NWS Understaffed This Storm Season

Randy Jennings

Supporter
An NBC 5 (DFW) investigation found the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth is short staffed this storm season (along with many other offices).

“We have people working very long shifts; 12, 14 even 16 hours a day. And that can wear a staff out pretty quickly,” said Jason Dunn, with the National Weather Service employees union

They’re working longer shifts because the Fort Worth office has three vacant meteorologist positions, two of which are frontline forecaster jobs.

The shortage is part of a nationwide staffing problem across the weather service.

The weather service is actually using interns to help fill some vacant slots on certain shifts in the Fort Worth office. The interns do have college degrees in meteorology, but the union said they still lack experience forecasting weather in this part of the country and the office needs to be fully staffed with experienced people.

Full story at:
http://www.nbcdfw.com/investigation...Understaffed-This-Storm-Season-303814841.html

This story just aired a few minutes ago and video hasn't been posted yet (just text). Video has a graphic that shows hundreds of open positions at NWS nationwide.
 
Strange, but I guess with the economy being where it is the ability for more hirings across the Plains offices is good. It'll be interesting to see if this trend continues over the next 3-5 years.
 
That is interesting. I wonder if there's a pay disparity between the NWS and the private sector (TV stations, etc). Considering people with met degrees being at an all time high (and only more in coming years), that surprises me that there are so may vacancies in the NWS.
 
Having a forecast office like Fort Worth understaffed is an absolute sin, especially this time of year. It's so typical though....just make the remainder of the staff pick up the slack, regardless if you eventually burn them out.
 
Not to drag politics into this, but these are government jobs the last I checked, and the rate in which the administration in power now has increased the size of government, you'd figure that more jobs, especially in an area as critical to all of us as the NWS, would have been added. Especially within operational meteorology field. I admit to be naive about this as I haven't followed the topic to closely for a few years, but I can't think of a time going back 10 of 15 years where I didn't hear a meteorologist in one of the local offices conducting Skywarn training complain because of the long shifts/lack of staff. And my guess that it's all been because of cuts and/or lack of attention to the critical nature and mission of this segment of the Dept. of Commerce/NOAA.
 
Funding shortages are impacting the FCC as well. The Commissioner has proposed cutting almost half the field offices and flying in elite enforcement "Tiger Teams." The Broadcast community is up in arms about it which is an irony. Interest in initiatives like the Emergency Alert System wax and wane with each administration. What was someone's "great idea" a few years ago goes unattended if it isn't a priority with the current regime. Fortunately, public warning has had a little more visibility in recent years.
 
I only wish I could have handled the advanced math and physics while in college!! Could never complete my degree at A&M and had to switch majors. This would be a job I'd love.
 
The staffing problem is because the government is very slow at hiring - not because people aren't applying.
 
I got my undergrad in Meteorology and Climatology in 2006. Put in about 100 applications for internships, including at the NWS offices and never got as much as a call back despite being a good student and harassing everyone I could for a job. I talked to some folks and they basically were in a position where unless you had 5-10 years of work experience your resume wouldn't even see human eyes. They were getting 1000+ apps for every one opening, but were only allowed to interview 3 people, all of whom were chosen by a computer. And nationally they were only hiring 3-4 people a year...nationally. Pretty sad set of priorities back then, maybe things will change?...Probably not.
 
This part of the story blames the delay on "constraints within NOAA's human resources division" that are "not related to budget":

"Last spring, an NBC 5 investigation revealed the NWS had more than 500 vacant positions across the country after a hiring freeze brought on by federally mandated budget cuts. The hiring freeze ended early last year. But today the union said the situation is no better. “There are fewer frontline employees, operational employees working today than there were when the hiring freeze ended,” said Hirn. In a statement, National Weather Service spokesman, Chris Vaccaro, wrote, “Recent delays we have encountered are a result of constraints within NOAA's human resources division, and not related to budget.”

I'm sure it is hard to catch up after a hiring freeze, but it would be interesting to know what they mean by "constraints". BTW, the video of the story is posted now.
 
I think what they should do is take employees around the US and bring them to the plains for the season then move them back. I am sure they can do this since they have stated its not because of the budget. This is the time of year that we all could use all the help we can get . not just for the chasing aspect but for the people who dont chase.
 
Mike - I'm not sure what that means... Uproot the employees away from their families and social networks every summer just to overstaff the offices in the Midwest? Then you'd need to hire their replacements (weather doesn't stop in the rest of the country :) ) and we're back at square 1.

The issue isn't needing more staff - it is needing to have the staff they normally have.
 
This story really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone in the weather community... The NWS has been short-staffed for several years now, and they did a bunch of hiring over the last 18 months, but their HR people haven't been able to spin up fast enough to meet the requirements of posting and placing that many people.
 
Not to drag politics into this, but these are government jobs the last I checked, and the rate in which the administration in power now has increased the size of government, you'd figure that more jobs, especially in an area as critical to all of us as the NWS, would have been added. Especially within operational meteorology field. I admit to be naive about this as I haven't followed the topic to closely for a few years, but I can't think of a time going back 10 of 15 years where I didn't hear a meteorologist in one of the local offices conducting Skywarn training complain because of the long shifts/lack of staff. And my guess that it's all been because of cuts and/or lack of attention to the critical nature and mission of this segment of the Dept. of Commerce/NOAA.

Maybe if the Obama's would cut down on their exotic vacations there wouldn't be a shortage of NWS personnel.
 
Maybe if the Obama's would cut down on their exotic vacations there wouldn't be a shortage of NWS personnel.

Funny stuff. The sad part is -- there are far too many idiots exist in this county who would believe that sort of line and not realize you're joking...
 
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