NSW wind speed map from yesterday.

So we get all kinds of predictions about global warming and its purported devastating effects. We get warning of hurricanes, (which often turn out to be damp squibs). How come a major storm can slip through and hit NSW with virtually no advance notice? The Daily Mail reports–

NSW residents were shocked by the severity of Tuesday’s storm because the Bureau of Meteorology could not forecast exactly where it would form, a climate specialist has said. Don White from WeatherWatch Australia said forecasters also lacked information from the upper atmosphere that would have helped to predict the severity of the storm.

‘It’s just economics. Weather balloons can now only be used in a limited number of places because of budget cuts, so there’s not as many going up every day which means we don’t get the same data as before from the upper atmosphere,’ he said. At least three people have died and millions of dollars damage caused to homes and cars as the massive storm entered its third day on Wednesday.

No doubt the funding that is needed to do accurate weather forecasting has been diverted to study the “much more threatening” issue of global warming.