Days after floods killed at least 135 people in Texas Hill Country, weather scientist Neil Jacobs appeared before a Senate committee as the nominee to lead the US agency that oversees forecasting. He vowed to create a cutting-edge weather modeling system while also pledging support for President Donald Trump’s plan to dramatically shrink the agency.
It’s a hard balance to strike. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has sole responsibility for issuing life-saving weather alerts in the US. The agency — which once employed 12,000 — is reeling from the departure of hundreds of staff. Dozens of forecasting offices are without a chief meteorologist or a warning coordinator who communicates with emergency managers ahead of dangerous storms. The Commerce Department has opened inquiries into the effectiveness of the Texas flood warnings and whether the agency is ready to respond to future disasters; the agency is likely to be tested again very soon, as the heart of hurricane season nears.
Other offices lack staff to launch weather balloons and track local conditions. Those shortages are creating gaps in NOAA data and tools that have been used by businesses in a wide array of industries for plotting strategy and planning day-to-day operations.
The White House’s proposed budget would eliminate NOAA’s research division, cut more than 2,200 positions and reduce funding by…