Deal dumps state climatologist

By Kristina Torres

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gov. Nathan Deal has dumped Georgia's longtime state climatologist without apparently telling him, just as 150 Georgia counties became eligible for federal aid because of ongoing drought and excessive heat.

Deal with no public announcement signed an executive order Tuesday appointing a state employee to take over the climatologist's job, which for years had been housed at the University of Georgia in Athens. The new state climatologist, Bill Murphey, works in a meteorology unit for the state's Environmental Protection Division in Atlanta.

Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said in an email that Deal wanted to consolidate the work within the division. "The former climatologist works at UGA," Robinson said, "and does this on the side."

But former state climatologist David Stooksbury, reached by phone Thursday afternoon, said he had no direct communication from the governor’s office about the change.

"I have not been told one way or the other," said Stooksbury, an assistant engineering professor who became the state climatologist in 1999, according to a UGA publication. "There’s nothing to comment about because I haven’t seen anything from the governor’s office directly."

The State Climatology Office had been housed in the university's biological and agricultural engineering department. According to the office's website, which still identified Stooksbury as the climatologist on Thursday, the purpose of the office is to provide climate information on historic or long-term weather data, to monitor current climate conditions in Georgia and to research topics concerning the state's weather and climate.

According to the office, state climatologists historically were federal employees of the National Weather Service until the 1970s, when funding was taken over by individual state agencies.

Deal announced Thursday that U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will make Georgia farmers and other business owners eligible to apply for emergency loans and other benefits based on losses due to drought.

Staff writer David Ibata contributed to this article.