This hurricane season, there could be fewer meteorologists collecting data and designing models due to staffing cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
According to The Hill, NOAA has begun firings that could impact between
560 and 1,830 probationary workers.
“I think when people hear ‘probationary’ they think someone that’s brand new. This is really people that have, a lot of us have a lot of experience with NOAA for years and years,” said Andy Hazelton, a physical scientist who worked at the Environmental Modeling Center in Miami until he was abruptly fired on Thursday.
Hazelton, who earned a PhD in meteorology, said working for NOAA was a dream job.
He said he worked with NOAA for years as a contractor and university employee before becoming an official federal employee in October.
His first day was the day Hurricane Milton made landfall.
Late Thursday afternoon, Hazelton said he and 11 others at the EMC received a mass email letting them know they were no longer employed at NOAA.
“Really unfortunate way of finding out. Our supervisors didn’t even know. We had an emergency meeting to go over everything but it was tough,” said Hazelton.
His email access had been turned off by the end of the work day.
Hazelton said his team was working on building the newest versions of hurricane models to implement in the next hurricane season.
“It’s going to be hard to pick up the slack and, unfortunately, it may degrade or make the forecast less accurate over time. That’s something we really don’t want to see and we hope can be avoided,” said Hazelton.
A NOAA spokesperson said the agency does not discuss internal personnel and management matters “as per longstanding practice.”
“NOAA is a federal agency that touches most American lives on a daily basis,” said Gib Brogan, campaign director at Oceana, the largest marine conservation organization in the world.
He said he has worked closely with scientists from NOAA for years.
“Never have I seen bloat or signs that there are extra resources,” said Brogan.
Brogan referred to the reported cuts as “irresponsible.”
“Commercial fishermen, beachgoers, the coastal economies that rely on healthy oceans will all be affected by the cuts at NOAA,” he said.
In Lakeland, NOAA houses its aircraft operations center and its fleet of Hurricane Hunter planes that provide live data during hurricanes.
A city of Lakeland official said he had no knowledge of job cuts locally.
“I don’t think they’re going to jeopardize safety at all,” said Polk County commissioner Bill Braswell. “They wouldn’t get rid of their pilots for their airplanes or probably their scientists or that sort of stuff. If one does get caught up in that, you realize you’re missing somebody you need and you hire them back.”
Reportedly, the National Weather Service could also be affected by the job cuts, which has an office in Tampa.