Madam President, I rise to introduce the Improving Atmospheric River Forecasts Act. This bill would require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish a new program to improve…
Madam President, I rise to introduce the Improving Atmospheric River Forecasts Act. This bill would require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish a new program to improve prediction of these important storm systems.
This bill would direct the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish a new program within the National Weather Service to improve atmospheric river forecasts. This includes better data acquisition, like new radar systems that can track the heart of atmospheric rivers hours before storms hit. It also includes developing a quantitative scale for events on a scale of 1 to 5 to better inform emergency managers and the public about the severity of incoming AR events. The bill also directs NOAA to develop this program in collaboration with public and private partners across the weather enterprise.
As Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Marty Ralph said, ``Atmospheric rivers are the hurricanes of
the west coast.'' Why, then, are we not treating them with the same attention in forecasting? This bill will take a pivotal first step in bringing atmospheric rivers to the same forecasting sophistication as hurricanes by establishing a new program at NOAA to coordinate these efforts and create accurate, effective, and actionable predictions to minimize loss of life and property.
These steps are especially necessary under a changing climate. As temperatures increase, water bands in atmospheric rivers widen and storms increase in duration. By 2090, NOAA predicts that atmospheric river caused flood damages may increase to between $2.3 and $3.2 billion in annual impact.
I want to thank my colleague Senator Murkowski for introducing this important legislation with me in the Senate and Representative Mike Garcia for leading the House companion that recently passed the House as part of the Weather Act. I hope all of our colleagues will join us in supporting this bipartisan bill to improve our Nation's resilience to atmospheric river events.
