(Bloomberg) — The Trump administration fired hundreds of employees at the top US agency overseeing weather prediction and climate research, raising concerns about the nation’s preparedness amid wildfire and tornado warnings.
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The cuts affect the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service and a vast observational system that supplies free data to commercial forecasters. The move is part of a broad effort by the administration to shrink the size of the federal government.
At least 880 people were terminated, Senator Maria Cantwell, the ranking member on the Senate Committee that oversees the agency, said in a statement Thursday. Hundreds more are expected to be let go at NOAA as soon as Friday, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the information is private.
“It’s ridiculous that this is happening to government employees,” said Marnie Brown, who was fired from her job Thursday as a program specialist providing administrative support in NOAA’s Office of General Counsel in Silver Spring, Maryland. She added that the agency “touches your life from the surface of the sun to the bottom of the ocean.”
The firings are taking place just as critical fire weather conditions are expected to develop this weekend in parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. A potentially severe round of thunderstorms, hail and even tornadoes is forecast for the lower Mississippi River Valley next week, said the US Storm Prediction Center, which is part of the NWS.
Typically, the weather service has at least two meteorologists on duty overnight at its more than 120 forecast offices across the US. The staff writes outlooks, launches weather balloons to collect data, and issues warnings for flash floods and tornadoes. When severe weather strikes, such as hurricanes, additional staff are often brought in and more observations can be ordered to feed computer forecast models.
NOAA employed about 12,000 prior to the cuts, including more than 6,700 scientists and engineers and a uniformed service that operates NOAA’s fleet of research ships and planes. Rick Spinrad, an oceanographer who led NOAA during the Biden administration, said the agency had been working to fill vacant positions after a wave of retirements in 2024.
Losing workers “will cause a lot of damage and potentially loss of lives, impact on property and economic development,” Spinrad said. “The mission will suffer. The agency was already understaffed, so if you are cutting into it, you are already cutting into bone.”
NWS spokesperson Susan Buchanan declined to confirm the exact size and scope of the job cuts, citing “long-standing practice” against discussing personnel or management matters at the agency.
“NOAA remains dedicated to its mission, providing timely information, research and resources that serve the American public and ensure our nation’s environmental and economic resilience,” Buchanan said in an email Thursday. “We continue to provide weather information, forecasts and warnings pursuant to our public safety mission.”
Almost 21 million people will have at least a 15% chance of experiencing severe weather Tuesday, including those in Dallas, St. Louis and Nashville. Last year, severe storms — including an outbreak of 110 tornadoes across the central US — killed 51 people and caused about $46.8 billion in damage, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.
NWS weather forecasts are produced by staff at local field offices, which also maintain critical monitoring equipment. In a bulletin Thursday morning — hours before job cuts were announced — Mike Hopkins, a director in NOAA’s Office of Observations, said the agency was “indefinitely suspending” weather balloon launches from Kotzebue, Alaska, due a staffing shortage at the local forecasting station.
The cuts to NOAA come amid an effort from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to reduce the size of the federal workforce. That initiative has included a voluntary program for transitioning to retirement and instructions from the Office of Personnel Management to fire probationary employees, who typically have held their positions for two years or less and sometimes previously served as contractors.
More layoffs are in the works: The White House has directed federal agencies to submit plans by March 13 for “large-scale reductions in force,” in the first phase of more drastic cuts to the federal workforce.
Conservative critics have called for NOAA to be broken up and its responsibilities and assets distributed among other federal departments. But Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who oversees the agency, testified at his confirmation hearing in January that he believes NOAA should remain intact.
Neil Jacobs, the scientist who has been nominated as NOAA’s next administrator, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Jacobs, who was acting NOAA administrator during President Donald Trump’s first term, was cited for misconduct related to the “Sharpiegate” hurricane forecasting controversy.
(Updates with ex-employee comment in fourth paragraph, details throughout)
