As Trump’s layoffs at the National Weather Service continue to affect local offices across the United States, the agency announced Thursday that staffing restrictions could further cut or halt weather balloon launches.
The announcement comes a day after weeks of legal uncertainty over widespread staff reductions, and the agency’s Sacramento office announced it would be reducing the scope and frequency of certain forecast products as it stopped responding to public telephone lines and “significantly reduced staff.” Before that announcement, the office said it would limit weather updates on social media.
This change is one of many things that weather services managers are likely to make in preparation for an era of “degraded operations” under the current administration.
“The cracks are actually beginning to show,” said Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate scientist. During this week’s discussion of federal cuts, Swain noted that he would propose more budget cuts at the Meteorological Bureau and its parent agency, the National Maritime and Atmospheric Administration, which he described as “monologically devastating.”
“We’ve already seen great results from decimation in the past,” Swain said. “This will degrade the weather forecast.”
On Thursday, the department announced it is likely to halt weather balloon launches at several locations across the country, and it could reduce the amount of predictive data captured by balloons via sensors in the upper atmosphere. The latest announcement previously did not specify exactly how many sites would be halting their releases twice a day, but said that reductions would occur because of “selected sites… due to staffing restrictions or operational priorities.”
The decision came after several other locations, including Alaska, Nebraska and South Dakota, had already stopped launches.
NOAA agencies, including weather services, provide important alerts and forecasts in weather emergency and monitor extreme events such as hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, extreme heat and dangerous fires. It also researches and monitors marine health, climate change, fisheries and atmospheric phenomena.
Before the January firefighting operation that destroyed parts of Los Angeles County, weather department officials warned residents and emergency responders about potentially threatening winds that could promote extreme fire behavior. Such forecasts remain an important part of fire response nationwide.
According to a report from Science, the Trump administration is looking to cut further NOAA budgets after massive agency-wide cuts in February. The proposal seeks to cut the agency’s budget by $1.7 billion by reducing effectively ending all climate-focused research.
“The scientific backbone and workforce needed to keep weather forecasts, alerts and warnings accurate and effective is unclear, but almost certainly dire, for public safety and economic health,” the National Weather Association said in a joint statement.
Zoelofgren, a ranking member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, said additional cuts and cuts in weather services would only further harm “the lives-saving public services that people depend on every day.” She called on Trump and his administration to stop targeting agents.
“A reluctance to the president’s actions and care for important public services will unnecessarily harm people,” Lofgren said in a statement this week. “The general obsession with chaotic and illegal dismissals, forced resignation, reduced power and destroying the morale of dedicated civil servants leaves the National Weather Service workforce unsatisfied and unable to perform their duties as they once did.”
The Sacramento Meteorologist, facing extremely short staffing, says that an email sent to partners will issue a condensed daily forecast discussion only once a day. The San Francisco Chronicle was the first to report on the issue.
The office also said it would not answer public calls and limit overnight staffing and mandatory duties. Earlier this month, the office will post on a typical active X page that says “this account is restricted from monitoring and posting in the future,” and instead directs it to that web page for real-time weather information.
So far, other weather services offices in California have not reported staffing issues affecting operations.
However, in a new agreement between the National Weather Service and its employee union, the department described what was called a future staffing shortage, and what was described as an accidental staffing shortage. Agents are under employment freeze.
The New York Times shows that across more than 100 field offices nationwide, the contract could reach 35% compared to current staffing levels. Vacancy rates are already high, and are estimated to be sitting at around 20% as of early April.
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