The Value of Government Weather and Climate Data
Federal Information & News Dispatch, Inc. |
Guest blog post by
For example, one survey found that the overwhelming majority of people said they used weather forecasts and did so an average of 3.8 times per day. That equates to 301 billion forecasts consumed per year!
The study's authors note that, other than current news events, there is probably no other type of information obtained on such a routine basis from such a variety of sources. Certainly, the researchers say, no other scientific information is accessed so frequently. And while the information is being delivered from an array of sources, most of it directly or indirectly originates from
The researchers found a median valuation of weather forecasts per household of
Private sector firms often build on data from NOAA and other government agencies to create new products. For example, the
NOAA continues to innovate. The agency is approaching the half-way mark of a 10-year initiative to improve its hurricane forecasting, known as the
Clearly, the value of government weather and climate data is enormous: tens of billions of dollars in annual aggregate valuation, and dramatic savings (with the potential for far more) in life and property realized by improving hurricane and other forecasts. Moreover, as was seen in our earlier report on government data overall, the cost is far eclipsed by the value. There are innumerable ways in which weather data touches our lives, allowing us to plan, prepare and optimize: from the grand and important decisions such as when we launch satellites, to choosing when to plant crops, and even to the more mundane business of getting dressed each day, our lives turn in no small measure on what we know about the weather. Indeed, the better we become at forecasting, the less accurate the quote attributed to Mark Twain: "Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it!"
Copyright: | (c) 2011 Federal Information & News Dispatch, Inc. |
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