Like the Trump administration Shooting by the National Meteorological Service Continue impacting local offices in the United States, the agency announced Thorsday that personnel limitations can further reduce or suspend the launch of weather balloons.
The announcement continues Week of legal uncertainty On generalized staff reductions, and the day comes after the agency’s Sacrament office announced that it would stop responding public telephone lines and reduce the extinction and frequency of certain prognosis products due to “critically reduced personnel.” Before that announcement, The office said It would limit your weather updates on social networks.
The changes are among the first of many that the meteorological services managers say that they are likely to do while preparing for an era of the era of “relegated operations“Under the current administration.
“The cracks are really beginning to show,” said Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate scientist. In Discussion about federal cuts this weekSwain said more Propose budget cuts In the weather service and its parent agency, the Oceanic and Atmospheric National Administration, which said it would be “monumentally catastrophic.”
“We have already seen important consequences of the decimation so far,” said Swain. “This will degrade weather forecasts.”
On Thursday, the department announced that probably Suspend the launch of weather balloons in various places Throughout the country, reducing the amount of forecast data captured by balloons through sensors in the upper atmosphere. The last announcement was not specific how many sites would stop the releases previously twice a day, but said the reductions would occur in “selected sites … due to personnel limits or operational priorities.”
The decision occurs after several other places, even in Alaska” Nebraska and Dakota del SurHe already stopped the pitches.
NOAA agencies, including meteorological service, provide key alerts and predict duration’s weather emergencies and control extreme events such as hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, extreme heat and dangerous climate of fire. They also investigate and monitor ocean health, climate change, fishing and atmospheric phenomena.
Before the January Fire Storm that devastated parts of Los Angeles County, Meteorological Service officials warned Residents and emergency responders on potentially attractive winds that could Bell bead of extreme fire. Such forecasts remain a critical part of the fire response throughout the country.
After mass cuts were made throughout the agency in February, the Trump administration is now looking to reduce NOAA’s budget, according to the presentation of reports from Science. The proposal seeks to reduce the agency budget by $ 1.7 billion, with a cut that would effectively end in all climate -centered investigations.
“The scientific backbone and the workforce necessary to maintain meteorological forecasts, alerts and precise and effective warnings will be drastically undermining, with unknown health, but almost no doubt disastrous, consequence and economic health,” said Association in a Joint declaration.
The American representative Zoe Lofgren (D-San José), a member of the classification of the Committee of Science, Space and Technology of the House of Representatives, said that the additional cuts and reductions in the weather service will only damage the “public services that save lives in which people trust every day.” She asked Trump and her administration to stop attacking the agency.
“The actions of the president and his lack of will to deal with critical public services will unnecessarily put people in danger,” Lofgren said in a Declaration this week. “The chaotic and illegal shots, the coercions to resign, the current reductions and a general obsession with destroying the moral of the dedicated public servants have left the workforce of the National Meteorological Service so tense that they want their duties as duties as duties such as I” “” “” “” “” “” “” “” “
In the Meteorological Service Office in Sacramento, meteorologists face extremely short personnel said that now they only broadcast daily prognosis discussions condensed once a day, according to an email to their partners. He San Francisco Chronicle He was the first to report on the matter.
The office also said that he did not respond public telephone calls and limit staff and tasks during the night. Earlier this month, the office Published Ons typically active x page That “in the future, this account will have limited monitoring and publication”, adding people to their website to obtain meteorological information in real time.
Until now, no other meteorological services office in California has reported personnel problems that are affecting operations.
But in a new agreement between the National Meteorological Service and its employee union, the department has established contingency plans for what is described as a future staff that could be serious, according to The New York Times reports. The agency remains under a hiring freezing.
Through the nations more than 100 field officesThe agreement indicates that vacancies could rise to 35%, compared to current personnel, the New York Times reported. And vacancies are Already tallIt is estimated to feel around 20% in early April.
