Top weather service officials fired for getting forecast wrong

An opposition-leaning commentator is outraged by the decision to dismiss two leading meteorologists after the traditional St. Stephen’s day fireworks display was cancelled because of a storm warning which didn’t materialize.

On hang.hu, Magyar Hang’s website, Roland Balogh finds the firing of the director of the Meteorological Institute and her deputy absurd. Since at noon on 20 August the meteorological service forecast that the chance of a heavy storm that night was high, he writes, it was up to the the governmental operative committee in charge of the festivities to decide whether to call off the fireworks or not. Why couldn’t the authorities wait a few hours before taking their decision? He asks,  as no one could safely predict nine hours in advance where exactly the storm would strike. He describes the authorities’ behaviour as disrespectful towards science.

Magyar Nemzet quotes Gergely Gulyás, the Cabinet Minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office, who told the press that the 20 August mishap was just ‘the last drop in the glass’ as the government was already dissatisfied with the leading meteorologists within the national weather service.

Tags: Gulyás, St Stephen, weather