This conviction threatens science in a way that science hasn't been threatened since the days when Galileo was jailed for claiming the Earth was not the center of the universe.  Human arrogance and science simply do not blend.
Now, thanks to this legal precedence, we can all look forward to over-forecasting of natural events and evacuating unnecessarily more than when it's really needed.  I see a "boy who cried wolf" attitude forming in the future.
This conviction was so very damaging in so many ways.

The "boy who cried wolf" scenario is the one that scares me. I also find it disturbing on a very fundamental level (I can't put my finger on it) that authorities feel this is something they can proceed on: what else will they begin to consider (that nobody is considering now) in the future?

I agree.  This conviction is more important, and frightening, than people realize.  Convicting and jailing scientists (which are rare considering how dumbed down global society has become, and really these people should be a treasured resource) feels like the first step in discrediting science.   To me, it looks like the start of a new dark age.  

Personally, I'm buying and hoarding as many science books as I can so my daughter and her eventual kids can have access to literature that may well be banned or 'lost'.  Just in case.