SB PM: Rebuilding the National Weather Service

As hurricane season peaks, a meteorologist weighs in on the damage done by DOGE

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said it will hire up to 450 employees for the National Weather Service (NWS) after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut around 800 staff members earlier this year. The Trump administration approved the hires Wednesday as an exemption to the hiring freeze in place through October 15, 2025.

The administration’s move arrives as both wildfire and hurricane seasons begin to peak and follows increased scrutiny over layoffs after floods in Texas killed at least 135 people last month.

Alan Gerard, a retired NOAA meteorologist, said the effects of federal cuts and chaotic buyouts are still rippling through the agency and will leave communities more vulnerable to extreme weather, despite the new round of hires.

“They already had those experienced people there, and they got rid of them, and now they're having to go back and hire new people,” he said. “They’ve essentially gotten rid of hundreds of years of experience.”

Mr. Gerard spent 35 years at NOAA, but accepted early retirement in March when he said it became clear that the Trump administration had plans to eliminate NOAA’s research offices. He said that between layoffs and retirements, his office lost close to 15% of its staff. He now runs Balanced Weather, where he writes about the science of meteorology and climate change, significant weather events, and federal weather policy.

While the administration’s latest hiring announcement is a step toward rebuilding capacity, Mr. Gerard said that there are still gaps in the weather service’s ability to accurately predict and warn people about weather events.

NWS offices perform upper air balloon releases twice a day to gather atmospheric data, which feeds computer models that generate weather forecasts. Mr. Gerard said that one risk of the service’s short staffing is some offices cannot perform their intended releases. He said that at the height of the NWS’s spring chaos, he knew of offices that were, on some days, unable to release any balloons at all. If there are multiple offices in concentrated areas that are missing releases, he explained, there is a significant risk that they could fail to make an accurate forecast.

It is particularly troubling to Mr. Gerard that NOAA and NWS are down dozens of electronics technicians, who are responsible, in part, for maintaining the Doppler radar network. He explained that the technology, though sometimes updated, is from the 1980s and 90s and requires highly trained experts to keep the radars operating accurately and showing incoming weather patterns.

“Having experience on it is really invaluable to keep it operating the way it’s supposed to,” he said.

Mr. Gerard said that the initial cuts to NOAA have stunted the agency’s ability to provide necessary information and adequately prepare Americans.

“Even if they hire 450 new people, they are not going to be in position to help this year.”