(NewsNation) — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has begun plans to lay off 10% of the current workforce, cuts experts are warning could reduce the ability to accurately warn Americans of severe weather.
That comes as the country heads into the warmer months and faces increasing risks from severe storms. In 2024, there were a historic 1,796 tornadoes, 11 hurricanes and 27 weather disasters where losses exceeded $1 billion.
NOAA cuts hit key areas
It’s not the first round of layoffs for the agency, and by the end of the cuts, NOAA will have eliminated 1 out of every 4 jobs.
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“This is not government efficiency,” said former NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad. “It is the first step toward eradication. There is no way to make these kinds of cuts without removing or strongly compromising mission capabilities.”
In addition to layoffs, two NOAA facilities that are essential to weather forecasting were on a list of lease cancelations made by the Department of Government Efficiency. After reporting on the leases emerged, a White House source told Axios the leases had not been formally canceled but were under evaluation.
Already, the Trump administration has had to backtrack on some layoffs at the agency. NOAA recently rehired hurricane hunters caught up in layoffs. Those meteorologists fly directly into hurricanes to collect data that helps predict and track deadly storms.
What does NOAA do?
The agency is responsible for the National Weather Service, which provides daily weather forecasts. NOAA also provides monitoring and warnings about hurricanes, tornados, floods and tsunamis; provides navigation information to ships and weather data to the FAA; and also plays a role in warnings about space weather that could damage the electrical grid.
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NOAA also performs functions that couldn’t easily be replicated by private industry, like radar and satellite data that require expensive building, launching and maintaining satellites and analyzing all the data that returns from them.
The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore warned that NOAA cuts could lead to less accurate forecasting. NWS data is currently available for free and is not just used by individuals seeking forecasts but by private forecasting companies as well.
Could cuts put Americans at risk for severe weather?
Many Americans rely on the National Weather Service’s free forecasts, which are accessible to the public and also used by news media to warn of storms. The NWS is often the first to issue alerts for dangerous weather like tornadoes, giving people more time to take cover.
Without the NWS, forecasting would fall to private companies. However, those companies, including ones like AccuWeather that offer free forecasts, typically rely on NWS data to generate their own forecasts. If the data provided were reduced, companies would have to figure out how to gather it (potentially at high cost) or attempt to forecast with reduced information.
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There’s also the question of liability and whether media networks or private companies would want to take on the legal risk of issuing things like severe weather alerts where an inaccurate forecast could result in deaths.
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which lays out a conservative blueprint for the future of the country, suggests the NWS should retain its data-gathering capabilities but commercialize its forecasting operations.
The document doesn’t spell out what commercializing could entail, but in addition to the question of legal liability for forecasts, the loss of free public areas could harm small communities and rural America.
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If the ability to warn people of severe weather becomes dependent on the ability to pay for a forecast, many Americans could be left with no warning of storms headed their way for no reason other than where they live.
NewsNation reached out to NOAA for comment. The agency declined to discuss management manners and said, “NOAA remains dedicated to its mission, providing timely information, research, and resources that serve the American public and ensure our nation’s environmental and economic resilience.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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