This was posted as a comment on Jeff Master's Wunderground blog:

"FSU Meteorology has received a memorandum from the administration requiring us to take actions which seem to us to restrict our ability to continue to offer real-time weather forecasts (even clearly identified experimental models) of any kind to the general public. Until we obtain further clarification, in the interest of due caution, these pages have been withdrawn from the web until further notice. That is basically all we can say about it right now.

Paul Ruscher / Meteorology"

I called and did get direct information from the FSU Meteorology Dept.

This is the text of the memo that was sent by the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President of the university to the Met. Dept. This should be helpful in framing feedback.

"With the advent of the 2006 hurricane season and the continuing expectation that serious storms will affect the coastal US, let me remind you that Florida State University's Meteorology Department is not in the business of providing real-time hurricane forecasts for public consumption. The National Hurricane Center in Miami is the official agency charged with providing hurricane forecasts to the public. It could cause serious confusion and significant legal issues for any person or entity to provide forecasting information that is in conflict with the NHC."

The way this is worded, I feel there is clearly more behind the scenes than is said. There was probably more specific information that was not made available to the general public.

* * * * * * *

I have found out what is going on and I was very much reassured. I can tell you that the university is probably going to provide a more detailed statement on what is going on, shortly. I think this will be helpful in stemming paranoia that this is the first step of an overall trend to restrict weather information. That is really not the case. So don't worry. It will just take some time to straighten things out. Also, feedback will not be required at this point and will not help the situation.