Official National Weather Service Twitter Account for Eastern North Dakota Calls Mitt Romney a “Fraud”

Something odd happened on the official, verified National Weather Service account for eastern North Dakota today. It posted a message, responding to Republican Mitt Romney, calling the one-time Presidential candidate a “fraud.”

I didn’t get a chance to capture which Romney tweet this was in response to before it was deleted, but I’m pretty sure it was this one:

Responding on a tweeted inquiry, the NWS said it was an accident resulting from a non-official linked account:

The tweet has since been deleted.

UPDATE: From the Grand Forks Herald:

The Weather Service later clarified the tweet was a mistake, after deleting it and apologizing to Forum News Service blogger Rob Port, who tweeted a screenshot of the post.

“We realize it was political in nature and something atypical of the national weather service,” Science Operations Officer Tom Grafenauer said. Grafenauer explained all employees have access to the organization’s Twitter page to post weather updates for the community.

“An employee had thought that he had logged out and was using his own account,” Grafenauer said.

Going forward, the local NWS is considering an additional apology to the public and reviewing its social media policy with employees.

“Stick with the weather,” Grafenauer said. “Stick with the facts. We don’t put our opinions, especially our political opinions out there.”