Fireworks will be cancelled again in Budapest? Here is the forecast
The fireworks on 20 August, the Hungarian national holiday, were cancelled due to a high chance of rain and storm. The evening could have ended very badly had storms interfered. The fireworks were postponed to the next Saturday, 27 August – today. What do forecasts say about today’s weather? Read our article to find out!
Weather forecast for Saturday
Clouds are gathering around the fireworks: the National Meteorological Service (OMSZ) is forecasting thunderstorms for Saturday again. The meteorological service has issued a first level warning for Pest county for Saturday, reports szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu.
As they write, during the day, mainly in the Transdanubian region, there will be a greater chance of scattered showers, but in the central part of the country and in the southern part of the Danube-Tisza basin, there is also a small chance of such precipitation. Strong or gusty winds may occur around thunderstorms. The OMSZ has therefore issued a first level warning for Saturday for several counties due to thunderstorms.
Previous events – the firing of weather officials
As we reported before, the head and the vice-head of the OMSZ was fired because of “wrong forecasting”. László Palkovics, minister of technology and innovation, decided to fire the top officials, chairwoman Kornélia Radics and vice-chair Gyula Horváth because the OMSZ said there would be thunderstorms on 20 August. Therefore, the government postponed the fireworks, but the rain did not arrive.
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András Bencsik, editor-in-chief of Hungarian news portal Demokrata, said that “in his opinion, this was a hasty decision”. According to him, “we should get out of this nonsense” of trying to support a hasty decision with some theory afterwards. He said that had PM Viktor Orbán been home at the time of the decision, this would not have happened. We have also written about Orbán’s vacation abroad, in Croatia.
Meteorologists from 42 countries show solidarity
By now, 65 meteorologists from 42 countries have expressed their solidarity with the dismissed leaders of the OMSZ. The open letter from Climate Without Borders, an international organisation, was signed by meteorologists from public broadcasters including Ghana, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Colombia, Taiwan, Spain and Kenya as well.
In a statement shared on their Facebook page, they begin:
“Normally, we share stories about extreme weather with each other and our viewers but this week our community was shocked to learn that two of our Hungarian colleagues had lost their jobs, simply because they did them properly.”
“As forecasters, our first mission is to protect life and property. When Hungarian meteorologists saw danger in the forecast, they did what any of us would do – warned of the risk to life. For this, the head and deputy head of their national weather service have now been dismissed from their posts,”
they continue.
You can read the full post and the list of meteorologists from all around the world below:
Update
By now, the list has grown to include 83 persons from all 7 continents! See the update post below:
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Source: szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu, Telex.hu, Index.hu, Facebook