You may HAVE to pay for weather services in the near furture.

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Want to get a quick, accurate, and very detailed weather forecast for free, without annoying ads or commercials? Go to the Web site for the National Weather Service.

However, you better check fast, because if Sen. Rick Santorum gets his way, U.S. taxpayers are going to lose access to the data that was collected with their hard-earned tax dollars.

On April 14, Santorum introduced the National Weather Services Duties Act of 2005, which if passed, would bar the National Weather Service from providing any service that competes with the private sector. So even though we pay for the NWS, it would not be able to give us weather forecasts because they are offered by for-pay services such as the Weather Channel and AccuWeather.

I wonder if it is any coincidence that Joel and Barry Myers, founders and high-level executives of AccuWeather, which is headquartered in State College, have given campaign donations to Santorum?

Want to get a quick, accurate, and very detailed weather forecast for free, without annoying ads or commercials? Go to the Web site for the National Weather Service -- Pittsburgh: http://www.erh.noaa.gov/pit/
However, you better check fast, because if Sen. Rick Santorum gets his way, U.S. taxpayers are going to lose access to the data that was collected with their hard-earned tax dollars.

On April 14, Santorum introduced the National Weather Services Duties Act of 2005, which if passed, would bar the National Weather Service from providing any service that competes with the private sector. So even though we pay for the NWS, it would not be able to give us weather forecasts because they are offered by for-pay services such as the Weather Channel and AccuWeather.

I wonder if it is any coincidence that Joel and Barry Myers, founders and high-level executives of AccuWeather, which is headquartered in State College, have given campaign donations to Santorum?

Moved to other weather events forum -- this was brought up and discussed before. And belongs off the main site. Discussion here is welcome though. - Mike C.