“Precious hours were wasted”: Trump’s doctored map affected hurricane forecasters

Enlarge / US President Donald Trump references a map held by acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan on Wednesday. (credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

On Wednesday, when President Donald Trump was showing off a doctored hurricane forecast in the White House Oval Office, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center were mortified.

It was a critical moment for the federal tropical cyclone experts because Hurricane Dorian had begun to show signs of re-intensifying—it would later become a major hurricane again—and its track appeared increasingly likely to bring the storm’s center ashore somewhere in the Carolinas. Two sources in the Miami-based hurricane center told Ars that Trump’s “update” on Hurricane Dorian effectively paralyzed operations.

After Trump spoke, the forecasters’ cell phones buzzed with incessant distractions. Media briefings were stopped for the afternoon. “Precious hours were wasted,” one official at the center told me. “We aren’t going to put out bad forecasts, but we need to keep the eye on the ball here.”