Donald Trump Speaks Out on Weather Forecasting and Climate

Donald Trump is dominating the news these day, with most coverage dealing with his stances on immigration, national defense, and the economy.   But "The Donald" has strong opinions on weather and climate issues and this blog will review and analyze them.

Perhaps the most succinct summary of Trump's views on climate and weather was found in an interview he had with Hugh Hewitt:

“I believe there’s weather. I believe there’s change, and I believe it goes up and it goes down, and it goes up again. And it changes depending on years and centuries"

It is good to know he believes in weather.  Not everyone does.  And he believes that weather changes.  So far so good.

Trump does not like TV weathercasters.  He wants them off the air.    Not a good sign.

He is not impressed with the prowess of "weather people", suggesting they generally get it wrong.

He might be right that they are looking for headlines and ratings.

Bottom line:  The Donald does not believe weather forecasts and wants to avoid any talk of weather on the media, perhaps because it reminds him how sensitive his hair is to even weak gusts (see below).

Wind is a major concern of Donald Trump, for obvious reasons

Global Warming and Climate Change

Donald Trump believes global warming is a hoax, as demonstrated by a number of his tweets:

Trump clearly seems to think that any snow or cold weather means global warming is nonsense:

There are dozens of his tweets like this;  Trump believes global warming is a get rich squick scheme devised by greedy climatologists and the Chinese (see below).

 The Weather Wall

Many of you are familiar with Trump's plan to build a wall on the Mexican border to stop illegal immigration.  But did you know that his unusual idea has inspired some scientists to propose building WEATHER WALLs to reduce the amount of severe weather in the southern U.S.?

In fact, Temple University Physicist Rongia Tao has proposed 1000 ft high walls that he claims would deal a death knell to tornadoes (as well as stop the passage of illegals).   Trump is going to inspire a generation of wall builders.

Here is what the wall would look like.  Impressive.

Clearly, Mr. Trump is jeopardizing getting any support from the weather community, all 10,000 of us.  He should be careful: we are a powerful bunch, with a representative on every TV news broadcast.

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Public Talk: Weather Forecasting: From Superstition to Supercomputers

I will be giving a talk on March 16th at 7:30 PM in Kane Hall on the UW campus on the history, science, and technology of weather forecasting as a fundraiser for KPLU. I will give you an insider's view of the amazing story of of weather forecasting's evolution from folk wisdom to a quantitative science using supercomputers. General admission tickets are $25.00, with higher priced reserved seating and VIP tickets (including dinner) available. If you are interested in purchasing tickets, you can sign up here