Government Reverses Course: Satellite Data Crucial to Hurricane Forecasting Will Continue Amid Security Concerns

In a time when safeguarding American families from natural disasters should be an unquestioned priority, recent moves by the U.S. Department of Defense to cut off access to critical satellite data threatened to undermine national preparedness against hurricanes. Thankfully, after an outcry from scientists and meteorologists, officials backtracked — promising uninterrupted flow of indispensable weather information through September 2026.Why Would Washington Risk Cutting Off Hurricane Tracking Data?The planned cutoff of microwave data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) was justified by officials as a move to "mitigate significant cybersecurity risks" and meet "information technology modernization requirements." Yet one must...