The firings of hundreds of National Weather Service employees will affect local forecasters’ ability to warn the public about dangerous weather, local meteorologists warn.
And that could have deadly consequences when there is are tornado outbreaks or an approaching hurricane, some say.
Hundreds of weather forecasters, along with other federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees, were fired Thursday, lawmakers and weather experts told The Associated Press. The staff cuts were part of President Donald Trump’s plan to trim the federal workforce with help from billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. It was not known how many of those jobs were based in the Peachtree City office.
A weakened NWS won’t just be inconvenient for Georgians looking to know how to dress for the day. In severe weather situations — like tornado outbreaks or an approaching hurricane — inaccurate weather forecasts can be a matter of life and death, said Pam Knox, an agricultural climatologist at the University of Georgia.
”If people don’t have that information, it’s going to be much harder for them to plan and be aware of what might be coming to their area,” Knox said.
The NWS doesn’t just produce its own forecasts and capture real-time weather information. NWS data is the backbone of many of the weather apps and platforms accessed daily by millions of Americans. Knox said disruptions to NOAA or NWS services would “affect every aspect of the weather industry in the country.”
“NOAA and the National Weather Service gather and provide important data to forecasters around the world, including here in Georgia,” Brad Nitz, WSB-TV chief meteorologist, said Friday. “One NWS office in Alaska announced they are discontinuing upper air weather observations by weather balloon. Less available data will affect our understanding of the current state of the atmosphere.
“NOAA is also one of the agencies that runs computer models,” Nitz said. “If cuts are made in those areas, it could affect future development of those models.”
Veteran meteorologist Jim Cantore, who has spent more than 38 years at The Weather Channel, is known for his treks to report wherever the forecasts are the worst. Cantore also weighed in on the effects of the cuts.
“This is deeply troubling,” Cantore posted on Twitter. “NWS forecasters don’t just come in and put a forecast together. They make processes for all forecasters so much better.”
Georgia Tech’s Dean of the College of Sciences, Susan Lozier, says the weather forecasts aren’t just useful for those planning outdoor activities.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
“It goes beyond protecting people and personal property, which is great. But it just impacts so many corners of our economy,” Lozier said.
“Transportation relies on the weather. Do we really want the safety of our skies dependent on private industry? Or our armed forces? There are just amazing stories about how accurate weather forecasting has won battles.”
Josh Johnson, chief meteorologist for WSFA in Montgomery, Alabama, said the private sector won’t be able to accomplish the same work as the NWS with its extensive data and expertise.
“I’m all for eliminating wasteful spending. NWS ain’t it,” Johnson posted on Twitter. “The ROI we get from that agency is the envy of most of the private sector. We (American taxpayers) invested our money, reaped massive rewards and now we’re arbitrarily cutting it. It’s not smart.”
Johnson said the cost for the same weather prediction and warnings would be much higher if the private sector attempted to do the work previously done by the NWS.
Despite the cuts to the NWS, Nitz said there are ways for meteorologists to provide forecasts.
“Severe Weather Team 2 uses data from the NWS, but we also get data from other sources,” Nitz said. “I’m confident we have what we need to continue to make accurate forecasts.”
NOAA is also home to one of the world’s most important repositories of global climate data, with observations dating back to the 1700s. That historical data is key to understanding the past, as well as tracking changes in the climate over time.
Like the rest of the planet, Georgia’s climate has been warming in recent decades: 2024 was the hottest year globally since record keeping began in 1850 and the second warmest for Georgia. The higher temperatures are shifting growing seasons, allowing pests to establish new territory and more. That information is key to Georgia’s agriculture industry and if the agencies’ data collection suffers, Knox said farmers could, too.
“The National Weather Service is really the crown jewel of how science has really worked the last 50, 60, 70 years,” Lozier said. “It’s something where we take it for granted, and if it’s gone, it would just be devastating.”
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