Dozens of understaffed National Weather Service offices will struggle to provide monitoring and forecasting services as the Trump administration continues to slash NOAA’s staffing, according to the union representing NWS employees.
“We’re starting to get a better picture of what the impacts are, and it’s very worrisome,” JoAnn Becker, national president of the National Weather Service Employees Organization, said in an interview Monday, adding “our ability to operate has been significantly hampered.”
In addition to the forecast offices, critical field operations have also been interrupted by the layoffs. For example, weather balloon launches in Alaska, Maine and New York “have either been canceled or [made] intermittent due to short staffing,” Becker said.
NWS lost 278 employees, or about 7 percent of 4,000 employees, under the first series of NOAA cuts, according to the union. That included 170 staffers who accepted the Trump administration’s “deferred resignation” offers and 108 probationary employees fired on Feb. 27. Outside observers have estimated that NOAA lost about 650 workers in the dismissal of those still in their probationary periods.
