Email on 6 September 2019 from Craig McLean, NOAA’s acting chief scientist, to Weather Service and NOAA leaders, stating: “What’s next? Climate science is a hoax? Flabbergasted to leave our forecasters hanging in the political wind.” Graphic: NOAA / The Washington Post
Email on 6 September 2019 from Craig McLean, NOAA’s acting chief scientist, to Weather Service and NOAA leaders, stating: “What’s next? Climate science is a hoax? Flabbergasted to leave our forecasters hanging in the political wind.” Graphic: NOAA / The Washington Post

By Andrew Freedman and Jason Samenow
1 February 2020

(The Washington Post) – A trove of documents released on Friday evening provides the clearest glimpse yet into how President Trump’s inaccurate statements, altered forecast map and tweets regarding Hurricane Dorian’s forecast path rattled top officials along with rank and file scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in September 2019.

The documents, released in response to Freedom of Information Act requests from The Washington Post and other media outlets, show that the No. 2 official at the agency, Ret. Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet, claimed that neither he nor acting administrator Neil Jacobs approved a controversial unsigned statement that a NOAA spokesperson issued on 6 September 2019. That statement criticized the National Weather Service forecast office in Birmingham for a tweet that contradicted Trump’s inaccurate assertion from 1 September 2019, in which the president claimed that Alabama “will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated” from the Category 5 storm.

The statement was widely interpreted within NOAA’s National Weather Service as contradicting an accurate forecast because of political pressure from the White House and the Department of Commerce.

Email on 8 September 2019 to John Murphy, the chief operating officer of the NWS, from Ret. Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet: “Thank you John. I track all of NWS on social media, so I see the emotion, but honestly get it. I’m having a hard time not departing the pattern right now.” Murphy, who served in the Air Force, replies: “Hang in there sir. Need you and judgement we make nearly everyday since we have pension. Is this battle to die for or better to stay and fight for what’s right,” adding, “we can do more in pattern.” Graphic: NOAA / The Washington Post
Email on 8 September 2019 to John Murphy, the chief operating officer of the NWS, from Ret. Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet: “Thank you John. I track all of NWS on social media, so I see the emotion, but honestly get it. I’m having a hard time not departing the pattern right now.” Murphy, who served in the Air Force, replies: “Hang in there sir. Need you and judgement we make nearly everyday since we have pension. Is this battle to die for or better to stay and fight for what’s right,” adding, “we can do more in pattern.” Graphic: NOAA / The Washington Post

Gallaudet wrote that he and Jacobs “did not approve or support” the statement in an email to Gary Shigenaka, a NOAA marine biologist, on Sept. 8 at 5:48 a.m. “You know from my multiple messages to you and your colleagues that we respect and stand behind your service and scientific integrity.”

Other emails show some of the process of approving the statement and its dissemination, which involved then deputy chief of staff and communications director Julie Roberts. However, it’s not clear from the emails who directed NOAA to issue it. Roberts has since departed the agency, as has then-NOAA chief of staff Stuart Levenbach.

Jacobs also wrote to Shigenaka, stating, “This whole thing is being blown way out of proportion and politicized. The so-called tweet said absolutely no chance of impacts and NHC guidance was calling for 5-30%. The forecast office did the right thing to calm the nerves of citizens. I love NOAA. I am so proud of everything you all do.”

“You have no idea how hard I’m fighting to keep politics out of science. We are an objective science agency, and we won’t and never will base any decisions on anything other than science,” Jacobs wrote. [more]

New emails show how President Trump roiled NOAA during Hurricane Dorian