Matt Drudge, the owner of Drudge Report, issued several controversial tweets as Hurricane Matthew was bearing down on Florida.
Drudge suggested on Thursday that the danger presented by Matthew, a Category 3 hurricane, might be part of a government cover-up to make climate change seem worse than it really is.
“The deplorables are starting to wonder if govt has been lying to them about Hurricane Matthew intensity to make exaggerated point on climate,” he tweeted. Later, he wrote: “Hurricane Center has monopoly on data. No way of verifying claims. Nassau ground observations DID NOT match statements! 165mph gusts? WHERE?”
On Friday morning, the National Hurricane Center in Miami also warned that “frequent destructive wind gusts to around 115 mph will spread across the Cape Canaveral area, producing swaths of tornado-like damage.”
At least 300 people have died in the Caribbean, namely in impoverished Haiti, due to the storm.
Scientists disputed Drudge’s claims.
Hugh Cobb, head of the Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), told Popular Science that the NOAA’s data is collected straight from the hurricane using reconnaissance aircraft.
Lead Forecaster Martin Nelson, with the NOAA, told the website: “We go with our data. That’s the end of it.” He added,“We use the science that we have and that’s what we do.”
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