Emir of Schmoe wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2025 6:35 am
Mass firings across NOAA and National Weather Service ignite fury among scientists worldwide
As federal job eliminations struck the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service on Thursday, scientists and environmental advocates denounced the cuts, saying they could cause real harm to Americans.
The full extent of the layoffs across NOAA were not immediately clear, but Democratic legislators said hundreds of scientists and experts had been notified of terminated employment. NOAA — which includes the National Hurricane Center and the Tsunami Warning Center — is the latest in a string of federal agencies targeted for cuts by billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“Musk’s sham mission is bringing vital programs to a screeching halt," Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, wrote in a statement Thursday. "People nationwide depend on NOAA for free, accurate forecasts, severe weather alerts, and emergency information. Purging the government of scientists, experts, and career civil servants and slashing fundamental programs will cost lives."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mass-firings ... 05929.html
'People will die because of this': Meteorologists warn of consequences of latest cuts
Many staffers from the National Weather Service (NWS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) received notice of termination on Thursday and Friday as part of the ongoing slashing of the federal government.
When he came into office, President Donald Trump created the "Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)" by executive order. That initiative has been behind the upheaval and dismantling of government agencies. Websites, grants, programs, and employees have all been cut or frozen.
Trump tasked billionaire Elon Musk to run the program, which began with eliminating any jobs for those in their probationary period of the positions.
On Friday, NBC's White House correspondent Aaron Gilchrist cited an administration official who said about 600 people had been cut. The administration also claimed that no critical staff were among them.
Those inside NOAA posted on X that there are more than 1,000. Unlike other federal agencies, NOAA and the NWS operate on a 24/7 basis, according to their website.
Firing probationary jobs implies that these are all low-level employees, but one meteorologist said that's not entirely accurate.
"All probationary federal employees at NOAA’s EMC that’s responsible for keeping all US weather model systems running have been fired with 1 hours notice. And that includes me and colleagues. We will not go quietly because we care about the NOAA mission to protect the public," said a self-described "weather model nerd" who worked at NOAA and goes by Dr. Larissa on BlueSky.
Andy Hazelton, a physical scientist at NWS, noted that NOAA differs from many other federal agencies in terms of sharing staff with educational institutions. Thus, a staffer who worked at a university for years on NOAA programs could have recently moved to NOAA.
"I wanted to specify a detail that I think is relevant from some conversations I've had," Hazelton said. "Most of us (at least at EMC) who were terminated were officially 'probationary' because we are new federal employees, but have been working for NOAA in some capacity (usually on the contract or university side) for 5, 10, 15 years."
Among the false claims in "Project 2025" is the claim: "Each day, Americans rely on weather forecasts and warnings provided by local radio stations and colleges that are produced not by the NWS, but by private companies such as AccuWeather."
Meteorologists explained that this isn't accurate because the private sector isn't gathering their own data. So, local meteorologists who get forecasts wrong or weather apps aren't inventing their own information. They're interpreting existing NWS data.
WFMY News 2 chief meteorologist Tim Buckley posted on X, "Put in tv terms, when we show you current temps / winds / radar it’s from the NWS. When we cover tornado warnings, they come from NWS. Sure we make our own forecasts, but the US weather models are maintained by NOAA / NWS. Nobody is a good weather forecaster without good data."
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