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Floor Speech
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Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the bipartisan Improving Atmospheric River Forecasts Act. This bill would require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish a new program to improve prediction of these important storm systems.
This bill would direct the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish a new program within the National Weather Service to improve atmospheric river forecasts. This includes better data acquisition, like new radar systems that can track the heart of atmospheric rivers hours before storms hit. It also includes implementing a quantitative scale for events on a scale of 1 to 5 to better inform emergency managers and the public about the severity of incoming AR events. The bill also requires the Agency to report back to Congress on the plans for the program and anticipated costs.
As Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Marty Ralph said, ``Atmospheric rivers are the hurricanes of the west coast.'' Why then are we not treating them with the same attention in forecasting? Like the National Hurricane Center in Florida, the West Coast needs a central hub for atmospheric river data acquisition, modeling, prediction, and dissemination.
This bill will take a pivotal first step in bringing atmospheric rivers to the same forecasting sophistication as hurricanes by establishing a new program at NOAA to coordinate these efforts and create accurate, effective, and actionable predictions to minimize loss of life and property.
These steps are especially necessary under a changing climate. As temperatures increase, water bands in atmospheric rivers widen and storms increase in duration. By 2090, NOAA predicts that atmospheric river caused flood damages may increase to between $2.3 and $3.2 billion in annual impact.
I want to thank Senator Murkowski for introducing this important legislation with me in the Senate. I hope all of our colleagues will join us in supporting this bipartisan bill to improve our Nation's resilience to atmospheric river events.
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