This archive report was first published on 9 September 2019.
Published on September 9, 2019, a threat by the Secretary of Commerce to fire top employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has sparked widespread anger within the agency and criticism from the scientific community.
The controversy began when President Trump wrote on Twitter that Alabama would be hit 'harder than anticipated' by Hurricane Dorian, contradicting the National Weather Service's assessment that the state would not be affected.
On September 4, Mr. Trump displayed a NOAA map that appeared to have been altered with a black Sharpie to include Alabama in the area potentially affected by Dorian.
According to three people familiar with the discussion, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur L. Ross Jr. phoned Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator of NOAA, from Greece and instructed him to fix the agency's perceived contradiction of the president.
Dr. Jacobs objected to the demand and was told that the political staff at NOAA would be fired if the situation was not fixed, according to the three individuals.
However, a senior administration official suggested that the Birmingham office had been wrong and that NOAA had simply done the responsible thing and corrected the record.
On Monday, Craig N. McLean, NOAA's acting chief scientist, sent an email to staff members notifying the agency that he was looking into 'potential violations' in the agency's decision to ultimately back Mr. Trump's statements rather than those of its own scientists.
