‘This is a big problem': Two California weather offices no longer provide 24/7 warnings

San Francisco Chronicle​

15-05-2025

Two California National Weather Service offices will no longer operate 24 hours per day, the Chronicle confirmed Thursday, curtailing the output of an agency that issues extreme weather warnings for more than 7 million Californians in the Central Valley.
The moves come amid a broader upheaval of weather service operations touched off by federal budget cuts.
Collectively, the Sacramento and Hanford (Kings County) offices provide forecasts from Redding to Bakersfield, including Lassen, Yosemite, Kings and Sequoia National Parks.
Officials have previously said the two weather service offices were enduring 'critically reduced staffing' levels after early-career meteorologists were fired in February and two separate rounds of retirement offers.
Staffing shortages and budget cuts have crippled the weather service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in recent months as President Donald Trump's administration rapidly scales back federal science departments that have historically been funded by bi-partisen support.
The interruption to continuous weather coverage is 'the biggest deal we've seen so far,' said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.

A spokesperson for the National Weather Service confirmed the offices were not operating around-the-clock.
Hanford's office is down roughly 40% of its typical staffing levels and Sacramento's office has around a 30% vacancy rate, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The person was granted anonymity in accordance with the Chronicle's sourcing policies. The vacancy rates were unprecedented for the weather service, the person said.
In addition to producing daily weather forecasts, local weather service offices provide warnings for life-threatening weather events such as flash floods, wildfires and blizzards. Last summer, the Park Fire erupted in Sacramento's service area and became California's fourth-largest blaze in history. In 2021, the KNP Complex fire threatened massive trees in Sequoia National Park in Hanford's service area.
'These are offices that have both dealt with major wildfire episodes most of the past 10 years and we are now entering fire season,' Swain said. 'That's a big, big problem.'
Sacramento's office announced in April that fire weather forecasts would only be published once per day, rather than twice per day, due to staffing shortages.
The Central Valley offices are among dozens of understaffed weather service offices around the country. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sent a message to employees this week asking for voluntary reassignments to 'non-competitively fill vacancies in critically understaffed operational locations across the National Weather Service,' according to a document reviewed by House science committee Democratic staff.
'NOAA is now facing the dire consequences of their illegal employee firings and coercions to quit and now are frantically trying to fill in the gaps by sending NOAA employees to (the weather service) before lives are lost due to degraded services,' said science committee Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose.
Sacramento's office is recruiting two meteorologists to relocate and Hanford is searching for four meteorologists. Among the vacancies, each office is searching for a 'lead meteorologist,' the head forecaster on a shift, who also oversees the issuance of extreme weather warnings.
Across the U.S. and Guam, NOAA is attempting to reassign 76 meteorologists, 16 hydrologists and dozens of physical scientists, electronic technicians and IT specialists.
'Work is underway to restore services at local forecast offices around the country,' a spokesperson for the National Weather Service Public Affairs told the Chronicle. 'We are striving to mitigate impacts through the temporary assignment of meteorologists, by advertising positions open for permanent assignment, and with nearby offices providing support.'
Sacramento's warning coordination meteorologist, Courtney Carpenter, told the Chronicle on April 16 that the office would continue to have 24/7 coverage.
Since then, more meteorologists have left the weather service following another round of early retirement offers. Among those to take the early retirement offer were the warning coordination meteorologists in Los Angeles and San Diego.
San Diego's warning coordination meteorologist, Alex Tardy, retired on May 3 after 32 years at the National Weather Service. Tardy expressed concern about the recent changes to the agency.
'If the public doesn't know about these impacts, there's going to be be even less support than there already is for slowing it down or stopping it,' Tardy told the Chronicle on Thursday. 'It feels like the agency is scrambling as many federal agencies are.'