NORMAN, Okla. — Meteorologists and climate scientists are raising alarms about major cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, saying they will harm the country’s ability to forecast and respond to major weather events and put lives at risk.
Hundreds of employees, including some of the country’s top meteorologists and researchers, had their jobs terminated on Feb. 27, part of a broader elimination of probationary employees by billionaire Elon Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency.
NOAA is now tasked with cutting an estimated 10 percent of its workforce, or 1,029 jobs, current and former employees told PBS News. If plans for these latest cuts move forward, nearly 20 percent of NOAA’s 13,000-person workforce would be cut.
The federal agency is responsible for monitoring and forecasting weather across the U.S. and tracking climate trends. NOAA also oversees the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center, maintaining a network of radar systems, satellites and weather balloons to help predict and track extreme weather events.
The agency’s research supports marine commerce by providing up-to-the-minute weather forecasting for cargo ships and other vessels. Beyond meteorology, NOAA’s research arm also manages fisheries, protects endangered marine life, monitors ocean health and studies the long-term effects of climate change.
Tom Di Liberto, who worked as a climate scientist and public affairs specialist for NOAA in Maryland, was fired about two weeks before his two-year probationary status ended. He said the immediate effect of these budget cuts is that many of these already understaffed NOAA offices are now being staffed with two or three fewer people than before.
“At some point those offices will have to determine what are the most important things to be done, and determine what other things will have to go by the wayside during severe weather events,” he said. “That’s not going to be good for now or the future of forecasting.”
In some places, key forecasting operations have already been disrupted. Staffing shortages have suspended some launches of weather balloons, a critical tool in tracking atmospheric conditions. Scientists say further reductions could hamper real-time storm tracking and predictive modeling. Citing staffing shortages following the first round of cuts, NOAA is suspending its monthly U.S. and global climate updates with the media.
Protesters with handwritten signs gathered in late February outside the entrance to the National Weather Center in Norman after cuts were announced.
The hundreds who gathered at the center urged residents to call their elected officials and demand answers for why the agencies responsible for forecasts and severe weather alerts were targeted in the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate federal “bloat.”
Former NOAA employees are trying to warn about the consequences of these kinds of cuts. In Oklahoma, the state saw a record number of tornadoes in 2024, while also fighting off one of its most severe droughts in recent years.
“It’s terrifying because these organizations keep us safe,” Di Liberto said of ongoing cuts. “They still have that job but now they will have to do it with less people.”
The federal workers fired in the recent cuts worry for anyone who relies on the agency’s forecasts.
One person fired in the first wave of cuts, who worked at the National Severe Storm Laboratory in Norman, researched ways to observe and predict severe weather to “save lives and reduce economic loss.” The worker asked to not be identified by name because they feared retaliation as they searched for a job within the same industry.
The former NSSL employee said around a dozen people from the lab and the Storm Prediction Center in the Norman facility have already been let go. The cuts reduced the staffing capabilities for the agencies to model and track storms as well as provide alerts for people in affected storm areas, the worker said.
In the lab, the worker helped analyze data collected from storms and worked on improving systems to get better real-time data. The job required a move across the country and was a lifelong goal.
“This was my dream job,” the worker said. “I wanted to help bring new innovations and expertise to help my community. This is what I had been working toward.”
Why cut from NOAA and NWS?
With climate change fueling increasingly severe and unpredictable weather patterns across the country, the importance of NOAA and NWS cannot be underestimated, said Jeff Frame, who teaches climate, meteorology and atmospheric sciences at University of Illinois.
In the short term, these cuts are problematic because it stretches severe weather alert teams thin, forcing employees to monitor bigger swaths of the country for longer hours, Frame said. As hurricane season approaches, he’s concerned by the possibility of increasingly powerful storms being underestimated because the employees who track a hurricane’s intensity at landfall no longer have their jobs.
“For decades we’ve seen a slow but steady improvement in tracking forecasts,” Frame said. “These people were developing better tools to better forecast those specific situations. I don’t see how that’s an unnecessary position.”
The moves appear to align with a broader conservative push to shrink the federal government. Project 2025, a policy blueprint created by the Heritage Foundation and other contributors, including some current and former membrs of Trump’s administration. It called for the “break up” of the entire NOAA, labeling it “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.”
Di Liberto said he’s not sure if a desire to squash climate change research was a reason for the cuts, but he does think the tools and programs used to track extreme weather could go undeveloped as a result of these firings.
“It’s frustrating because it’s a completely self-inflicted sort of thing where you’re making these products worse and you’re making people less safe,” he said. “You’re not saving any money either because a dollar into NOAA or a dollar into the weather service gives you a lot more money back out because the preparation that it provides for people to deal with disasters.”
The Project 2025 plan’s four pages on NOAA lays out how to break up and downsize the agency by privatizing weather services and eliminating some climate research.
In recent weeks, DOGE flagged as many as 19 NOAA facilities for lease termination.
Frame said the privatization of weather data is only possible because of NOAA itself and its vast network of satellites, radars, and research programs that form the backbone of American weather forecasting.
DOGE listed the Radar Operations Center as part of its federal leases to be terminated. The center is a crucial hub for maintaining the nation’s Doppler radar network, which provides real-time data that operates 24 hours a day. It provides precipitation and wind data to meteorologists across the country.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., has attempted to reassure constituents, stating that the National Weather Center in Norman, including the radar center, will remain operational.
Cole said he doesn’t support the cuts to staff at NOAA and the NWS because he believes they provide vital services. He also said the federal cuts directed by DOGE are necessary.
“You try to be cooperative where you can. You recognize everybody’s going to have to make some sacrifices,” he told PBS News. “Important facilities that provide services that are absolutely critical, both economically and in terms of the protection of life and property and NOAA is one of those.”
More than 500 probationary employees were terminated across NOAA in the first round of cuts, JoAnn Becker, national president of the National Weather Service Employees Organization, wrote in an email to PBS News. This includes 108 NWS employees who were terminated, though a few have been reinstated and brought back, according to the union, which represents NWS’ 4,000 workers. About 170 NWS employees also accepted the White House’s deferred resignation package, according to the union.
Cole said he understands more than most the need for NOAA’s services. Cole’s home is in Moore, Oklahoma, which has seen two of the deadliest tornadoes in Oklahoma history.
The research being done by NOAA to combat climate change and to make advancements for forecast improvements should continue, he said, though he shares the concerns that the cuts might hamper those efforts. The longtime Oklahoma lawmaker also said cuts to more “frivolous spending” could be beneficial in the long run.
“I do worry about the research budgets,” Cole said. “But I will also tell you, you have waste and the best way to protect those things is get rid of the things that aren’t as relevant.”
Protests and concerns for NOAA and NWS cuts
The broader scientific community is also sounding the alarm.
A view of an umbrella with messages written on it on the day of a “Stand Up for Science” rally in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration cuts and layoffs at federal agencies sponsoring medical research, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 7, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Protesters have gathered in cities from Boston to Denver to Washington, rallying under the banner “Stand Up for Science.” Their message: Efforts to gut NOAA aren’t just a threat to science but also to public safety.
A former NOAA scientist and researcher, who left the agency before cuts started, said the uncertainty caused by these cuts will last for years. He asked not to be identified by name because he feared retribution against his former colleagues. Those now in school training to become meteorologists or weather scientists will have to decide whether to find work with NOAA and the NWS or seek private sector roles that may have more stability.
“I feel like a lot of these federal workers are the very essence of what it means to be a public servant,” they said. “We don’t do this work to make a lot of money. We do it to keep our community safe and to see that undervalued is heartbreaking.”
