Weather Service is now hiring back hundreds of positions that got cut in the DOGE chaos
DOGE
Federal agenciesFacebookTweetLink
Follow
The National Weather Service has received permission to hire 450 meteorologists, hydrologists and radar technicians just months after being hit hard by Department of Government Efficiency-related cuts and early retirement incentives.
The new hiring number includes 126 new positions that were previously approved and will apply to 'front-line mission critical' personnel, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official told CNN.
The NWS cuts have spurred concerns over how well-prepared the country is to withstand hurricane season, which is just starting to heat up in the Atlantic. The staff reductions also have been scrutinized in the wake of the deadly Texas floods in July, with vacancies at weather service forecast offices there.
The cuts to probationary employees, as well as early retirement incentives, meant the nation's front-line weather forecasting agency's staffing levels fell by more than 550 people since the second Trump administration began, to below 4,000 total employees.
CNN has reached out to NOAA for comment.
Agency employees are greeting the news, unveiled at an all hands meeting on Monday, with guarded optimism and relief. Current employees have been working additional hours with additional responsibilities since the layoffs and retirements earlier this year, trying to maintain the 24/7 posture US extreme weather requires. The agency has also been functioning with less data from fewer, less frequent weather balloon launches.
The announcement was also met with frustration over the people the agency lost in the failed attempt at government savings.
'How much time/money is it going to cost to train a bunch of new people when we had already-trained people in place?' asked another NOAA official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. It is possible that some of the new hires will have been previously trained employees who were let go in the DOGE cuts.
The first NOAA official said there is going to be a focus on hiring in a smart, 'asymmetric' way that is 'based on workload.'
The NWS, aided by lawmakers on Capitol Hill, had been arguing for months for a public safety exemption from the federal hiring freeze. That exemption has been granted, and the agency now has direct hiring authority under the Office of Personnel Management, the official told CNN.
Direct hiring authority, according to OPM's website, can be given to federal agencies 'for filling vacancies when a critical hiring need or severe shortage of candidates exists.' It can help speed up the hiring process, the NOAA official said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
13 minutes ago
- CBS News
At the site of the tallest dam built in the U.S. in 20 years, Northern Colorado crews are looking to treat uranium
After decades of planning and years of construction, Northern Colorado's Chimney Hollow Dam is nearly complete. Construction crews topped off the 350-foot-tall dam recently and are preparing to pave a roadway across the top that will not be utilized by the public. The dam, which is located west of Loveland, is more than 1,000 feet wide and includes a thin layer of asphalt to help prevent water from seeping through the rocks used to build it. Chimney Hollow Reservoir, and the dam, have been in the works for decades now as Northern Water looked to secure more drinking water for Northern Colorado's projected population growth. The region has already grown exponentially and is expected to double in population in the next 20 years. "The need for water is great," said Jeff Drager, director of engineering for Northern Water. Drager was one of the first people to join the project decades ago and has been able to watch the vision become a reality. "I was hired 30 years ago for preliminary studies for this project," Drager said. "So, yeah, it has been a long time career building thing for me." Drager invited CBS News Colorado's Dillon Thomas to visit the top of the dam, almost four years to the day that crews broke ground on the project. There he showed how crews are now cleaning up their work zones, removing now-unnecessary ramps and relocating their machinery off site. "It is pretty amazing. For a long time I wasn't sure we were going to get here. It almost feels like a dream," Drager said. Drager recalled hearing how contractors planned on completing the dam, saying they would operate a 24 hour mission to expedite the construction process. That would be done by pulling rock from an on-location quarry and moving it to where the dam was being built. Trucks capable of carrying one tone of rock at a time would do the moving. "They (told me they) would dump one of those trucks every two-to-three minutes, 24 hours a day, for two and a half years to get the project completed. Which at the time I thought was crazy, but they have done that," Drager said. As previously reported by CBS News Colorado, Northern Water recently discovered heightened levels of uranium in the rocks which were used to build the dam. That continues to create extra work for Northern Water as they try and evaluate their options for treating or diluting the water they plan to fill the dam with. Engineers like Drager are hopeful that filling the reservoir with water will help dilute the levels of uranium detected in water currently on-site which is surrounded by construction crews, work and equipment. Drager said the team hasn't determined what course of action they will end up taking yet. However, he said one option would be diluting the water by combining it 20-to-one with water from other sources like nearby lakes, rivers and more. Northern Water may also consider building on-site treatment plants or dispersing the water to be treated by water providers that bought into the project. Drager said filling the reservoir with water could begin in the next two months. However, he said sending the water downstream to providers may be delayed by anywhere from six months to multiple years while they wait to find a proper way to navigate the uranium levels. The Environmental Protection Agency allows uranium to be in drinking water, however there are strict limits on the levels that can be in the water. Right now there is concern the water from Chimney Hollow could exceed that level for the next five to ten years if not properly treated, Drager said. However, the issues around uranium are not going to be enough of a concern to derail the project. Drager said the dam and future reservoir will be a promising resource for Northern Colorado residents for decades to come. "This project is a long-term reliable source of water for about 800,000 people on the Front Range. From Broomfield out to Loveland and Greeley, and all the towns between them. All of them will rely on this for a reliable source of water going into the future," Drager said.
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Don't Miss Tonight's Northern Lights Show—These 18 States Have the Best View
Find out if the dazzling display will be in your Points The northern lights may be visible tonight across parts of the northern U.S., including states as far south as Illinois, due to predicted geomagnetic storm activity. NOAA forecasts moderate G2 geomagnetic storm conditions between 2 and 5 a.m. EDT. The best chance to view the auroras is from a dark, north-facing location around 2 in the United States, as far south as Illinois, could have the chance to see a spectacular light show tonight. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the northern lights are projected to illuminate the skies this evening. The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) is predicting minor to moderate geomagnetic storms in the very early hours of Friday morning, with a slight chance of strong G3 levels, caused by an incoming coronal mass ejection (an ejection of plasma mass from the sun's corona). Geomagnetic storms are ranked from G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme). A G2 storm means that the aurora oval—the zone where there is a higher probability of seeing the northern lights—could move farther south, allowing more parts of the northern U.S. to spot the natural phenomenon, especially if there's minimal light pollution. G3 conditions could bring auroras as far south as Pennsylvania, but that's less likely. Based on the NOAA forecast, residents in 18 states including Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, South Dakota, Vermont, New Hampshire, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, New York, Wyoming, Iowa, Nebraska, and Illinois will have an opportunity to spot the northern lights, with those in the northernmost parts having the greatest possibility. According to NOAA's Kp index forecast, activity could begin as early as 11 p.m. EDT tonight, with moderate G2 storm conditions occurring from 2 to 5 a.m. EDT, which will be the best aurora viewing window. There is also a chance the geomagnetic storm will pop up Friday night into Saturday morning instead, according to the Met Office, the United Kingdom's national meteorological service. So if you don't see the auroras tonight, be sure to check back tomorrow night. The Kp index is a scale from 0 to 9 used to measure geomagnetic activity. The higher the number, the more likely auroras are to be visible at mid-latitudes, away from the poles. NOAA currently predicts the Kp index will peak at 6 in the middle of the night tonight. If you're in an area with the potential to experience auroras, head out and find a north-facing location with a clear view of the horizon that's as far away from light pollution as possible. The best time to see the northern lights will be around 2 a.m. local time. Read the original article on Martha Stewart Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Residents in Alaska's capital city prepare for possible glacial flooding
Alaska Flooding-Glacial Dam ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Residents and officials in Alaska's capital city prepared Friday for the possibility of glacial flooding that in past years has swept away houses, swamped several hundred homes and eroded the river fed by the popular Mendenhall Glacier. The state, federal, city and tribal officials who would run an incident command center during any flooding held a briefing to outline steps and to issue pleas to the public to be prepared. The threat of so-called glacier outburst flooding has become an annual concern in parts of Juneau since 2011. The Mendenhall Glacier — a thinning, retreating glacier that is a major tourist attraction in southeast Alaska — acts as a dam for a basin that fills each spring and summer with rainwater and snowmelt. The basin itself was left behind when a smaller, nearby glacier retreated. When the water in the basin creates enough pressure, it forces its way under or around the ice dam created by the Mendenhall Glacier, entering Mendenhall Lake and eventually the Mendenhall River. The water level in the basin as of Friday stood at 1,353 feet (412 meters) and continues to rise, said Nicole Ferrin with the National Weather Service. It's just 15 feet (1.5 meters) from topping the ice dam. The basin has been rising at an unpredictable rate, so there is no way to pinpoint when water would go over the top, she said. 'Some days when there's no rain, it only rises by a foot (0.30 meters),' she said. 'Other days when there is heavy rain or a lot of sunshine, it rises by 4 feet (1.22 meters), so it's a variable.' In some years, there has been limited flooding of streets or properties near the lake or river. But 2023 and 2024 marked successive years of record flooding, with the river last August cresting at 15.99 feet (4.9 meters), about 1 foot (0.3 meters) over the prior record set a year earlier, and flooding extending farther into the Mendenhall Valley. Last year, nearly 300 residences were damaged in the flooding. Capital City Fire/Rescue Chief Rich Etheridge warned people to stay away during flood stages because logs and other debris in the river can put would-be rescuers 'at extreme peril.' Once the water tops the dam, the city will set up a hotline where people can get information. A large flood event can release up to 15 billion gallons of water, according to the University of Alaska Southeast and Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center. That's the equivalent of nearly 23,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. During last year's flood, the flow rate in the rushing Mendenhall River was about half that of Niagara Falls, the researchers say. City officials responded to concerns from property owners this year by working with state, federal and tribal entities to install a temporary levee along roughly 2.5 miles of riverbank in an attempt to guard against widespread flooding. The installation of about 10,000, four-foot (1.2-meter) tall barriers is intended to protect more than 460 properties from flood levels similar to last year, said Nate Rumsey, deputy director with the city's engineering and public works department. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is at the start of what's expected to be a yearslong process of studying conditions in the region and examining options for a more permanent solution. The timeline has angered some residents, who say it's unreasonable. Outburst floods are expected to continue as long as the Mendenhall Glacier acts as an ice dam to seal off the basin, which could span another 25 to 60 years, according to the university and science center researchers. ___ Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer in Juneau contributed to this report.
