NOAA cuts more key weather data gathering after layoffs
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, on March 3. Photo: Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The National Weather Service is reducing weather balloon launches at six more locations in the U.S. and temporarily suspending them at two more places due to staffing shortages, the agency announced Thursday afternoon.
Why it matters: Weather balloons, typically launched twice per day at NWS local forecast offices, provide crucial data for weather forecasting.
- The suspensions and reductions in balloon launch frequency come on the heels of other cuts made to at least three locations in the wake of NOAA layoffs and buyouts carried out beginning on Feb. 27.
Zoom in: The weather agency, which is part of the Department of Commerce, announced it is suspending weather balloon launches at Omaha, Nebraska, and Rapid City, South Dakota, "due to a lack of Weather Forecast Office (WFO) staffing."
- The agency is also reducing the frequency of weather balloon launches at six other locations in the West, Midwest and Plains states due to lack of staffing.
- Typically, the agency launches the balloons, which are outfitted with weather instruments known as radiosondes, twice a day.
- As they rise through the atmosphere, these balloons gather data on wind speed and direction, humidity, air pressure, and other weather parameters.
- This upper-air weather data is then fed into computer models used for weather prediction.
Forecasters also utilize such data for shorter-term weather predictions including the potential for severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and heavy snowfall. The reduction of available data could lead to less accurate forecasts, they say.
The intrigue: After the layoffs, the agency announced cuts in weather balloon service in Kotzebue, Alaska, and reductions in balloon launch frequency in Albany, New York, and Portland, Maine.
- Taken together, the loss of all this balloon data is likely to reduce the accuracy of computer models not just for U.S. computer models like the Global Forecast System, but also for other nations whose systems rely on data gathered worldwide.
- This would include the world-leading models run by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, or ECMWF.
- NOAA is preparing for further layoffs of up to 1,029 employees, in addition to more early retirements.
- This could further hit NWS' services and make it harder for the agency to fulfill its mission of protecting life and property.
Since the layoffs, NOAA has maintained that it remains dedicated to continuing to meet its mission to provide accurate weather forecasts and life-saving warnings.
Go deeper:
Possible NOAA layoffs alarm broader weather forecasting community
