With hurricane season approaching, the consequences of Donald Trump’s reckless decision to hollow out the National Weather Service are impossible to ignore.
The agency’s roster of more than 2,500 scientists shrank by about 15% last year through firings and early retirements. The weather service’s data and expertise forms the backbone for all kinds of forecasts, including those shared by television meteorologists and smartphone apps.
The government has been trying to hire back to reverse the damage. In the last six months, officials have hired more than 200 meteorologists and hydrologists — scientists responsible for issuing forecasts and warnings of imminent tornadoes, floods and other severe weather. Neil Jacobs, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the weather service, told a House committee this week that the agency had recently extended job orders to another 206 potential new staffers.
But internal agency data reviewed by the Times shows that as of early last month, the workforce of meteorologists and hydrologists was about 300 fewer than it had been in late 2024.
Those who remain have struggled to keep up with the workload, Ken Graham, the weather service’s director, told the Times in an interview in late January. Graham said then he hoped a reorganization still in its early stages would help.
“People are burning out,” Graham said.
—The New York Times article, Storm Season Is Here and the National Weather Service Is Short Handed