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HUNTSVILLE, Alaska – The Acting Chief Scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has stated that his agency has likely violated its rules on scientific integrity by publicly repressing a weather bureau that denied President Donald's assertion. Trump that Hurricane Dorian would threaten Alabama.
Two senior NOAA officials revolted against the press release issued Friday night by an unsigned agency, blaming the Birmingham weather bureau for stating that Alabama was safe. The agency's chief scientist described Friday's publication as "political" and the head of the National Meteorological Service said the Alabama office "did what any office would do to protect the public."
"I understand that this intervention to contradict the forecaster was not based on scientific data, but on external factors such as reputation and appearance, or simply political," said Sunday evening McLean Craig McLean, Chief Scientist and Acting Assistant Administrator for Oceans and Atmospheric Research. .
In the email, which was first reported by The Washington Post, McLean said he "was pursuing potential violations" of the agency's scientific integrity policy.
NOAA spokesman Scott Smullen said on Monday: "NOAA's science integrity and communications policy is among the strongest in the federal government and has the highest ratings from third-party observers. Agency career managers are free to express their opinions on issues related to the operations and science of the agency.The agency will not provide any other official comments and will not speculate on internal examinations. "
Meanwhile, another career official, Louis Uccellini, director of the National Meteorological Service, said the forecasters in Birmingham had done the right thing on September 1 fighting public panic and rumors that Dorian would pose a threat to the country. # 39; Alabama.
"They did this with one goal in mind: public safety," said Uccellini, who caused a standing ovation at a meeting of the National Weather Association asking the Birmingham weather staff to get up.
"It's only later, when the retweets and political comments started arriving at their office, did they learn the sources of this information," he said.
Kevin Laws, chief scientist and operations of the Birmingham Meteorological Service, declined to comment on Uccellini's remarks.
"I think the speech speaks for itself," said Laws.
McLean in his letter said the Birmingham staff "corrected any public misunderstanding in an expert and timely manner, as it should," he said last Friday, an unsigned NOAA press release that contradicted the NWS forecaster inappropriately and incorrectly. "
McLean stated that NOAA's Scientific Integrity Policy invited all employees of the agency to "approach all scientific activities honestly, objectively and completely without allegiance to individuals, organizations or organizations. l & # 39; ideology. "
He added that NOAA's Friday press release "compromises NOAA's ability to transmit life-saving information" and "contravenes NOAA's policy of scientific integrity".
The policy stated that employees should not "intimidate or coerce employees, contractors, recipients of financial assistance or any other person to tamper with or censure scientific results".
The policy of scientific integrity is not criminal and carries no penalty, said Monica Medina, former General Counsel and Deputy Administrator of NOAA, who served in the administrations of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. She congratulated McLean and Uccellini "for studying the issue and holding their current leaders accountable."
At the annual meeting of the National Weather Association, its members, including its president, signed two posters supporting the hurricane center and the Birmingham office.
"We make forecasts, we do not deal with politics," said association president Paul Schlatter, who works for the weather service in Boulder, Colorado. "Our job is to protect the American public with the meteorological information we transmit. Of course, it's frustrating when things get politicized, and we're the scientists and communicators who send the message about meteorological safety. "
Trump defended his Sept. 1 tweet that said Hurricane Dorian would threaten Alabama. Last week, Trump posted an altered map of hurricane forecasts in the Oval Office, which included a roughly-black inked addition to include parts of Alabama, in an effort to get his point of view .
Alabama had never been included in the hurricane warning notices. Trump cited older, less reliable information based on outdated computer models and older wind speed charts.
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