[Sailormon6]

Under Section 2(a), the bill imposes five general duties and responsibilities on the NWS. Only the duties conferred on the NWS by the first subsection of the bill [subsection 2(a)(1)] apply only to "severe weather." The duties and responsibilities conferred by the other four subsections are not limited to "severe weather."

Subsection 2(a)(2) requires the NWS to "prepare and issue hydrometeorological guidance [i.e., the forecasting of precipitation (rain and hail)] and core forecast information (i.e., all the information needed to make weather forecasts)." In other words, all that information will be available to the general public at no cost in all weather conditions, not just in severe weather.

Likewise, subsection 2(a)(3) requires the NWS to "collect and exchange meteorological [the study of atmospheric conditions for the purpose of making weather forecasts], hydrological [the study of the control and characteristics of water], climatic [the sum of the prevailing weather conditions over a period of time], and oceanographic [the study of the ocean] data and information." All this information will also be available to the general public at no cost in all weather conditions, not just in severe weather.

In short, if the bill passes, the general public will have complete and free access to hydrometeorological guidance, core forecast information, meteorological, hydrological, climatic, and oceanographic data.

Thus, the bill expressly requires that the NWS provide weather forecasts, wave heights and frequencies, radar data, buoy data, climate data, short and long range forecasts, etc., not just in severe weather conditions, but in all conditions.

I don''t see anything in the bill that suggests that the general public will have any less information available to it than we do at this time.

The part of the Bill that requires users to obtain their weather data from commercial providers expressly excludes all the products or services described in subsection (a)(1), which is all the data that I listed above, and that is so important to us recreational users. Thus, the general public is not required to get any of its weather data from commercial providers.

People have focused on the words "severe weather" and think those words modify all the rest of the bill, but those words only modify Subsection 2(a)(1), which is the only subsection in which those words are found.

To fully understand what I''m saying you have to refer to the full text of the bill at the following website, while reading this message: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s109-786