WeatherBell’s Joe Bastardi, formerly of AccuWeather, made an ass of himself this past weekend. Bastardi decided to tweet following the announcement that the May 31 tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma was downgraded from an EF-5 to an EF-3:
So I wonder if climatic ambulance chasers are going to admit what most of us knew. their El Reno f5 was not an f5.
— Joe Bastardi (@BigJoeBastardi) August 31, 2013
Regardless of what intensity the National Weather Service assigned to the tornado, there were over 20 fatalities1 that resulted from the storm - including children. Bastardi showed that he cared more about making a self-congratulatory, non-scientific, political opinion than he did about the victims. That makes him the Jerk of the Week.
As a meteorologist, I’m embarrassed that he has any association with our field.
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The tornado was directly responsible for eight deaths, while drownings claimed the remainder of the reported total. Thanks to Patrick Marsh for clarifying the fatality numbers. ↩︎