The Donald Trump shutdown of the government is having an impact on Meteorologists.

It seems that the shutdown means that the weather folks are not getting some lake temperatures.

KQDS (Duluth) Meteorologist Brittney Merlot says, “As a Meteorologist an important reading we need this time of year is the water temperature. It helps us determine lake effect snow and also monitor lake ice formation.”

Every year the buoys in the waters of Lake Superior are taken out by November. This is because freezing spray can break gadgets and tools on the buoy’s or even tip them completely over. Once they are pulled out of the lake, it’s now up to the Coast Guard to measure the lake temperatures.

But with the partial Government Shutdown underway, University of Minnesota Duluth Limnology Professor Jay Austin says, “There are no current direct measurements of lake surface temperature available right now.”

When you head to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website where you can normally monitor the lake temperature from, it now reads…

“The website you are trying to access is not available at this time due to a lapse in appropriation.”

The shutdown is making Meteorologists job of predicting the weather that much harder.

H/T KQDS