Trump Uses Altered Map To Back His Claim Dorian Would Hit Alabama

WASHINGTON, DC — A statement by President Donald Trump last week that included Alabama among the states that would be hit by Hurricane Dorian had local meteorologists scratching their heads. Even the National Weather Service refuted Trump's claim, issuing an official statement reiterating that Alabama was not in Dorian's path. However, Trump doubled down on the statement this week, displaying what appeared to be an altered weather map to back his statement.

Birmingham meteorologist James Spann took to Twitter Sept. 1 responding to Trump's claim, reassuring Alabamians that the state would not be impacted in any way.

An NPR report said Trump displayed at a Wednesday briefing what appeared to be an official National Weather Service map from last Thursday, in which the storm's projected path was extended by a black marker to include Alabama.

"It's heading up the coast, and Florida was grazed," he said. But meteorologists focused on the portion of the map that had been altered with the black marker.

"I know that Alabama was in the original forecast they thought it would get it as a piece of it," Trump said, and insisted there were forecasts in which Alabama was considered in the storm's path.

At one point last week, the NWS did have Alabama seeing some effects of Dorian, but that forecast was amended by the weekend to show the hurricane shifting east of Alabama.