Some local and state officials have said that insufficient forecasts from the National Weather Service caught the region off guard. But meteorologists who spoke to WIRED say that the NWS accurately predicted the risk of flooding in Texas and could not have foreseen the extreme severity of the storm. What’s more, they say that what the NWS did forecast this week underscores the need to sustain funding to the crucial agency. Meteorologists first had an idea that a storm may be coming for this part of Texas last weekend, after Tropical Storm Barry made landfall in Mexico. Kidd said that TDEM worked with its meteorologist to “refine” NWS forecasts.