The National Weather Service is seeking to fill 155 key positions in offices thinned by staff cutbacks, offering current employees the opportunity to move, according to an email and agency notices viewed by Agri-Pulse.
Agency leaders are trying to identify existing employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association who are willing to make lateral moves to offices struggling to continue forecasting services, including weather balloon launches, a source in the agency told Agri-Pulse. They said no promotions would be allowed.
The NWS employee believes most of those taking new positions would come from the Maryland headquarters, which could be subject to reductions in force in the next few months. They heard that the reduction would target headquarters, “leaving the field and regional people alone.”
“The nickname the folks gave it was bloody May,” the worker said. “So I imagine it’s gonna be bad."
A NWS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
According to hiring notices, the agency wants meteorologists in charge for Lake Charles, Louisiana; Brooklyn Heights and Wilmington, Ohio; and Houston and League City, Texas.
NWS offices in Goodland, Kansas, and Fairbanks, Alaska, are looking to fill three "lead meteorologist" positions. An office in Hanford, California, is looking not only to fill two lead meteorologist positions, but also two general meteorologists and an electronics technician.
Offices in Little Rock, Arkansas; Barrigada, Guam; Lake Charles, Louisiana; Caribou and Gray, Maine; Marquette, Michigan; North Platte and Valley, Nebraska; Rapid City, South Dakota; and Cheyenne, Wyoming, are each looking to fill two lead meteorologist roles.
Lead meteorologist positions are also available in Juneau, Alaska; Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; Key West, Florida; Miami, Florida; Peachtree City, Georgia; Jackson, Kentucky; Caribou and Gray, Maine; Albany and Buffalo, New York; State College, Pennsylvania; Columbia, South Carolina; and Amarillo and League City, Texas.
The agency is looking for two electronics technicians in Anchorage, Alaska; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Lincoln, Illinois. It also wants is seeking technicians for offices in Phoenix, Arizona; Lihue, Hawaii; Wichita, Kansas; Billings, Montana; Morehead City, North Carolina; Las Vegas, Nevada; Pittsburgh; Houston; and Sterling, Virginia.
The agency seeks to fill 25 information technology specialist positions, 22 physical scientists and 16 hydrologists.
Approximately 550 National Weather Service employees have left the agency in recent months, whether due to buyouts or other reasons, five former National Weather Service directors wrote in an open letter May 2. Among these were 250 probationary employees who were fired or took the Trump administration’s initial buyout offer in February.
They warned that this leaves the agency down “more than 10% of its staffing — just as we head into the busiest time for severe storm predictions like tornadoes and hurricanes.” Some short-staffed forecast offices may be forced to go to part-time services, they added.
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Louis Uccellini (University of Maryland photo)“We’re seeing the radio releases being reduced in local offices throughout the weather service,” said Louis Uccellini, NWS director from 2013 to 2022. “Word’s getting out of the offices that ‘hey, look, we’re so short we don’t even know if we can carry the midnight shift.'”
Uccellini added that extreme weather outreach to the farming community is being affected, as well as work at the Climate Prediction Center, which forecasts precipitation up to three months into the future.
“We felt very strongly that a statement had to be made,” Uccellini told Agri-Pulse. “You’ve got severe weather, you’ve got fire weather … and you’ve got all these agricultural concerns that multiply as we go into the summer and towards the harvest. They’re all on the table and they’re all at risk.”
Due to low staffing, NWS previously suspended weather balloon operations at Kotzebue, Alaska; Omaha, Nebraska; and Rapid City, South Dakota, according to NWS notices. Launches were reduced to one per day in Aberdeen, South Dakota; Grand Junction, Colorado; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Gaylord, Michigan; North Platte, Nebraska; and Riverton, Wyoming, according to the notices.
Staff in Albany, New York, and Gray, Maine, have been trying to continue two balloons daily, but warned in a notice earlier this year that they may not be able to do it.
Balloons are among the most reliable methods for collecting data, with the ability to reach parts of the stratosphere that are otherwise hard to reach and gauge temperature, pressure, elevation and wind speeds. They often require two or more people to operate.
Sen. Mike Flood, R-Neb., told Agri-Pulse last month that staff relocations will allow the Omaha office to resume two-a-day balloon launches "just in time for tornado season."
Uccellini said when staffing levels are severely reduced, it hinders the agency’s ability to both forecast and spread awareness of storms to affected communities.
“What you do when you hollow out an office, or many offices, you’re cutting into that ability,” he said. “You’re pulling the fabric apart and at some point it’s gonna snap."
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