National Weather Service To Fill 450 Positions After Firing 600, Report Says
President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and Texas Governor Greg Abbott meet with local emergency services personnel as they survey flood damage along the Guadalupe River on July 11, 2025. Getty Images
The new hires were authorized directly by the Office of Personnel Management, CNN reported, citing an unnamed National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official, after the NWS lobbied strongly to be exempt from the federal hiring freeze that started when Trump took office.
The agency claimed a public safety exemption in its plea to hire new people after the Department of Government Efficiency cut 11% of NOAA's workforce, about half of which came from the NWS.
The agency lost about 600 people—roughly 100 probationary employees were fired and 500 took buyouts pushed by President Donald Trump—which represents 17% of the NWS' workforce.
It's unclear if the agency will be making all new hires or re-hiring some of the employees that were let go in the DOGE cuts.
Cuts to the National Weather Service have been among the Trump administration's most criticized, particularly after staffing shortages were revealed at the two local forecasting offices closest to the deadly flash floods that killed more than 130 people in Texas in July.
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10. That's how many vacancies there were out of 49 positions at NWS forecasting offices in central Texas. The San Antonio office had six vacancies out of 26 positions and the San Angelo office had four vacancies out of 23 jobs. While experts said the positions being filled likely wouldn't have made flood warnings more timely or accurate, some former NWS officials told The New York Times it may have impacted the agency's ability to communicate with local authorities after the warnings were issued.
'How much time/money is it going to cost to train a bunch of new people when we had already-trained people in place?' one unnamed NOAA official said to CNN. Tangent
The hiring announcement comes at the start of what has historically been the busiest part of the Atlantic hurricane season and one week after the Department of Defense rolled back plans to stop publicly providing satellite data needed for hurricane forecasting and sea ice monitoring. The Atlantic hurricane season lasts from June 1 to Nov. 30 but August, September and October are usually the most active months. NOAA has predicted a slightly above-normal season for this year, in part due to warmer-than-average ocean temperatures, estimating there will be 13-19 named storms this year, with six to 10 developing into hurricanes. NOAA in June said it would stop providing satellite data it has made available since 1962, citing 'significant cybersecurity risk," but on July 30 confirmed to The New York Times the program will keep running indefinitely. What To Watch For
The National Hurricane Center is monitoring two systems with the potential to develop. The NHC says there is a 40% chance a disturbance off the coast of South Carolina will develop into a tropical depression in the next week, and a 50% chance of a tropical depression forming from a disturbance moving over the central tropical Atlantic. Systems are named when they reach tropical storm strength (sustained winds of 39 mph or higher) and become hurricanes when sustained winds reach at least 74 mph. Further Reading Forbes Who Is To Blame For Texas Flooding Tragedy? Latest: Kristi Noem Defends FEMA's Response By Mary Whitfill Roeloffs Forbes Was Texas Warned Of Flooding Properly? Here's What We Know By Zachary Folk Forbes Investigating Weather With New Satellites By John Werner
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