In the wake of the historic seven-foot snowfall in Buffalo last month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has criticized the federally funded National Weather Service for not doing enough to predict the damaging storm. Cuomo says his $18.7 million initiative to install 125 weather sensor stations throughout the state would do a better job predicting future storms.

Weather experts, however, disagree; they say Cuomo’s system would help with the “detection” of weather events such as floods or wildfires, but it wouldn’t help with storm prediction, which requires weather satellites and a supercomputer. Some prominent meteorologists have also defended the National Weather Service, which accurately predicted the major storm in Buffalo a day in advance.

Rather than wasting time squabbling with the National Weather Service, Cuomo should instead lobby our federal legislators to make sure the National Weather Service has the financial resources and latest equipment to improve its performance at predicting future storms, if needed. New York state should not be competing with this agency, it should be fighting for its improvement.