Neil Jacobs led NOAA on an acting basis for part of the president’s first term, including in September 2019 when Trump appeared to use a marker to alter an official National Hurricane Center map to incorrectly show that Hurricane Dorian would hit Alabama.
Neil Jacobs led NOAA on an acting basis for part of the president’s first term, including in September 2019 when Trump appeared to use a sharpie marker to incorrectly alter an official National Hurricane Center map.
Rather than supporting Alabama-based National Weather Service meteorologists — who reported the state would not be impacted by the hurricane — the NOAA leadership backed a claim made by Mr Trump suggesting the hurricane posed a threat.
However, a 2020 internal NOAA report determined Jacobs and then-NOAA communications director Julie Kay Roberts compromised the agency’s scientific integrity policy with the statement.
Jacobs currently serves as the chief science adviser for the Unified Forecast System, an initiative aimed at improving the accuracy of U.S. weather and climate forecasting and fostering collaboration between NOAA and researchers.
