Scoop: NOAA folds Climate Prediction Center into larger group
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has moved the Climate Prediction Center underneath a larger entity, known as the Weather Prediction Center, according to an email viewed by Axios.
Why it matters: The move was partly motivated by a desire to protect CPC, which because of its name is considered vulnerable to the Trump administration's budget ax, according to NOAA sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
- Other federal agencies have ended funding for climate studies and taken climate change-related data sets offline based on President Trump's executive orders.
The intrigue: The email, sent Thursday morning, indicates that CPC will remain an independent center for a time during the merger period.
- Despite its name, CPC is responsible for monitoring and producing El Niño and La Niña outlooks, along with seasonal forecasts and other products.
- The work that CPC does is valuable to industry, the U.S. government and other countries because it can provide early warning of major shifts in weather patterns.
It doesn't monitor human-caused climate change or project the future climate beyond seasonal timescales.
- That work is left to other parts of NOAA, such as the National Centers for Environmental Information in Asheville, N.C.
- On that front, NOAA has taken steps to reduce the publicity around such work, pausing monthly global climate monitoring media calls and renaming monthly reports, for example.
NOAA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Zoom out: During the merger process, the director of the Weather Prediction Center, which issues short-to-medium range national forecasts, will also be the director of CPC, the email states.
- The merger comes as NOAA is preparing to potentially lay off as many as around 1,000 employees as part of a reduction in force measure during the coming months.
- About 800 NOAA employees were laid off in February, before being brought back on administrative leave as court cases play out.
