Trump’s NOAA Nominee Vows to Improve National Weather Service Forecasting

‘Even if the forecast is perfect, getting the warnings to the people, particularly at late hours of the night, is a challenge,’ Neil Jacobs said.

Neil Jacobs, acting administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, speaks at the agency's 2019 Hurricane Season Outlook news conference in Arlington, Va., on May 23, 2019. Win McNamee/Getty Images

Just days after catastrophic flash floods devastated Central Texas, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) told the Senate on July 9 that he would seek improvements to the agency’s weather forecasting and warning capabilities despite recent budget cuts.

Neil Jacobs, a meteorologist who headed NOAA on an acting basis during the first Trump administration, testified before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee less than a week after floods claimed the lives of at least 119 people in Texas’s Hill Country. At least 173 are still missing.