The Trump administration targeted the workforce of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last week, cutting over 1000 scientists from their positions in the agency, according to Reuters. The agency is home to the National Weather Service, which forecasts weather for the entire country.
Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Jonathan Martin said the cuts will heavily impact weather forecasting and related reports for the nation.
Martin pointed to the storm moving across the country today and the variety of warnings issued to highlight the importance of forecasting. Northern Wisconsin is under a winter storm warning, rain is forecasted in southern Wisconsin and tornado warnings to the west in Minnesota and Iowa were issued by NWS.
“There’s not many places in the world that have that sort of variety from weather systems,” Martin said. “The need to protect society, citizens and their commerce is at a very high level in this country.”
NWS saw a majority of the cuts targeted at them, with over 600 scientists being fired, Martin said. He said some included former University of Wisconsin students whom he taught personally.
Martin said there is no replacement for the work NOAA does in the private sector.
“NOAA-sponsored and Weather Service-sponsored observations and modeling for making predictions underlies every one of those private companies,” Martin said. “There’s not a single private company that runs its own model, gathers its own data [and] has a seat at the international tables that organize the dissemination of meteorological data.”
Martin said the economic impact of these firings could be enormous, as shipping, farming and more businesses rely on NWS for decision making. The NWS also runs forecasts for ocean analysis, drought outlook and even space weather for electromagnetic storms.
“All of that will be compromised with a skeleton crew trying to keep the wheels spinning,” Martin said.
The NWS operates three stations in Wisconsin, in Sullivan, about halfway between Madison and Milwaukee, Green Bay and La Crosse. These stations are responsible for more localized forecasts for their respective regions.
Martin said he has worked extensively with members of NWS for research and investigations at the Sullivan station over his three decades at the University of Wisconsin. He fears these cuts will prevent scientific inquiry and research alongside the staff shortages weather services and forecasts will face.
“If I say to the chief scientific operations officer, ‘Hey, what do you guys think about looking at this problem for the winter,’ I know what he’s going do,” Martin said. “He [is] going to tell me, ‘I don’t have the staff, Jon.'”