undermining confidence in meteorologists, adding, "The job just got harder because of this issue."
University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd, former president of the American Meteorology Society, simply responded, "OMG."
He said the first assertion about such winds from Dorian affecting Alabama is fine, but the second assertion "seems to be excessive."
McNoldy said the National Weather Service "had the right tone and message for the time. Alabama, for some time, was on the fringe of probabilities of experiencing tropical storm winds. That is not very threatening."