Cliff Mass also blogged [1] about the NOAA supercomputer. While a day after the USA Today's article, many folks appreciate his perspective. He's posted on this several times in the past year [2].
[1] http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-national-weather-s...
[2] https://www.google.com/webhp?#q=supercomputer+site:+cliffmas...