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Hurricane season began this month, but a disaster has already befallen the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): big cuts in personnel and budget that, if media reports are correct, threaten the agency’s forecasting accuracy and put many U.S. residents at higher risk.
In late February and March, NOAA—the scientific and regulatory government agency whose diverse portfolio of line agencies and programs includes the National Weather Service (NWS), the National Hurricane Center (NHC), and the Storm Prediction Center—terminated well over 1,000 employees, or 10 percent of its total workforce, under orders from the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative.
Joseph Polidoro is a Sarasota, Florida-based independent science writer. His work has appeared in Scientific American and Science News.
