Although it is crunch time for elections in the US, we aren’t going to talk politics. Rather, we wanted to show and highlight how important weather predictions and satellites are to our everyday lives. Thanks to satellites, consumers are able to quickly and easily check the weather online or from the TV. Moreover, the information found can reliably and reasonably be known to be relatively accurate and reflect what will happen. How this happens is a result of decades of work, large amounts of data available, computers, and satellites.
And while we don’t think of the data and process and infrastructure behind the predictions, their hard work and dedication really shines through inclement weather events like during hurricane season!
To provide context on why hurricane and weather forecasts are crucial is that with the increase in temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, storms are becoming stronger and are progressing faster! An example of this is the tweet below.
Satellites help monitor storms, relay information faster, and help measure conditions better and in a safer fashion compared to other methods. This is because satellites don’t require putting humans in the path of the hurricane and storms to gather this information. This allows people to prepare ahead of time, which helps save countless lives.
As we saw from Hurricane Milton, even with advanced warning, people in Florida still experienced a plethora of miles long backups on the highways, more than 10% of the gas stations in the state ran out of gas, and supplies ran out. And this was with advanced warning. Yet, without this information, the loss of life would be worse and information would not be as accurate ahead of the hurricane. This hurricane highlights why funding to organizations that run these satellites are NOT a political issue, as everyone benefits form this information being accurate and available!
Make sure to check out our other articles on light pollution, and other topics, which we post weekly. To stay in the loop with updates, make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
I really appreciate the insight you’ve shared here.