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.
“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.