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NOAA under the second presidency of Donald Trump
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Following the second inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States, and the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on January 20, 2025, several major changes occurred at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), including hundreds of employees being terminated, dozens of federal contracts and leases being terminated, and the enactment of executive orders which affected the operations of NOAA. The operations of the National Weather Service (NWS) were affected, with several offices stopping weather balloon launches, and NOAA databases and websites went offline. The National Weather Service was also the target of domestic terrorism threats for conspiracy theories regarding weaponizing the weather.
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Federal employee buyouts, resignations, and terminations
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On February 27, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) abruptly terminated around 880 employees, over 7.3% of the total staff from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Before the terminations, NOAA had approximately 12,000 employees that included 6,773 scientists and engineers.[2][5][6][7] Shortly after the firings, William Alsup, Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, ruled that the OPM "had no authority to order the firings of probationary employees".[2]
Rick Spinrad, the former NOAA Administrator who was picked by former president Joe Biden, stated firings occurred at the National Hurricane Center and Storm Prediction Center.[5] Spinrad stated 25% of the NOAA Environmental Modeling Center was terminated.[5] Congressman Jared Huffman responded to the firings by saying the entire American public "depend on NOAA for free, accurate forecasts, severe weather alerts, and emergency information".[2] Daniel Swain, a scientist at the University of California, in response to the firings said, "Most or all private weather companies in US (including forecasts that you see on TV or your favorite app) are built directly atop backbone of taxpayer-funded instrumentation, data, predictive modeling, & forecasts provided by NOAA".[2] On March 5, 113 members of the United States Congress sent a letter to the United States Department of Commerce to "express profound outrage" to the termination of 880 NOAA employees.[8] The 113 members of Congress went on to say:
"The termination of hundreds of dedicated scientists, meteorologists, and ocean experts, particularly from the National Weather Service, is a reckless decision that puts American lives at risk, undermines critical climate research now and in the future, and threatens the economic well-being of communities across the nation...The assertion that these layoffs will somehow improve “efficiency” is not only misleading but outright dangerous. Efficiency is not only measured in dollars saved but more importantly in lives protected and disasters mitigated. NOAA saves money and American lives. In 2020, NOAA’s hurricane forecasting saved approximately $5 billion per major hurricane landfall. NOAA’s mission is to provide accurate, science-driven information that helps communities prepare for and respond to environmental threats. A reduction in personnel cripples the very infrastructure that Americans depend on to withstand climate-driven catastrophes."
— 113 members of the United States Congress[8]
On March 6, over 1,000 people protested outside of the NOAA office complex in Boulder, Colorado and on March 7, a protest occurred outside of the National Weather Center in Norman, Oklahoma; both to protest the 880 NOAA terminations.[9][10]
On March 8, The New York Times reported at least 1,000 more NOAA employees were set to be terminated, downsizing NOAA's pre-terminations workforce by 20%.[11] Throughout the day on March 8, several terminated NOAA employees posted on X and Bluesky they were rehired by the Department of Commerce.[12][13] Andy Hazelton, a former physical scientist at the NOAA Environmental Modeling Center (EMC), reported none of the EMC terminated employees were rehired.[14] However, on April 10, reports came out that some probationary employees had been "re-fired" after being placed on administrative leave in mid-March.[15]
On April 22, NOAA approved the deferred resignations or buyouts of 1,029 NOAA employees, which was offered by President Donald Trump to all U.S. government employees on January 28, 2025.[3]
On May 7, the Department of Commerce (DOC) sent a letter to all 880 probationary employees that were fired on February 27 and those rehired and refired on April 10.[16] The letter stated its issuance to the fired probationary employees was ordered by Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The letter stated Judge Alsup determined the probationary employees were not fired based on the initial firing reasonings of "performance or fitness based" but was rather "part of a government-wide mass termination".[16] John Guenther, the Department of Commerce's acting General Counsel stated in the letter, "the Department believes it to be both legally and factually erroneous" on employees not being fired based on "performance or fitness based" reasonings, and that the DOC "intends to rigorously defend its actions as this matter continues through litigation".[16]
On May 30, the White House released that only 850 probationary employees from the entire Department of Commerce were fired, not that 880 were fired from NOAA, a single branch of the Department of Commerce.[1]
Effects of the terminations
- Upper-air sounding sites status after cuts:
Operational
Reduced
Closed
A weather balloon launch station maintained by the National Weather Service in Alaska was forced to cease launches due to the terminations resulting in staff shortages.[7] The NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), a branch of the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research announced the terminations resulted in a staff shortage and the office would be taking an "indefinite hiatus".[17][7][18] Nicole Rice, an employee at the GLERL who was terminated reported 20% of the GLERL office was terminated.[18] Axios reported that one of the "deepest of NOAA's cuts was to the Office of Space Commerce" (OSC).[7] Researchers, including dual-role University of Oklahoma (OU)-federal researchers at the National Weather Center, located on the OU campus were terminated, which included students in the OU School of Meteorology.[19] Ten employees were fired from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, located on at Princeton University.[20]
On March 4, the National Weather Service office in Paducah, Kentucky cancelled their student volunteer program and to "suspend new arrangements for prospective meteorology students to shadow at our office" due to the terminations.[21] The National Weather Service office in Boston, Massachusetts, had over 36% of its staff terminated, leaving only seven meteorologists, which is four less than what is required for minimal staffing to run the 24/7 office.[22] On March 7, the National Weather Service offices in Albany, New York, and Gray, Maine, stopped launching weather balloons due to staffing issues from the terminations.[23] The offices in Omaha, Nebraska, and Rapid City, South Dakota, also stopped launching weather balloons on March 20 due to staff shortages.[24] On March 31, the NWS provided a complete list of offices across the country affected by the cancellation or reduction of weather balloon launches (image to the right).[25] The terminations are expected to cause a loss in the ability to predict events such as blizzards and tornadoes, not only affecting the U.S. but neighboring Canada as well.[26] On March 31, U.S. Representative Mike Flood visited the National Weather Service office in Omaha, Nebraska, saying he would work to restore weather balloon launches at the office.[27]
On May 2, CNN reported there were 30 National Weather Service offices without a lead meteorologist. It was also reported that the National Weather Service office in Goodland, Kansas was the first NWS office no longer operating 24/7 and that "about a dozen more" are likely to stop 24/7 service as well. CNN also reported there were more than 90 vacancies for NOAA NEXRAD-radar technicians and repairmen jobs.[28]
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Involvement of DOGE
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On February 4, 2025, The Guardian reported employees of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had entered the headquarters of the NOAA in Silver Spring, Maryland, reporting "they apparently just sort of walked past security and said: 'Get out of my way,' and they're looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies".[29] ABC News reported on February 6 that DOGE employees had gained access to the NOAA computer systems. Staff from the NOAA Information Technology group and the Department of Commerce attempted to keep the operatives from the systems according to security protocols, but the operatives defied authorized security staff and forcefully entered the facilities.[29] Two Democratic Congress members characterized DOGE's presence in NOAA systems as "hackers". NOAA staff noted that the actions of the operatives could directly cause risk to human life by hindering NOAA and National Weather Service operations.[30][29] ABC also reported that operatives were also looking for anything connected to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) on bulletin boards and were inspecting bathroom signs to ensure compliance with Trump's executive orders.[30]
On February 12, Grist reported that the Trump administration started to shrink the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),[31] nearly 170 employees at the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights were placed on paid administrative leave.[32] On March 2, Ryan Maue, the chief scientist for NOAA during the first presidency of Donald Trump,[33] suggested on X that the United States House of Representatives should redirect all NOAA funds saved by DOGE to the National Weather Service.[34][35]
On March 9, The Salt Lake Tribune reported the wife of Brent Pounds, a former officer for the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps, was assisting DOGE and was giving notes to Elon Musk.[36]
NOAA contract involvement
On February 17, 2025, DOGE released the names of 1,127 federal contracts spanning 39 federal departments and agencies, including the NOAA, that DOGE says had been terminated.[37] A Wall Street Journal analysis of these over 1,000 contracts found inaccuracies of DOGE's reported savings, including counting contracts multiple times, listing contracts that have already been paid as savings, and misrepresenting potential savings based on contract limits rather than actual spending.[38] On February 24, 2025, DOGE released more documents, with the total nearing 2,300 contracts released. The Associated Press found that "nearly 40%" of the terminated contracts would not save the government any money.[39] On March 1, NOAA, at the recommendation of DOGE, terminated the University of Maine's multi-million-dollar Maine Sea Grant, saying "it has been determined that the program activities proposed to be carried out in Year 2 of the Maine Sea Grant Omnibus Award are no longer relevant to the focus of the Administration’s priorities and program objectives". This grant termination has not been announced by DOGE.[40]
As of June 29, 2025, DOGE released 196 NOAA-specific contracts it claims to have terminated, partially terminated, or interacted with, for a total contract value of $133,927,153.01, and a claimed savings of $42,481,923.88.[4][41] On May 30, 2025, the White House reported DOGE terminated a $5.9 million Department of Commerce contract for "environmental consulting support services", and from that termination it was reported DOGE saved the federal government $613 million.[1] This contract termination has not yet been reported by DOGE yet.[4] In total, the DOGE contract terminations eliminated 0.3846% of the National Weather Service (NWS) budget.[4] Below is an incomplete list of NOAA-specific contracts DOGE terminated, partially terminated, or interacted with.
Grant terminations
On April 14, 2025, the Department of Government Efficiency announced that a grant from NOAA to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was terminated on March 31, 2025, and that details regarding the grant, including its description and total value were "unavailable".[4]
A month later on May 26, DOGE announced it was terminating the federal grant funding for the Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System (CIMES), one of the 16 cooperative institutes jointly owned and operated by the NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) and Princeton University. DOGE announced that three separate grants for CIMES would be terminated on June 30, 2025: one for $45.56 million, a second for $5.18 million, and a third grant whose information was redacted entirely.[4][135][136]
Lease terminations
On March 3, 2025, The Verge & Axios reported leaked information from DOGE saying, NOAA was planning to terminate the building leases for the National Centers for Environmental Prediction's building in College Park, Maryland, which also houses the Environmental Modeling Center and the Weather Prediction Center, and the Radar Operations Center's building on the University of Oklahoma's campus in Norman, Oklahoma.[137][138] On March 5, M. Scott Carter, the chief political reporter for The Oklahoman, falsely reported "the National Weather Center is among many Oklahoma offices that have been included on a Department of Government Efficiency list of federal buildings to be closed".[139] On March 17, ABC News, reporting from the word of an anonymous NOAA spokesperson, stated the Storm Prediction Center (SPC), located in National Weather Center, was set to be closed by DOGE.[140][4]
On March 5, 2025, DOGE announced the termination of 19 various NOAA building leases.[4][41] On March 19, DOGE reinstated two of the leases, leaving only 17 NOAA building leases set to be terminated.[4] On May 3, DOGE reinstated two more leases, leaving only 15 NOAA building leases set to be terminated.[4] On May 26, DOGE reinstated seven more leases, leaving only 8 NOAA building leases set to be terminated.[4] On June 29, DOGE re-terminated one of the leases they reinstated previously, leaving 9 NOAA building leases set to be terminated.[4]
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Database and model closures
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On April 2, 2025, the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), a branch of the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), announced it would be closing and decommissioning several databases and websites. NCEI announced the Shoreline/Coastline Resources page, the Coastal Water Temperature Guide, the Thermal (geothermal) Hot Springs List for the United States, and the Thermal Hot Springs List for the United States would be decommissioned and closed from public access on May 5, 2025.[147] NCEI also announced the United States Earthquake Intensity Database and its sub-databases including the Earthquake Strong Motion Database would be decommissioned also on May 5, 2025.[147] NCEI later announced the Geological History of the World's Oceanic Crust database would be closed on May 12, 2025.[147] Also during April 2025, NCEI announced that all six Regional Climate Center websites would go offline by June 17, 2025, or earlier.[148][149]
On May 8, NCEI announced it would be closing and retiring the Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database.[150]
On June 26, the National Weather Service announced the Environmental Modeling Center would be discontinuing several weather models: the North American Mesoscale Model (NAM), the High Resolution Ensemble Forecast (HREF), the North American Rapid Refresh Ensemble (NARRE), and the High Resolution Window (HiresW), with the exception that HiresW would remain available to the NWS forecasting office in Guam. It was also announced that these models would all be replaced by the Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS).[151] Roger Edwards, a retired employee from the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) stated that "SPC staff who use these models universally deemed this plan a terrible idea harming forecasting" and that the complaints from the SPC staff were "delivered above and ignored".[152]
2026 budget proposal
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In Early-Mid 2025, the United States’ Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a seven-page proposed budget for NOAA in 2026. The proposed budget was proposed to cut 27.28% of NOAA’s budget in order to "eliminate functions of the Department that are misaligned with the President's agenda and the expressed will of the American people".[153] The proposed budget included a large budget cut from every branch of NOAA, except the National Weather Service (NWS), which would be exactly equal to their previous budget.[153] The Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) had a 73.86% budget cut proposed, which would "eliminate all funding for climate, weather, and ocean Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes. It also does not fund Regional Climate Data and Information, Climate Competitive Research, Sea Grant (College and Aquaculture), or the National Oceanographic Partnership Program.[153] This includes the complete defunding of the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) and the Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations (CIWRO), both located at the National Weather Center on the University of Oklahoma campus.[153]
The proposed budget also included directions for NOAA to transfer the National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) over to the Department of Homeland Security, as the agency "better aligns with DHS's mission to protect critical infrastructure." The proposal continued by saying DHS would "take on the operational mission to predict space weather events and disseminate space weather products and warnings".[153]
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Other changes
Following Executive Order 14172, signed by President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025, the National Weather Service and other Line Offices changed all maps and products to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America", costing untold hours of staff time to make the changes.[154][155]
In March 2025, amid the 2025 United States government online resource removals, an unknown executive order signed by President Donald Trump resulted in the NOAA Radar Next Program Overview document being removed from NOAA servers.[156] The automated translation of NWS warnings into Spanish has also stopped after the contract expired.[157]
In June 2025, the Department of Defense announced it would no longer provide critical weather data to scientists and forecasters, including to NOAA staff.[158]
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Domestic terrorism threats
In May 2025, Veterans on Patrol, a militarized and "violent militia-style group" made public threats to take down all 159 NEXRAD-radar sites across the United States. The NEXRAD sites are jointly owned and operated by the National Weather Service (NWS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) within the Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Air Force within the Department of Defense. NOAA sent an email to all personnel alerting them to the threats. CNN reported the email stated, "this group is advocating for anyone and everyone to join them in conducting penetration drills on NEXRAD sites to identify weaknesses which can be used to ultimately destroy the sites" and that "the group referred to the NEXRAD system towers as 'weather weapons,' and claimed there were no laws preventing American citizens from destroying the 'weapons,'".[159]
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See also
- Science policy of the second Donald Trump administration
- Information, science and research under the second Trump administration
- United States federal government targets of Elon Musk
- 2025 United States federal mass layoffs
- Outline of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- University of Oklahoma during the second presidency of Donald Trump
- List of weather modification projects in the United States during 2025
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References
External links
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