National Weather Service To Hire 126 People After 600 Jobs Were Cut

After losing around 600 employees to layoffs and retirements as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the federal work force, The New York Times, Yahoo and other news sites are reporting that the National Weather Service is planning to hire additional staff members to “stabilize” the department.

According to NewsNation, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency gutted the NWS and NOAA—which provide daily weather forecasts, up-to-the-minute severe storm warnings, climate monitoring and extreme weather tracking; information that is critical to recreational boaters, especially now that hurricane season has arrived.

Hundreds of weather forecasters were fired and other NOAA employees were put on probationary status in February, followed by a later round of more than 1,000 cuts at the agency. By April, nearly half of NWS forecast offices had 20 percent vacancy rates. The cuts caused concerns that the National Weather Service’s ability to predict weather events had been compromised too deeply. Among those who expressed apprehension about the layoffs were BoatUS, meteorologists and former NWS directors who said that dangerous weather, including hurricanes, might not be accurately modeled or predicted.

According to The Times, Erica Grow Cei, a spokeswoman for the National Weather Service, said “a targeted number” of permanent positions would soon be advertised to refill some of the jobs that were eliminated.

Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the union that represents Weather Service employees, said the department had been granted an exemption to President Trump’s government-wide hiring freeze to hire 126 people in positions around the country, including meteorologists, hydrologists, physical scientists and electronics technicians.

On the cusp of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began on Sunday, some observers had expressed concerns about understaffed offices and fatigue. BoatUS, which represent 725,000 boaters nationwide, registered its concerns in April, saying that indiscriminate reductions of NOAA agency staff and funding would undermine the safety of boaters on the water. In a letter to Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), BoatUS stated that “The NWS is responsible for monitoring and predicting severe weather events, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. These natural disasters can cause significant loss of life and property, and the timely warnings and forecasts provided by the NWS are instrumental in mitigating their impact on boaters. For example, an accurate 5-day forecast of a hurricane’s landfall will give boat owners crucial time to prepare for the storm. Reductions in the NWS’s ability to make such forecasts will likely lead to greater vessel losses, more marine debris and costly clean-up operations.”

At a news conference in New Orleans last month to announce that it was forecasting an above-average hurricane season, officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Weather Service’s parent agency, acknowledged those concerns indirectly. NOAA predicts an “above-normal” hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin for 2025, with a 60 percent chance of an above-normal season. This means boaters should expect more hurricanes and tropical storms than an average year. The season officially runs from June 1st to the end of November, but storms can form outside of this period

The National Weather Service (NWS) provides important information for boaters during hurricane season, including warnings, watches, and advisories. According to a former NWS chief, a recent reduction in launches of National Weather Service weather balloons—caused by staff cuts—has led to a slight decline in the past few weeks of the accuracy of U.S. weather models.

The 20-foot-wide balloons feed information on temperature, wind speeds, humidity and other atmospheric conditions into weather models, which according to Joe Friday, a former NWS director ,have recently declined in accuracy.

Meanwhile, the NWS’ Hurricane Hunter program, which flies aircraft into the hearts of tropical cyclones to collect information on wind speeds and other conditions, is operating at reduced capacity.

The Hurricane Hunter measurements feed hurricane forecasts in real time and help long-term research on tropical cyclones. Staffing shortages and aircraft problems have led to flight cancellations in recent years and according to Environment and Energy News, the Trump administration laid off several employees involved in the Hurricane Hunter missions. The administration also proposed eliminating funding for NOAA’s network of laboratories and cooperative research institutes, including the University of Miami’s Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, whose scientists collect key data on the Hurricane Hunter flights.

Experts have sounded the alarm that the previous job reductions could jeopardize public safety. Louis Uccellini, another former NWS director, told E&E News that the NWS cuts will also hurt interaction with local emergency managers, government agencies and community groups. “That fabric is gonna get pulled apart,” he said. “And at some point, it’s going to rip and you’re not going to be able to get it back together again.”