2 days Ago By Seth Borenstein,Brigid Brown
Following job cuts during the Trump administration, nearly half of National Weather Service forecast offices are grappling with 20% vacancy rates - double what it was a decade ago - as severe weather continues to sweep through the nation's midsection, according to data obtained by The Associated Press. Detailed staffing information for all 122 weather field offices indicates eight locations have over 35% of their workforce missing, including those in Arkansas , which this week faced tornadoes and heavy rains . More than a dozen National Weather Service employees helped crowd-source these statistics, pointing out that vacancy rates at or above 20% signify critical understaffing, reports The Associated Press.
Trump cuts $12 billion in pandemic funding amid bird flu and measles crisis DOGE cuts could lead to $500 billion drop in US tax revenue, officials say These forecast offices are responsible not only for routine daily weather predictions but also for vital real-time alerts during perilous storm events like the tornadoes that claimed seven lives this week and the "catastrophic" floods expected to persist into the weekend. Currently, 55 of the 122 stations are operating at such critical levels. Over the past week, there have been no fewer than 75 reported tornadoes and 1,277 severe weather preliminary reports documented by the weather service .
The local Kentucky media reported that due to staff shortages and ongoing severe weather conditions, meteorologists at the Louisville office were unable to carry out immediate post-tornado damage assessments on Thursday, an important step in enhancing future forecasts and warning systems. With the critical choice between collecting data for future improvement and providing immediate danger warnings, the team at Louisville had a tough decision to make. Brad Colman, a former president of the American Meteorological Society and previously the head meteorologist at the weather service's Seattle office, now working as a private meteorologist, has raised alarm bells over the situation.
"It's a crisis situation," he stated. "I am deeply concerned that we will inevitably lose lives as a result of the added risk due to this short-staffing." DON'T MISS: Arkansas tornado mapped as dire 3-word warning issued for millions Deadly tornadoes threaten Midwest and South as storms turn violent ‘Significant’ tornado risk as storms break out across US after 3 children killed Louis Uccellini, ex-chief of the National Weather Service, echoed these concerns, warning that if the figures are accurate, it spells trouble.
"No one can predict when any office gets stretched so thin that it will break, but these numbers would indicate that several of them are there or getting close, especially when you factor that large segments of the country are facing oncoming threats of severe weather, flooding rains while others are facing ominous significant fire risks," Uccellini said in an email. The vacancy data was gathered in an informal yet thorough initiative by weather service employees following cuts led by Elon Musk 's Department of Government Efficiency. They examined individual office staffing levels and compared them with historical data.
Staffing details, including vacancies, were meticulously cross-referenced by offices, regions, positions, and past trends, with special attention given to whether efforts are being made to fill these gaps. The AP, after securing the list from a source not within the weather service itself, embarked on a mission to validate the figures. They dialed up individual weather stations, scoured staff lists online, and probed further by interviewing employees unconnected to the data collection.
Notably, staffers' info occasionally didn't quite match the websites, but insiders hinted that those might not be up-to-the-minute. Representative Eric Sorensen, Illinois ' Democratic voice and Congress's lone meteorologist, relayed that his team got hold of the data independently. He confirmed bits of it through weather experts in Midwestern offices, also known as WFOs.
The Davenport-Quad Cities locale, not far from where he resides, has grappled with a significant 37.5% shortfall in staff. "They're doing heroic effort.
Just with what happened the other day with the tornado outbreak, the killer tornado outbreak, I saw incredible work being done by the WFOs down around Memphis and up to Louisville. Incredible work that saved people's lives," Sorensen shared with the AP on Friday. "Going forward with these types of cuts, we can't guarantee that people are going to be as safe as they were.
"I'm incredibly concerned because this affects everyone in every part of the country," he expressed, pointing out the looming storm threats in House Speaker Mike Johnson's district near Shreveport, Louisiana . The reported statistics highlight a 13% job vacancy there, which, comparatively speaking, falls below average for both the southern region and nationwide. Data from the employees, dating back to 2015, reveals that in March 2015, the overall vacancy rate was 9.
3%. Fast forward ten years to March 21, and it has risen to 19%. The weather service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Certain northern and central stations, such as Rapid City, South Dakota with a 41.7% vacancy rate, Albany, New York at 25%, Portland, Maine at 26.1%, and Omaha, Nebraska at 34.
8%, have been so understaffed that they've had to limit weather balloon launches, which provide crucial observations for accurate forecasts. The vacancies aren't just among meteorologists who make forecasts. Twenty-three offices lack a meteorologist-in-charge who oversees the office.
Sixteen offices have vacancies in the critical warning coordination meteorologist role, which ensures emergency officials and the public are prepared for impending weather disasters. The Houston office, with a 30% vacancy rate, is missing both these top positions, according to the data and the office's own website. Houston has suffered extensive damage from flooding, hurricanes, and even a derecho, leading Bernadette Woods Placky, chief meteorologist for Climate Central and a former television meteorologist, to state that "their (damage) numbers are through the roof,".
"The National Weather Service employees are still going to do everything they can to keep people safe and prepared. It's just that much harder and it puts lives at risk," noted Placky, emphasizing the gravity of the situation as severe weather season hits its peak, ushering in a time notorious for wildfires, hurricanes, and extreme heat—the deadliest form of extreme weather . A weather service field office chief, who remained anonymous to prevent job jeopardy, warned that the shortage of technicians for equipment repair, such as radars, poses a critical danger.
"People are bending over backwards" to manage with insufficient staff numbers, expressed the chief meteorologist. "The burden is going to kill us." Northern Illinois atmospheric sciences professor Victor Gensini and peers pointed out the similarity of being understaffed to potential lapses in aviation safety.
"The question becomes, what falls through the cracks because they're busy doing other things or they're short-staffed," pondered Gensini. He raised concerns about possible missed crucial weather reports due to an inability to answer calls, or the inability to issue warnings for every storm because there aren't enough professionals monitoring the radar. Gensini explained: "These are all theoretical concerns, but it's sort of like when you read about aircraft disasters and how they occur, "It's the cascading of risk, right? It's the compounding, like the pilot was tired.
The pilot missed the cue.".
