DOGE Cuts Deflate NOAA’s Balloon Network, Putting Accurate Weather Forecasts in Jeopardy

The National Weather Service is reducing the number of weather balloon launches—and thus, the amount of data collected from American skies—following sweeping cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by the Trump White House. Hundreds of federal workers at NOAA—about 10% of the workforce—were fired on the last day of February, as the Trump administration continued its culling of federal funding across the sciences. “We’re going to lose data because of this staffing,” said Michael Morgan, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former NOAA administrator, in a press conference Monday. “And that loss of data then translates into less precise forecasts, more uncertainties in the forecast.” According to a National Weather Service wire published late last week, weather balloon observations are now suspended out of Omaha, Nebraska, and Rapid City, South Dakota, due to a lack of staffing. Inside Climate News reported that launches were also susp ... Read full article.