The Department of Defense’s decision to stop providing data to NOAA is just the latest challenge for the agency this year.
Trump’s NOAA Appointer Fields Senate Budget Questions
President Donald Trump’s NOAA appointee answered questions about budget and staffing reductions during the confirmation hearing.
The heartbreaking July 4 flood in Texas served as a reminder of the importance of accurate and timely weather forecasts.
Half a dozen meteorologists say these predictions have been well made, but such tragedy is expected to increase as extreme rainfall events become stronger. Further improvements to forecasting are important, but meteorologists worry that additional cuts planned by the Trump administration will not be able to keep up with the country’s weather and climate research programs.
The latest blow, which was announced by the US Navy, was announced on June 30 that data would no longer be transmitted from aged satellites in the past. The division then extended its deadline until July 31st.
Without these satellite images, hurricane prediction accuracy could be compromised, says current and former scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Polar researchers using images to measure sea ice ranges would instead like to obtain the same data through Japanese government satellites.
In any other year, the satellite snuff may have attracted less attention. But this summer, it exacerbates concerns about the accuracy of weather forecasts amid the cancellation of contracts, staff cuts, and other Trump administration efforts to reduce federal bureaucracy.
“You can’t keep taking the tools out of people and expect the same results,” said Andy Hazelton, a hurricane scientist at the University of Miami. Hazelton was hired as a NOAA scientist last October and was rejected in a wide-ranging agency layoff of the Trump administration.
“If you take away one tool, you won’t suddenly take away your ability to predict a hurricane,” Hazelton said. “But when they start to add up, it becomes more and more of a problem.”
USA Today interviewed more than 12 industry veterans, including half a dozen former NOAA scientists and independent researchers. They fear that hurricanes and other extreme weather events could be more accurate and disrupted efforts to monitor warming climates.
Flash flood deaths in Texas over the Independence Day weekend have not been accused of being poorly predicted, but weather scientists say tragedy represents something that can happen when predictions are less accurate.
- Hundreds of probation employees were fired, and the incentive package sent hundreds more for early retirement, Create a staffing shortage. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently told Congress that he plans to hire more than 100 people to fill the National Weather Service vacancy, but as of July 9, no such work had been posted on usajobs.gov.
- The contract was cancelled or caught up in a bottleneck due to the new requirement that political appointees should consider large contracts individually. For example, a fleet of autonomous maritime drones called Saildrones, which helped collect data used in hurricane predictions, did not deploy this summer after contractual issues..
- The launch of a weather balloon exclusive to the office, which was missing. Balloons provide important atmospheric data used in models that help predict hurricane movements, such as balloons in Del Rio, Texas, which warned predictors about possible heavy rains in Texas in early July.
- Organizers of two conferences for emergency managers and local civil servants have traditionally featured keynote speeches and training by scientists at the National Hurricane Centre.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment on a list of questions related to this year’s development.
The NOAA responded to the question in a brief statement about the National Hurricane Centre, saying, “It is dedicated to its mission and dialogue with our partners will continue and will not change.”
Climate programmes have been reduced or stopped
While floods in Texas highlight well-documented evidence of how warm bays increase the size of rain that falls into the most extreme storms, efforts to document and explain changing climates have been limited by the Trump administration.
The website of the program, which oversaw the writing of the National Climate Assessment mandated by Congress for years, has disappeared without explanation. The project is co-managed by NOAA, NASA and other agencies.
Rebecca Lindsay, a science writer and former editor of Climate.gov, and other NOAA employees, said staff members were verbally told not to use the word “climate” and were told to use “environmental change” instead, but were not sure if they would stay in the direction of the political appointee to avoid trouble from trouble with political appointees or to stay at the direction of the political appointee.
Hundreds of volunteer scientists have been rejected, starting to work with federal agencies to complete their next climate assessment. Existing reports have been moved to the NASA website, but according to emails from the agency, there is no date set for that.
Additionally, Climate.gov, a science website that described climate patterns and research, has closed around 1 million pages of viewing this year and redirected to NOAA’s main climate page, according to previous staff members. Staff housed in the Climate Bureau have been fired.
NOAA was also instructed to review and analyze the purpose and traffic of the public website of the spreadsheet called “OMB Low Hanging Fruit.” A copy of it was provided to USA Today.
The White House proposed cutting NOAA budget by 30% and eliminating the office of marine and atmospheric research.
Some say our reputation is at risk
Industry veterans say the resulting chaos, combined with similar behavior at other institutions, is damaging the nation’s reputation as a global scientific leader.
“We’re in unknown territory,” said Michael Mann, climate scientist, geophysicist and director at the University of Pennsylvania Science, Sustainability and Media Center. “They’re shocked, they’re terrifying. They can’t believe it.”
Countries around the world often look for science leadership in the United States, and now the United States will be “leaved,” Mann said. “China, Europe, Australia and the countries that are trying to lead are aware of this opportunity, and they reach out to American scientists and offer a very attractive position.”
He compared the situation to a runner who tripped out of the gate in a 400-meter race. “You’re going to lose the race,” he said.
Much of the action at NOAA follows recommendations from Project 2025, a report by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, DC.
It framed a conservative federal overhaul framework and suggested that NOAA science would be politicized and triggered climate change alarms. Some of its authors had previously worked in President Donald Trump’s administration.
Scientists who spoke with USA Today volunteered freely to say that the agency wasn’t perfect and could make improvements. But they say that if hurricane predictions are inaccurate and the country is unable to adapt to changes in temperatures and sea levels that have already made extreme weather events stronger, the current direction will take billions of dollars and risky lives for taxpayers.
Reports that NOAA and the National Weather Service are deteriorating due to staffing shortages have been wary of some members of Congress who raised the issue during the recent Capitol Hill briefing due to budget cuts. Senators from both sides of Aisle raised the issue at a July 9 confirmation hearing for Neil Jacobs, who was nominated for NOAA administrators.
More than a week before the flood, U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, an Illinois Democrat and only meteorologist, and Rep. Naythaniel Moran, a Texas Republican, said, “We are supporting laws that support co-sponsored laws that require emergency research to capture a better picture of the current state of weather forecasting capabilities across the country.
“Having access to accurate and reliable weather forecasts is extremely important for everyone,” Sorensen said.
USA Today’s national correspondent, Dinah Voyles Pulver, covers climate change, weather, the environment and other news. Contact her at dpulver @usatoday.com or @dinahvp.
