Our editorial view: Charlotte needs full service weather center
The Carolinas braced for a potentially catastrophic storm Friday. It makes us wonder if the U.S. government will address an error it made when it established a network of National Weather Service stations and overlooked Charlotte.
Where does our weather information come from? Radio? Airport? Print media? Television? The truth is our Lake Wylie area has several sources, each with a bit of built-in bias.
Charlotte is one of a few cities of similar size that has no National Weather Service Center – the nearest ones are in the Raleigh, Columbia and Greenville regions about 100 miles away. However, we do have monitoring stations staffed by volunteers who report to media outlets and business clients for whom weather is important – particularly those dealing with projects where weather moisture or temperature could effect progress. Pilots, truckers, and Internet spotters provide much of the detail, packaged by the media for direct consumption. Private business has its own weather network, much informally shared by telephone.
Charlotte is fortunate to have several commercial enterprises that depend on current weather information. Field work for utilities such as Duke Power and York Electric is obviously easier in dry weather. And corporate America travels better with fewer schedule slippage in fair, dry weather.
That said, we believe the Charlotte region warrants its own full service weather center. Emergency agencies need more notice to function in their role of minimizing storm damage. Evacuations go smoother with ample lead time. Strategic supply management and distribution is more cost effective with accurate weather impact information.
The Charlotte metropolitan area is one of the 25 largest in America and a major financial and transportation hub. It would make sense to have a Federal Weather Service station here. The National Guard, media, commercial air traffic, intermodal freight operations, universities and public utilities could all be logical weather service operators and beneficiaries, under federal oversight and funding.
This story was originally published October 6, 2015 at 2:44 PM with the headline "Our editorial view: Charlotte needs full service weather center."