Alabama in trouble again? The man behind the Sharpiegate scandal has been appointed head of NOAA, the main US weather agency.
The Senate has confirmed Neil Jacobs as head of NOAA, despite his role in the 2019 scandal, when politics proved more important than forecast accuracy. Meteorologists are sounding the alarm.
Trump, the Hurricane, and the Marker…
September 2019. Category 5 Hurricane Dorian is approaching the US coast. On September 1, President Donald Trump tweeted that Alabama “will likely be impacted (much) more severely than expected.”
The problem is, it wasn’t true. The National Weather Service in Alabama immediately refuted the statement: “Alabama will NOT see any impacts from Hurricane Dorian.”
Instead of admitting his mistake, the president doubled down. On September 4, Trump displayed a NOAA forecast map in which the hurricane’s path had been visibly altered with a black marker to include Alabama. According to the Washington Post, Trump personally altered the map.
“Apparently, the president is convinced Alabama was in the path of Dorian, and someone altered the NOAA map with a marker to convince people,” NOAA employee Makeda Okolo wrote in an internal email on September 5. “Yes, crazy,” her colleague responded.
When NOAA Betrayed Scientists
The most shocking thing happened next. Instead of defending their meteorologists, who were simply telling the truth, NOAA management issued a statement criticizing the Birmingham weather service for contradicting the president’s claims.
An investigation conducted on behalf of NOAA found that the agency’s leadership violated its scientific integrity policy by releasing a statement supporting President Trump’s false assertion about Hurricane Dorian’s path.
Neil Jacobs, then acting head of NOAA, was at the center of the scandal. An investigation found improper political influence in the drafting of the statement, a violation of NOAA’s standards of scientific integrity, but Jacobs defended the statement and censured the Birmingham meteorologists.
On September 10, 2019, at a meteorologists’ conference in Alabama, Jacobs, almost tearfully, thanked the criticized Birmingham forecasters: “Nobody’s job is at risk—not mine, not yours.” “Weather shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” he added.
But his words were at odds with his actions.
Returning to NOAA, with forecasts now a marker?
Six years later, history has come full circle. On October 7, 2025, the Senate confirmed Neil Jacobs as head of NOAA by a vote of 51-47, as part of a mass confirmation of 107 nominees.
Jacobs is an experienced meteorologist with a doctorate in atmospheric science. He has the knowledge and expertise. But his past raises serious questions about the scientific independence of the agency upon which the lives of millions of Americans depend.
What Meteorologists Say: Concern for the Future of Forecasts
The Union of Concerned Scientists warned that Jacobs’ appointment jeopardizes scientific integrity and vital science at NOAA—the agency that collects, shares, and uses cutting-edge scientific data to understand and predict climate and extreme weather.
The published emails from the scandal highlight the contrast: Chief Scientist Craig MacLean defended NOAA scientists and launched an investigation into scientific integrity, National Weather Service Administrator Louis Ucellini took a principled stance, and the previous NOAA administrator openly considered resigning. “We see no evidence of such principled statements from Jacobs, either in his letters or in his public statements since then,” notes the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Following Jacobs’s confirmation hearing in July 2025, the organization expressed concern: “Either he supports NOAA research, or he supports budget cuts. He can’t do both.”
During the hearing, the senator directly pointed out the contradiction: “I just lost people—voters—in New Mexico. Voters died in Texas,” emphasizing the critical importance of independent scientific forecasts for saving lives.
Politics and Weather: A National Security Threat
The accuracy of weather forecasts is not an academic matter. It’s a matter of life and death. When a hurricane approaches the coast, every hour of warning matters. People make evacuation decisions based on official forecasts.
What will happen the next time a forecast proves inconvenient for politicians? Will Jacobs defend his meteorologists or cave to pressure again?
Former NOAA employees are concerned about scientific integrity.
Jacobs’s legacy after his previous involvement in Sharpiegate.
NOAA is more than just a weather agency. It is an organization that:
- Issues warnings for hurricanes, tornadoes, and other hazardous events
- Manages U.S. fisheries
- Monitors climate change
- Coordinates marine commerce
NOAA has one of the most stringent scientific integrity policies in the federal government. The question is whether the new leader will uphold those standards.
Will the hurricane forecast story repeat itself?
“Weather shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” Jacobs said in 2019. But his own actions have proven otherwise. When science collided with politics, politics won.
Now, as climate change makes extreme weather increasingly frequent and devastating, Americans need independent, objective scientific information more than ever. NOAA must be an institution they can trust implicitly.
Jacobs’s statement sends a dangerous signal: in an era of political polarization, even weather forecasting can fall victim to partisan interests. This threatens more than just the agency’s reputation—it threatens the lives of the people who rely on its forecasts. The 2019 marker incident wasn’t just a comedic anecdote. It was a warning. And now the man who failed to heed it will lead an agency that must tell the truth, no matter how inconvenient.
Gleb Perov is the founder and chief meteorologist of POGODNIK, a leading weather forecasting service in Eastern Europe. With over 15 years of hands-on experience in meteorology and climate analysis, he has worked private weather services.
Gleb is the author of numerous scientific and analytical publications on climate, magnetic storms, and atmospheric processes. He regularly collaborates with major international agencies such as NOAA, ECMWF.
