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The Donald Trump administration’s gutting of the National Weather Services (NWS) has left major metropolitan centers without a top meteorologist ahead of hurricane season.
According to a Friday report from CNN, 30 of the nation’s 122 weather forecast offices now lack a meteorologist-in-charge — the top position at NWS offices that traditionally has a prominent role in emergency management. The offices currently lacking a head meteorologist include Houston-Galveston — which frequently experiences the effects of hurricane season — New York City; Tampa, Florida; and Cleveland, Ohio. The regions covered by those offices include large swaths of the Louisiana and Florida coasts.
“The MICs are the critical linchpin in the operation of our weather forecast offices,” former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) administrator Rick Spinrad told CNN. “They ensure the forecasters have all they need to be most effective, and they are the direct link to NWS HQ for safe and timely communications during weather events.”
The Tampa office that now lacks a chief administrator oversaw the region of Florida battered by Hurricane Milton in October of last year. The storm killed at least 45 people and caused over $34 billion in damages. Meteorologists were inundated with death threats as the storm hit land, as viral conspiracy theories spread claiming the government could control the weather, and that evacuations were unnecessary.
Sources inside the NOAA told CNN that the National Weather Service has lost over 550 employees since Trump’s inauguration. Some of the losses can be attributed to regular turnover and retirements, but the Weather Service was one of several agencies roiled by mass layoffs during the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s government-wide layoffs.
As previously reported by Rolling Stone, working meteorologists and experts warned that the cuts wouldn’t just result in less accurate forecasts, but pose an active risk to public safety. “You’re talking about threats to life and property. This is a place where you don’t want to make mistakes,” David Stensrud, a professor of meteorology and atmospheric science at Penn State, previously told Rolling Stone.
“When severe weather happens, offices will bring in a lot of staff to manage all that has to happen to get warnings out to the public,” Stensrud added. “When staff is at minimum levels, you’re putting a lot of stress on those people.”
As noted by experts who spoke to CNN, the National Weather Services’ meteorologists-in-charge not only help create forecasts, but are often the point people tasked with helping communicate models, predictions, and updates to state officials, the media, and the public during weather emergencies.
Without someone to oversee the offices, “It’s like driving down the road with bald tires,” former meteorologist-in-charge Gary Szatkowski told CNN. “You might get 1,000 miles. You might get 10 miles. To some extent, you don’t know. You’re just engaging in a risky behavior.”
In April, researchers at Colorado State University (CSU) — home to one of the premier meteorological research labs in the nation — released its initial forecast for the 2025 hurricane season, which begins on June 1. The Report predicted that the “2025 Atlantic basin hurricane season will have above-normal activity.”
“We anticipate an above-average probability for major hurricanes making landfall along the continental United States coastline and in the Caribbean,” the report added.
Hurricanes are becoming more frequent and intense because of climate change, which Trump has repeatedly mocked as a “hoax.”
