POLITICAL STORM

Trump Brings Back ‘Sharpiegate’ Scientist to Top NOAA Job

Neil Jacobs played a role in the bizarre episode, in which Trump wrongly claimed where a hurricane would hit.

Donald Trump has reinstated the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief linked to the “Sharpiegate” incident. The Senate confirmed atmospheric scientist Neil Jacobs as the new boss of the administration in charge of weather forecasting, NBC reports. Jacobs was acting administrator in 2019, in Trump’s first term, and now moves into the top job properly. He was at the helm when the president said Hurricane Dorian would hit Alabama, despite forecasters at the National Hurricane Center saying there was almost no chance of it. Under Jacobs’ stewardship, NOAA bowed to the president’s will. The Center’s Birmingham office said Alabama wasn’t at risk, but Trump overruled it, presenting an alternative map of Dorian’s predicted path. On the printed chart was an additional blob drawn on in black Sharpie, his preferred writing instrument. His version did reach Alabama. Storm Dorian did not. It ended up in Canada. Jacob’s agency fell in line with Trump, issuing an unsigned statement in support of the new map. Now at NOAA’s helm, Jacobs will be responsible for weather forecasting and keeping climate records. Trump has railed against the consensus on man-made climate change, deriding it as a hoax. His administration has consistently expressed its preference for the use of fossil fuels and disdain for renewable energy.