If you look at Forecast Watch or Forecast Advisor, you will see quite detailed evidence that is more than anecdotal that the private companies do much better the government NWS. Don’t these poor statistics concern you?
Why are people paying for a service that is provided for free by the government? Presumably because they think that they are getting a better job done.
This is not a deep argument. The question is one of incentives. If your company would get the same amount of money no matter what job that it did, how hard would you all do in trying to please customers? Is that a particularly surprising result? If the company gave away its product for free, how much poorer would its product have to be before people would pay for another competing product? Those are the only two major points that the article is making.
Thanks in advance.
Forecast Watch is also trying to sell weather information. So from the start, they have at least an incentive to tear down a competitor who is doing it for free. I'd have to do a fairly detailed analysis of their methodology.
How can they make a profit from forecasting weather?
I asked how a business model would be profitable from flying into a hurricane. Can you imagine the liability insurance issues, compared to the government, which just sends in the military?
As I recall, AccuWeather had Rick Santorum lobbying to diminish the role of the NWS in forecasting. So apparently market forces aren't quite enough to nudge customers in their direction - apparently enough people are satisfied with what they currently get for with their tax dollars.