Hundreds of employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service have lost their jobs as a part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal government through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. According to the New York Times, nearly 200 of those employees worked at already-understaffed weather forecasting offices.
Among other things, NOAA and the NWS are responsible for weather forecasts and issuing severe storm warnings across the nation. Experts have warned that the Trump administration’s cuts could dramatically impact the agencies’ ability to effectively forecast dangerous weather as states across the country, including Alabama, face tornado and hurricane seasons.
U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California, the senior Democrat on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology — which oversees the NWS — recently decried the dangerous consequences of the Trump administration’s cuts to the weather service.
“Chaotic and illegal firings, coercions to resign, reductions in force, and a general obsession with destroying the morale of dedicated public servants have left the National Weather Service’s workforce so strained they cannot carry out their duties as they once did,” Lofgren said.
Indeed, reports are already surfacing of understaffed NWS offices scrambling to properly forecast storms in states like Kentucky, where a deadly tornado killed over 20 people late last week.
While the 122 NWS weather offices across the nation are forced to cut back programs like weather balloon launches and tailored forecasting, the U.S. is on track to see a historically active and destructive tornado season. NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center has recorded more preliminary tornado reports by May 20 than in any year since 2011, with Alabama’s neighboring state of Mississippi leading the rest of the country with 97 tornado reports so far this year.
Both current and former NWS officials are expressing concern about their ability to effectively monitor severe weather like tornadoes due to the Trump administration’s cuts.
“It has made it hard on the local offices just to make sure that we have all of our important duties covered. But, I mean, most of the people take those important duties seriously, so we’re going to do what it takes to cover it,” Rich Thompson, lead operations forecaster at the NWS Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma told ABC News. “I hope we’re not in the same staffing situation long term. … It would be hard to sustain this for months or years.”
“They’ll continue to answer the bell as long as they can, but you can only ask people to work 80 hours or 120 hours a week, you know for so long,” Elbert “Joe” Friday, a former weather service director, also told ABC. “They may be so bleary-eyed, they can’t identify what’s going on on the radar.”
Popular Alabama meteorologist James Spann also made a post to his Facebook page in February, warning of the dangers of cutting NWS services.
“NWS meteorologists work long, hard hours serving the people of this country, not only during times of severe weather, but on the routine days as well. Their surface and upper air observation networks along with computer models, radars, and satellites are critical for all meteorologists, including those of us in the private sector,” Spann wrote. “Most NWS field offices are currently understaffed right now. I can only imagine morale is not especially high.”
“Many high-level politicians follow this page, both Democrats and Republicans. I would encourage them and all of you to support my colleagues at the National Weather Service during this time,” Spann continued. “Their service is absolutely invaluable. If NWS products and services are reduced, we all suffer… especially during times of life-threatening weather.”
On Tuesday, several likely tornadoes hit northern Alabama, with both the Huntsville and Birmingham NWS offices broadcasting severe weather warnings. No injuries or fatalities were reported, but survey teams are currently sorting through large amounts of storm damage in north and central Alabama.
The Trump administration’s cuts to NWS and NOAA have yet to show a tangible impact on Alabama’s storm-readiness, but a clearer picture may emerge as tornado season continues through the rest of May and into June.
The Birmingham NWS office declined APR’s request for comment on how the cuts are impacting their capacity to forecast severe weather in the state.
