re: “I’m not a geek, and I appreciate that with so many millions in harm’s way a decision has to be made early....but after Dorian is history, do we need to figure out if the reason/s we can’t get a better handle on these buggers is because we need way more and better data, better models, less politics...some or all of the above.”
IT WOULD HELP THE ‘MODELS’ if we had measured wind and air/water temperature data out over the Atlantic every 50 - 100 miles, and upwards of 5 to 10 thousand feet, but, we don’t ... so we make do with sparse data and a lot of ‘SWAG’ ..
We will never get better buoy maintenance until we get rid of NOAA and privatize the entire buoy system at least in the US.