Firings at US weather and oceans agency risk lives and economy, former
agency heads warn
[March 01, 2025] By
SETH BORENSTEIN
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal weather and oceans agency touches people's
daily lives in unnoticed ways, so massive firings there will likely
cause needless deaths and a big hit to America's economy, according to
the people who ran it.
The first round of firings started Thursday at the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, a government agency that monitors the
oceans, the atmosphere where storms roam and space, and puts out
hundreds of “products” daily. Those products generally save lives and
money, experts say.
NOAA's 301 billion weather forecasts every year reach 96% of American
households.
The firings are “going to affect safety of flight, safety of shipping,
safety of everyday Americans,” Admiral Tim Gallaudet told The Associated
Press Friday. President Donald Trump appointed Gallaudet as acting NOAA
chief during his last administration. “Lives are at risk for sure.”
Former NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad agreed.
“We’re getting into prime tornado time. We’re getting into planting
season for the agricultural season for the bread belt," Spinrad said.
"It’s going to affect safety. It’s going to affect the economy.”
That's because “NOAA sort of gets forgotten, until it's very important,”
said private meteorologist Ryan Maue, a conservative and a NOAA chief
scientist under Trump.
“This throws sand in the gears” of an agency that is understaffed but
doing “a Herculean job,” Maue said.
Elon Musk has repeatedly defended federal workforce cuts by his
Department of Government Efficiency as “common sense.”
“The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what the
people are going to get,” Musk said from the Oval Office this month.
“That’s what democracy is all about.”
What does NOAA do?
The agency creates daily weather forecasts from 122 local offices,
issuing warnings for deadly tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, wildfires
and floods.
Disaster and local officials use those to advise the public on how to
avoid danger. Farmers use seasonal outlooks for crop advice. Pilots use
aviation forecasts. Forecasts from private weather apps on phones, on
television and elsewhere are based on NOAA satellites, data and
forecasts.
“That's an amazing undertaking to monitor that. You can't count on TV
meteorologists to fill this gap and you can't count on private
meteorology," Maue said. "You can't count on your weather app to call
you up and alert you'' to tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and floods in
your area.
What is the potential impact of the dismissals?
In the west, dozens of NOAA meteorologists provide firefighting crews
with up-to-the-minute forecasts on wind and other shifting conditions
that affect fires and could mean life or death, said Elbert “Joe”
Friday, a former director of NOAA's National Weather Service. They also
are key in avalanche warnings.
In the water, ships use the agency's weather forecasts and mapping of
water channels for safety, while NOAA manages fisheries worth hundreds
of billions of dollars and stunning ocean sanctuaries.
Gallaudet, who was a Navy rear admiral, said NOAA guidance on weather
and shipping channels will be so hurt by the firings that America could
see more accidents like when a massive container ship ran into
Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge in 2024.
[to top of second column] |
Katy Frank, left, a former computer scientist at the NOAA Great
Lakes Environmental Research Lab, who lost her job Thursday,
protests outside the John D. Dingell Veterans Affairs Medical Center
in Detroit, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
 It was NOAA's quick work that
enabled the reopening of Baltimore's economically critical port
after a only a couple months, Spinrad said. In Alaska, the city of
Nome wants to create a deep water port, but it needs NOAA to do a
channel survey first, he said.
NOAA provides the science expertise in the response
to major oil spills in coastal areas, including 2010's BP Deepwater
Horizon, Spinrad said.
In space, NOAA forecasts help prevent satellites — including those
belonging to Musk's SpaceX — from colliding. The agency also watches
for solar flares that can knock out parts of the electrical grid and
hurt air traffic communications, officials said. NOAA owns or
operates 18 satellites in orbit.
“Three years ago, SpaceX lost 40 satellites due to their ignorance
of space weather implications and upper atmosphere density impacts.
They immediately came to NOAA and said, ‘hey, help us out’," Spinrad
said, calling it “an object lesson there for Elon Musk himself” on
the agency's value.
The National Weather Service is worth $102 billion a year to the
U.S. economy, according to a 2022 study by the American
Meteorological Society and economist Jeffrey Lazo. Before the
current Trump administration, NOAA had a $6.7 billion budget,
including nearly $1.4 billion for the National Weather Service, one
of six sub-agencies.
How many NOAA workers were dismissed?
NOAA officials would not reveal how many people were fired Thursday
or are being let go, citing privacy. Current and past NOAA leaders
and employees have given various estimates on job cuts, ranging from
580 to 1,200.
Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, said the latest
figure he has is 650 terminations.
Jane Lubchenco, another former NOAA chief, said the firings "are a
national disaster and a colossal waste of money."
These are not high-paying jobs, but it's work being done by people
who love it, so cutting NOAA is like going after coins in the couch,
Maue said.
“These are people who just live and breathe this work. These are the
kind of people who come in on a day off because there's a big
weather event and they want to help out,” said Holy Cross University
environmental sciences professor Keith Seitter, the former director
of the American Meteorological Society. “People don't go into
meteorology because they want to get rich.”
Seitter said there will “be things that fall through the cracks
where they shouldn’t,” because of the dismissals, warning “those
things lead to situations that could be deadly’’
Gallaudet, appointed by Trump, called the cuts “self-defeating,”
saying “I could personally never work for Trump again. I did support
some of the conservative policies. I still do, but he personally as
a leader, he’s despicable.”
___
Becky Bohrer contributed from Juneau, Alaska, and Brittany Peterson
contributed from Denver.
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