White House map of Hurricane Dorian confused everyone on Twitter

By Jenna Lyons on Wed, Sep 4, 2019 at 5:59 pm

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White House map of Hurricane Dorian confused everyone on Twitter

Screenshot via White House / Twitter

There's a picture making the rounds on Twitter of President Trump presenting a Hurricane Dorian trajectory and folks find it confusing.

Ryan Breton, a meteorologist based in Maine, pointed it out on Twitter. It appears a black mark is extending Dorian's trajectory to Alabama.

It's not the standard way to draw forecast cones, apparently.

Can't let this go unnoticed. @realDonaldTrump displayed a doctored version of the @NHC_Atlantic forecast for #Dorian.

The black extension past Florida did not exist; that's not how forecast cones are drawn. pic.twitter.com/GqHikOBYU6
— Ryan Breton (@RyanBretonWX) September 4, 2019

Trump did say that what he was holding was an original projection, and original maps from the National Hurricane Center did project that Dorian would reach Alabama.

Tropical-storm-force winds from #Dorian could begin in parts of Florida *as early as* Sunday morning. Now is the time to think about what kinds of preparations you might need to make and listen to advice from your local emergency officials https://t.co/yChCF6oWL9 pic.twitter.com/KAFnJSd0Gy
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) August 30, 2019

But Twitter users pointed out Dorian's current path looks nothing like the old map that the president presented in his short video update posted online.