Hurricane season begins after staff cuts at National Weather Service
As the Atlantic hurricane season gets underway, some are raising concerns about federal preparedness after steep staff reductions at the National Weather Service. The agency insists it's prepared.
As the Atlantic hurricane season gets underway, some are raising concerns about federal preparedness after steep staff reductions at the National Weather Service. The agency insists it's prepared.
As the Atlantic hurricane season gets underway, some are raising concerns about federal preparedness after steep staff reductions at the National Weather Service. The agency insists it's prepared.
The Atlantic hurricane season is officially underway, with forecasts predicting above-average activity as the National Weather Service grapples with staffing gaps widened by the Trump administration’s government efficiency push.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently released its outlook, which begins on June 1 and stretches through the end of November. It anticipates 13 to 19 named storms, with six to 10 becoming hurricanes and three to five reaching major status.
Federal officials are urging Americans to prepare as some lawmakers question the readiness of government agencies. In a recent letter to the Trump administration, a group of Senate Democrats raised concerns about the impact of recent staff reductions at the National Weather Service.
“We believe that these staff reductions pose a threat to public safety and emergency preparedness by undercutting essential forecasting and weather monitoring systems,” the senators wrote.
In a statement, NOAA Communications Director Kim Doster said 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.”
Doster declined to provide specific numbers on staffing cuts at NOAA and NWS since President Donald Trump returned to office.
Tom Fahy, legislative director for the union representing Weather Service employees, said they lost roughly 600 employees in the first 60 days of this year through a combination of terminations, buyouts and early retirements offered by the Trump administration to facilitate the downsizing of federal agencies.
"Many people didn't want to leave but they felt like, well, I'm being pushed out, so they took the buyout and they left,” Fahy said.
Fahy said that while staffing at NOAA's National Hurricane Center is in good shape, he’s particularly worried about vacancies at local weather forecasting offices. He said overnight shifts have been suspended at roughly six of those offices. The one serving Sacramento has among the highest vacancy rates, with just eight of the 14 meteorologist positions currently filled, according to Fahy. He said it’s not clear how many of those positions were already open when Trump took office.
“We are critically short in a lot of places, and we need to have more bodies right now, more trained meteorologists and hydrologists and senior weather technicians in those areas,” Fahy said.
Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center, confirmed in an interview Friday that his office is “fully operational” going into hurricane season. He also acknowledged that the Weather Service is having to make adjustments in other areas to address shortages.
“We do have some staffing challenges across the Weather Service in general, but we're taking steps to move staff around to fill those critical gaps, to make sure those warnings, forecasts and critical services are maintained,” Brennan said. “Some of that happens every year during hurricane season.”
NOAA Communications Director Kim Doster added in her statement, “In the near term, NWS has updated the service level standards for its weather forecast offices to manage impacts due to shifting personnel resources."
Fahy said the Weather Service can move staff around internally, but the Trump administration’s federal hiring freeze is currently preventing the agency from recruiting to fill open positions. He said the Commerce Department would need to grant an exemption to resume hiring. The department declined to comment on the freeze in response to emailed questions.
The weather service isn’t the only agency facing staff cuts.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has lost about 2,000 full-time staff since Trump took office, representing roughly one-third of the agency's workforce, according to the Associated Press.
There was also an abrupt shakeup in leadership last month. The former acting administrator, Cameron Hamilton, was replaced after testifying on Capitol Hill that he didn’t agree with Trump’s push to dismantle FEMA.
A FEMA spokesperson didn’t directly answer emailed questions about staffing levels and how they compare to last hurricane season. In a statement, the unnamed spokesperson defended Trump’s reform effort and said the federal government is "fully prepared" for hurricane season.
“FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens,” the statement continued.
Asked if there will be any changes to how disaster aid is distributed this hurricane season, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “President Trump is examining all options for reform” in consultation with his newly established FEMA Review Council.