Scientists gather for 100-hour livestream about weather and climate research

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Starting later Wednesday a 100-hour livestream is going to be kicking off, all to raise awareness about the impact of budget cuts to weather and climate research.

“There’s a reason this event is so long and why we have so much interest is because I’ll share my experience but it’s totally not unique," said Margaret Duffy, who was in charge of one of eight NOAA-funded projects that never came to light due to lack of funding.

Duffy's now one of the organizers of the Weather and Climate Livestream, a 100-hour event as the organizers put “to save America's forecasts”.

Duffy said, “You know it may seem like research moves slowly but if you think about where we are compared to 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 50 years ago, you begin to realize the value research has and the accuracy of our forecasts having improved tremendously, the accuracy of our climate projections having improved tremendously over the previous decades. We don’t want that progress to stop.”

The non-partisan event will have speakers from all around the weather and climate sphere discussing the concerns they have surrounding budget cuts.

“There are short term concerns about just being understaffed and about the possibility of having an extreme event happen and not being prepared for it. So, we know June 1st is kind of the nominal start to hurricane and there are, some people are concerned that we are headed into that season unprepared,” Duffy said.

The 100-hour Weather and Climate livestream is starting on a somber note Wednesday, with workers leaving NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

“Their lease for the facility they use on the University of Columbia's campus has been terminated abruptly and so all of those employees are being forced to leave their workplace. So, we’re actually going to start with a series of talks from NASA GISS about their last day in the office,” Duffy said.

Wednesday will be one of the more impactful days of the livestream. But it isn’t just NASA that has the spotlight, it’s also NOAA and NWS.

“We have a panel with former directors of the National Weather Service that’s on Wednesday, also another panel on Wednesday, Wednesdays pretty packed. We have a panel discussion with NOAA employees that have been terminated.”

You can learn more about and view the livestream online.