About 600 miles off the west coast of Africa, large clusters of thunderstorms begin organizing into tropical storms every hurricane season. They aren't yet in range of Hurricane Hunter flights, so forecasters at the National Hurricane Center rely on weather satellites to peer down on these storms and beam back information about their location,

This latest blow to federal forecasting abilities is sparking outrage from meteorologists and public officials.

Meteorologists are losing a sophisticated tool that has proved invaluable when monitoring and forecasting hurricanes.