Governor Cuomo Says He Will Institute An APPR Evaluation System For Meteorologists

Governor Cuomo is very mad at the meteorologists at the National Weather Service.

He claims they got the lake effect snow forecast for Buffalo wrong last week:

ALDEN, N.Y.- During a press conference Saturday afternoon Governor Cuomo had some criticism for the National Weather Service and its forecast of the storm.

Cuomo said the Weather Service did not indicate that the heavy snow bands would remain stationary and blast South Buffalo and the Southtowns with the incredible rate of snowfall.

Cuomo said that's part of the reason why New York State is building its own linked weather forecasting system that will be superior to any other state system in the country.

"No one had an idea that it was gonna be that much snow that fast. Snow coming down at the rate of about five inches an hour. No one had an idea. The weather service was off. By the way, I said this in my state of the state last year we're putting in our own weather detection system," said Cuomo.

Cuomo says he will be breaking the "monopoly" that the National Weather Service has by creating his own New York Weather Service.

He says high quality charter weather stations will be funded all over the state in order to give the NWS some much-needed competition in the meteorology business.

"I believe in competition and I believe in charter weather stations," Cuomo told reporters at a briefing in South Buffalo. "There's nothing like some hungry forecasters working at Weather Success Stations to make those lazy slugs at the National Weather Service get off their fat asses and do their jobs right."

In addition, Cuomo says he will institute a new evaluation system for all meteorologists who make forecasts on New York weather to ensure that only the highest quality and most accurate forecasters keep their jobs.

Cuomo says the evaluation system will mimic his APPR teacher evaluation system, with meteorologists rated as "Highly Effective," "Effective" "Developing," and "Ineffective."

Meteorologists will be rated after every weather forecast.

Meteorologists who are rated "developing" or "ineffective" two weather systems in a row will be publicly shamed by the governor - Cuomo will send out a list of "Bad Meteorologists" in order to make the public aware of this much needed information.

Meteorologists who receive "Highly Effective" ratings two systems in a row will be eligible for meteorology merit pay courtesy of New York State.

Cuomo says if the meteorologists at the NWS don't shape up, he will add more "sanctions" to the APPR meteorology system, though he won't say what those "sanctions" are.

As for the pushback Cuomo has received from the NWS and other meteorologists who point out that he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about when he says the NWS didn't forecast the lake effect snow last week, Cuomo says "I'll deal with those guys later.  I've been making a list of people I plan on getting even with in the next term - you can bet some of these guys are going to get a visit from Joe Percoco to set things right."