Hundreds of weather forecasters fired in latest wave of DOGE cuts
Hundreds of weather forecasters fired in latest wave of DOGE cuts
Federal workers who were not let go said the afternoon layoffs included meteorologists who do crucial local forecasts in National Weather Service offices across the U.S.
Summary
Hundreds of NOAA employees, including National Weather Service meteorologists, were fired Thursday as part of Elon Musk’s cuts to the federal workforce under Trump.
The layoffs, affecting up to 10% of NOAA’s workforce, targeted probationary employees.
Lawmakers and experts condemned the cuts, warning they will jeopardize public safety and disaster preparedness.
Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) called the firings “unconscionable,” while climate scientists warned they would weaken the country’s ability to respond to extreme weather and climate disasters.
This has been one of my biggest worries this go around. The national weather service provides intensely important information and provides it freely. At this point, I'm waiting for them to hack it up and sell the remains to the parasites at AccuWeather or something and start charging for what was always a free product.
Didn't AccuWeather mostly just pull from nws anyway? Now they'll need to do all that work themselves and it won't be free anymore.
They won’t do it themselves. They can’t. They’ll just offer a worse forecast.
That's the thing that's confused me a bit. Project 2025 definitely calls for the dismantling and privatization of NOAA, but I didn't see anything specifically mentioning AccuWeather. IIRC the CEO of AccuWeather said it'd be way too costly for them to pick up all of the responsibilities they depend on NOAA for. At this point, I'd fully expect Musk to say his companies can handle it.
Also nws gets data from private entities which may not be as hot to share with a for profit that competes with them.
I wonder where they'll find the money
Great decision right as we head into hurricane season. At least we haven't been setting records for the number and intensity of hurricanes, or this would be extra stupid
/s
Extra note on this. NWS's agenda also includes educating people about weather and climate and other things. Our engineering class about rainfall and such basically is in chaos right now because the person from NWS teaching it is no longer working there. So this will have long impact for future generations. Specifically since our engineering department already is very tiny compared to other departments.
The next hurricane season might have just gotten very interesting. Nobody will tell the good people on Florida or Texas about all that nasty climate change, or the hurricanes that will come because the Hottub of America (formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico) will turboboost more smaller storms to nasty little category 5s. No annoying evac orders! Hurray! Americans just take things as they come!
Lol exactly what I thought. Hurricanes are fake news though right?
Bets on how long until Mar a Lago is underwater
Just in time for hurricanes and tornadoes...
What’s the point of this? From their perspective? I don’t get it.
Probabaly a mix of lowering government costs to give billionaires a tax break and if we don't monitor it the climate change numbers don't get worse.