Next week, the Science Committee is preparing to introduce The Weather Act Reauthorization, comprehensive legislation that continues to strengthen and advance the U.S. weather system.
Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is talking with Congressman Frank Lucas about his work on weather reauthorization as Chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
The Weather Reauthorization Lucas will soon be covering in committee will be important for Oklahomans and the Oklahoma Mesonet system. Reauthorization will ensure the state’s system remains thriving and successful and a model for other states and regions to learn from.
“The goal of the Weather Act, of course, is how to simultaneously move forward to use the accomplishments of the previous bill, develop promising technologies and techniques from everything from hurricane forecasting on down the line, improve the speed with which we get our forecasts, extend the length of those forecasts…,” Lucas said.
Weather impacts everything and everyone, Lucas said, regardless of place or industry. Lucas said the Weather Reauthorization Act will improve NOAA’s efforts at modernization flexibility and accuracy.
“This is a piece of legislation we work really hard on in a very bipartisan way in the Science Committee, and we should be ready to go to file the bill shortly,” Lucas said.
One of the highlights of this bill Lucas talked about includes providing farmers and ranchers better tools and services for agriculture and water management, including improvements to subseasonal to seasonal research and forecasting.
“It will enable producers to better judge and gauge what kind of crops they should raise, how many resources they should invest in those, should they change to a different crop and giving them the necessary information,” Lucas said.
Farmers and ranchers feed and clothe the world, Lucas said, and they need the best technology to handle what they cannot control, including the weather.
“That is what this weather reauthorization is all about,” Lucas said. “Providing them with more accurate, factual, longer-term information to make their decisions on,” Lucas said.
