Trump’s Firing Spree Hits Weather Forecasters at Worst Time Possible
The Trump administration’s mass layoffs have now come for the government agency that provides weather forecasts, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The agency, which is overseen by the Department of Commerce, began mass cuts on Thursday, with some fired employees being given less than two hours’ notice, NPR reports. Some of the staff managing central weather forecasting models had to rush to transfer access to employees who weren’t fired.
The cuts leave the NOAA short-staffed as severe weather is expected to threaten the southeastern U.S. next week, and hurricane season will arrive in the Atlantic in the next few months.
It’s not clear how many employees were fired, but NOAA has 12,000 employees who work on weather forecasting, managing oceanic fisheries, protecting coastal resources, and managing maritime maps critical to global shipping. The weather reports that Americans read on their phones and watch on TV are sourced from the National Weather Service, which is part of the NOAA.
Experts say that staff reductions could reduce the accuracy of forecasts or delay updating maritime maps that are key to safe passage within America’s oceanic waters.
“Breaking up, defunding, or reducing NOAA’s highly integrated workforce will severely impact our nation’s economy,” NOAA’s former administrators wrote in an open letter to Congress. “It will also make it more difficult to receive weather forecasts, be assured of the safety of seafood, and ensure the timely delivery of purchases from overseas, which are delivered primarily through our nation’s ports.”
“We all earned our positions,” one former NOAA employee who worked in fisheries policy told NPR anonymously. “It’s so disheartening. And it’s really reducing the intellectual and regulatory capabilities of the agency.”
These cuts seem to back what was spelled out in Project 2025 months ago: The agency should shift away from its vital public services and into commercial operations, like selling its valuable weather and environmental data to private companies. In the eyes of the Trump administration, the benefits the agency provides could soon be reduced to a dollar sign.