Former National Hurricane Center Director and broadcast meteorologist legend Dr. Neal Frank has died. Dr. Frank has spent decades improving hurricane forecasts and getting the word out about all kinds of storms. Dr. Frank was also outspoken on matters of man made climate change, arguing that it is a “hoax”; he even urged President Obama not to sign-on to the Paris Climate Agreement, describing it is nothing more than a “money grabbing scam” that does nothing for the environment. He passed away at 12:24 am on December 24 and was 94.
Dr. Frank was at the National Hurricane Center for 25 years beginning in 1961 and eventually became its Director in 1974. Dr. Frank is the National Hurricane Center’s longest lasting leader, serving 13 years at the helm. Over that time, he led innovations with everything from weather satellite imagery to public communications, regularly interfacing with emergency managers and the public with easy-to-understand and act-upon information about tropical storms and hurricanes. Dr. Frank is also attributed to making the agency’s first probability based forecasts and introducing the concept of what is now known as the “forecast cone” for landfalling tropical cyclones.
In 1987, Dr. Frank joined CBS affiliate KHOU-11 in Houston, Texas as its Chief Meteorologist and worked in that role for 21 years until 2008. A fixture of the Houston television market, Dr. Frank informed viewers of countless storms, floods, droughts, and of course hurricanes to impact the region over his tenure.
Over time, Dr. Frank became more and more vocal about what he perceived as misinformation about climate science and “climate change.” A believer that Earth’s climate is driven exclusively by non-human processes, Dr. Frank has participated in many meetings and broadcast to share his take on things.
Dr. Neil Frank, former Director of @NHC_Atlantic, challenges the thinking of hurricanes & global warming at #NTWC22. His final point: there are no trends that support the idea that global warming is increasing the number of hurricanes in the Atlantic …or even the globe. pic.twitter.com/kQJ6YSoBys
— the Weatherboy (@theWeatherboy) April 8, 2022
One such venue he spoke was the 2022 National Tropical Weather Conference. (Disclosure: Weatherboy is a sponsor of the conference but has no say in the editorial content of the event.) There, Dr. Frank told the audience, which included current leadership from the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center, along with top broadcast meteorologists from across the country, that the sun is the primary driver of Earth’s climate and that mankind’s impact is inconsequential.
“In 2017, 485 peer review papers said CO2 is not to blame for changing climate conditions; the sun is,” Dr. Frank told the National Tropical Weather Conference audience.
Neil Frank grew up in Wellington, Kansas, and attended nearby Southwestern College in Winfield. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1953 and then military training in weather forecasting, he earned master’s and Ph.D. degrees in meteorology. at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Dr. Frank also served as a meteorologist in the U.S. Air Force at Homestead Air Force Base in Homestead, Florida, the base to be significantly impacted by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 while he was the National Hurricane Center Director.
His son Ron Frank wrote on Facebook, “He passed on Christmas Eve, surrounded by a praying family singing hymns and praises, lying in bed at home next to the love of his life.” Dr. Frank is also survived by his wife, Velma.
