As Jamaica faces a catastrophic Category 5 storm, federal budget cuts could make it harder for forecasters to track systems like Hurricane Melissa.

The proposed cuts could halt meteorologists’ progress in providing more and more accurate forecasts for tropical storms and hurricanes like Melissa.

Ginger Zee, chief meteorologist for ABC News, flew with a group of hurricane hunters who collect critical information that powers the weather models that determine when and where these life-threatening storms will hit.

“It’s kind of like an MRI, where you’re going and really getting like a three-dimensional picture inside the storm, and a full scan, basically,” said Andy Hazelton, Associate Scientist at the University of Miami Cooperative Institute for Marine & Atmospheric Studies.

This informa

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