Is predicting the weather about to get even trickier? The National Weather Service urgently needs employees

It appears that the Trump’s administration’s plan to trim back the federal workforce and reduce spending is being felt across the country but more than most within the the National Weather Service.

Hundreds of NWS weather forecasters and other federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) employees on probationary status were handed their notice at the end of February.

Large-scale Federal workforce cuts

Around 10% of NOAA’s workforce will be axed in two waves of job cuts, with 500 workers already fired and another 800 set to follow. The first round of cuts were probationary employees with approximately 375 probationary NWS workers losing their jobs. Others were coaxed into accepting early retirement.

Rep. Grace Meng, blasted the move, calling it “unconscionable” to hand workers termination notices “for no good reason”.

The move has left the NWS, which has 122 offices nationwide, “critically understaffed” and the task of day-to-day forecasting and hazard warning much harder for those who are left and have to take up the slack.

Three NWS offices in Kentucky have been struggling to operate as normal with shrinking staffing levels. There is now no meteorologist supervisor at any of the three Kentucky offices: Jackson, Paducah and Louisville. Other offices, such as the one in Breathitt County, doesn’t have enough staff to cover night shifts.

The cuts have also left areas which are traditionally prone to storms and flooding such as Houston and Miami more vulnerable than ever.

The NWS is now looking to hire 76 people for key positions, including meteorologists, in offices which have been left seriously understaffed. The response comes just as southern parts of the country braced themselves for this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, which officially starts on 1 June.

NWS hiring new staff ahead of the upcoming hurricane season

“The National Weather Service continues to meet its core mission of providing life-saving forecasts, warnings, and decision support services to the public, our partners and stakeholders,” Kim Doster, communications director for NOAA said.” In the near term, NWS has updated the service level standards for its weather forecast offices to manage impacts due to shifting personnel resources. This Reassignment Opportunity Notice will non-competitively fill vacancies in critically understaffed operational locations across the National Weather Service,”

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