Firing of 800 NOAA Employees

[Randy Zipser]

The attachments below are three stories from May 14th, 18th, and today, about staffing cuts at the NWS and FEMA and the recent KY tornadoes and upcoming hurricane season. Within the past hour, CNN also aired an excellent interview with Rick Spinrad, who served as the 11th Administrator of NOAA as well as Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere from 2021-2025, related to the same topic. Hopefully, CNN will re-air this interview in its entirety later today at CNN or post at CNN Weather.

 

[Mike Smith]

CNN also aired an excellent interview with Rick Spinrad, who served as the 11th Administrator of NOAA

Spinrad -- who knows nothing about meteorology -- was the source of many of the NWS's problems. From where I sit, it is chutzpah for him to complain about the current state of the NWS.

 

[Randy Zipser]

Spinrad -- who knows nothing about meteorology -- was the source of many of the NWS's problems. From where I sit, it is chutzpah for him to complain about the current state of the NWS.

Mike, I'm sure you know much more than I do about Spinrad, so I'd be interested in your comments if you happen to see that interview. RZ

 

[Mike Smith]

Randy,

Under Spinrad:

• Tens of millions were sent to his buddies in the climate field without accountability, including $60 million for "Maine Won't Wait" -- an "education" program without measurable goals. Can you imagine what the NWS could do with that $$ ?
• FOUR upper air stations closed.
• NWS hiring went from usually 3 months or so to as many as 9 months. That's why there were 300+ openings before Trump was sworn in on January 20.
• He knows nothing about weather and doesn't care. I sent a well-documented and respectful letter to him in December 2023 about the increasingly serious issues with his tornado warnings. He forwarded it down the organization and used (ahem!) creative verification figures to make the situation appear better than it actually was.

 

[Mike Smith]

We now know there was no advance warning of the STL tornado. Watch this:

You see the debris hitting the car before you hear the tornado warning come over the radio. At lower right is the time of day which also confirms the tornado was in progress before the warning.

Another giant miss!

 

[Randy Zipser]

Randy,

Under Spinrad:

• Tens of millions were sent to his buddies in the climate field without accountability, including $60 million for "Maine Won't Wait" -- an "education" program without measurable goals. Can you imagine what the NWS could do with that $$ ?
• FOUR upper air stations closed.
• NWS hiring went from usually 3 months or so to as many as 9 months. That's why there were 300+ openings before Trump was sworn in on January 20.
• He knows nothing about weather and doesn't care. I sent a well-documented and respectful letter to him in December 2023 about the increasingly serious issues with his tornado warnings. He forwarded it down the organization and used (ahem!) creative verification figures to make the situation appear better than it actually was.

Thanks for the info above. I know that his background is in oceanography, not meteorology, which explains his missteps with the NWS. The reason I said the interview was "excellent" was not because Spinrad said anything especially memorable, but because the woman who interviewed him was no "shrinking violet"...she asked many probing questions, including the staffing cuts at the NWS (I recall that she cited the GLD NWS office as an example).

If the NWS is faced with fewer staff going forward, it seems that good, capable, experienced meteorologists in the field offices and qualified administrator(s) in Washington looking out for the field offices are now more important than ever. Quality of services will suffer due to staff "burnout" if a prolonged regional weather disaster occurs, considering the shift-work nature of keeping the offices open 24/7.

 

[Randy Zipser]

The scanned article attached below appeared in yesterday's The Wall Street Journal newspaper about how the NWS and FEMA are scrambling to cope with the 2025 storm season (including hurricanes, tornadoes, and drought-related wildfires). It appears that the NWS is handling the situation better and with less adverse impact to the public than FEMA.

 

[Boris Konon]

Randy,

Thanks for forwarding the scanned full article. Good luck finding any mainstream news outlet/paper that isn't behind a paywall now!

And I applaud the WSJ for not making *any* editorial/side (or snide) commentary on the politics of this situation, avoiding certain "trigger" words that will set people off and cloud the purpose of the article, which just states the facts and informs us of the current situation. It is taking a more neutral stance, which is how journalism *should* be. For instance, regarding former NWS Directors, WSJ writes, "from Democratic and Republican administrations criticized the cuts." That's the way to present things, mentioning both "sides" (if needed/applicable) and showing *unity*, not *division*.

I am not ignoring or saying the politics of any situation are not important, but there is time and place for that. Volatile and triggering politics do not have to be infused into everything! Unfortunately, that's how it has become in recent years, and it makes it very difficult to have civil and reasonable conversations w/ a lot of people, and lack of communication is dangerous on a large-scale social level. Each "side" devolves into a bubble and endless echo chamber, and in extreme cases, begins to treat the other side as pure scum and sub-human.

Many people just want the facts of the situation, not speculation, conjecture, opinion, or lecturing.


Boris

 

[Randy Zipser]

Glad you liked this article, Boris. The WSJ is about as conservative, middle-of-the-road, and non-controversial in their reporting as any news outlet. Their information is factual and trustworthy. I absolutely agree that infusing politics will do nothing to find the correct solutions to all the world's problems!

Specifically, with regard to this article, I noticed that if you overlay the path of the tornadic supercell(s) that tracked due-eastward from Springfield, MO, to London, KY (over 500 miles) on May 16th through the early-morning hours of May 17, 2025, it would have gone through much of the areas on the article's map where NWS forecast office vacancy rates are high. Even more ironically, the Nashville, TN, NWS office (BNA), having the nation's highest vacancy rate at 52%, happened to be a critical warning office for Pulaski and Laurel Counties in S/SE KY, that were hardest hit by devastating and deadly tornadoes from those storms. RZ

 

[Mike Smith]

I had been waiting for the far-left Kansas City Star to chime in on the cuts and they have...but in an odd way. Link to their article plus my comments are here: A Misguided Story About the National Weather Service's Current Challenges

 

[Jamie H]

Interesting you call the Kansas City Star a far-left publication. Not familiar with it, I looked it up and could only find centre, or left of centre political bias given to it. The only places it was called far or radical left were from conservative think tanks...

 

[John Farley]

While I agree with Mike that the NFL and NASCAR can afford to pay for meteorologists and that this should not be a priority for the NWS, and that problems with the NWS predated the current administration, I also have to say that indiscriminate budget cuts and firing whoever is the easiest to fire is not going to fix those problems, but only make them worse. One example mentioned in this thread is that a number of offices no longer have 24-hour staffing and have to be covered by other offices, who do not have the local knowledge and probably have a harder time getting field reports/ground truth during severe weather episodes.

 

[Ken Perrin]

While I agree with Mike that the NFL and NASCAR can afford to pay for meteorologists and that this should not be a priority for the NWS, and that problems with the NWS predated the current administration, I also have to say that indiscriminate budget cuts and firing whoever is the easiest to fire is not going to fix those problems, but only make them worse. One example mentioned in this thread is that a number of offices no longer have 24-hour staffing and have to be covered by other offices, who do not have the local knowledge and probably have a harder time getting field reports/ground truth during severe weather

Chances are the local spotters (ground truth) will only have call in numbers and ham channels for their own WFO, will/can the reports be automatically forwarded? And during a widespread event, these neighboring WFOs will have their hands full with their own needs and problems, so to expect them to handle and juggle one or more additional areas, is madness. We need full funding, staffing, training, R&D for upgrading equipment and modeling, and filling in the radar holes. Not "making do with less".

 

[Mike Smith]

I also have to say that indiscriminate budget cuts and firing whoever is the easiest to fire is not going to fix those problems, but only make them worse.

John, I thought we had established that I am against much of what the Trump Administration has done with the NWS. I even closed the piece you quote with,

• So we are clear: NWS and NOAA (especially the latter) desperately need reform. President Trump, so far, has gone about it the wrong way. His administration has been using a sledge hammer when a scalpel, combined with a vision for the future of the organization, is what is needed.

Interesting you call the Kansas City Star a far-left publication. Not familiar with it, I looked it up and could only find centre, or left of centre political bias given to it

I live in Kansas City and see their content daily (unfortunately). While you may not believe them to be "far left" in the context of Great Britain's politics, they are far left in the realm of United States' politics. Whether that is a good or bad thing is up to the individual but the record is clear.

to expect them to handle and juggle one or more additional areas, is madness. We need full funding, staffing, training, R&D for upgrading equipment and modeling, and filling in the radar holes. Not "making do with less".

My son sells sophisticated telephony solutions. It is easy to forward phone calls; not an issue. Everything else you cite, is. You'll recall that I keep writing (before and after January 20) the NWS desperately needs visionary, effective leadership.

For example, when you say, "filling in the radar holes," the NWS was given the opportunity to do just that and the NWS (I suspect it was really NOAA) management said they didn't need the extra radars and that there was little to no correlation between the distance to a tornadic thunderstorm and the effectiveness of the warning. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/11/21/radar-gaps-weather-service/


For those unfamiliar with where I stand on NWS reform, you can find my blog piece here: The Future of NOAA and the National Weather Service, Part I

And, if you are interested, Part 3 is how to reform FEMA, which -- like NOAA -- also needs major reform.

 

[John Farley]

John, I thought we had established that I am against much of what the Trump Administration has done with the NWS. I even closed the piece you quote with,

• So we are clear: NWS and NOAA (especially the latter) desperately need reform. President Trump, so far, has gone about it the wrong way. His administration has been using a sledge hammer when a scalpel, combined with a vision for the future of the organization, is what is needed.

Thanks, Mike. I think we are in agreement for the most part, although we may emphasize different things at tunes,