Jeff Jackson: “The week after I was elected to Congress, a group of meteorologists from my district got in touch with me, and they…”

“The week after I was elected to Congress, a group of meteorologists from my district got in touch with me, and they taught me something I didn't know, which is that my district, which is the Charlotte area, is in the largest weather radar gap in the country. Our nearest NEXRAD radar is roughly 100 miles away, which makes it very difficult to have accurate forecasts for especially low-altitude storms and fast-moving tornadoes, so at the request of these meteorologists, our office got to work on a piece of legislation to address this. I am very grateful that it has been included in this bill. It would address this by asking NOAA to have a plan to implement the next generation of weather radar and specifically to prioritize districts, like mine, that currently exist in these blind spots, in these weather radar gaps. This legislation isn't going to just help solve this problem, but it is going to identify a number of these spots across the country and prioritize those to make sure that we have accurate forecasts across the country. I am very grateful for its inclusion, and I ask all of my colleagues to join me in supporting it.”