Florida meteorologist warns Donald Trump's agency cuts will impact accurate weather forecasts

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

A Florida weatherman issued a grim warning over the quality of weather forecasts as the Trump Administration's cuts to federal weather agencies could impact meteorologists' abilities to accurately predict hurricanes.
NBC 6 hurricane specialist John Morales used his segment on Tuesday to warn about cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS).
Elon Musk 's Department of Government Efficiency cuts gutted NWS and NOAA — which provide daily weather forecasts, up-to-the-minute severe storm warnings, climate monitoring and extreme weather tracking — earlier this year.
Hundreds of weather forecasters were fired and other federal NOAA employees were put on probationary status in February, followed by a later round of more than 1,000 cuts at the agency. By April, nearly half of NWS forecast offices had 20 percent vacancy rates.
With the Atlantic hurricane season kicking off on Sunday, Morales warned the budget cuts will impact his ability to predict and track storms.
'As you've grown accustomed to my presentations over my 34 years in South Florida newscast, confidently, I went on TV and told you, "It's going to turn. You don't need to worry,"' he said.
'I'm here to tell you I'm not sure I can do that this year, Because of the cuts—the gutting, the sledgehammer attack on science in general.'
Morales claimed the Trump Administration's cuts will have a 'multi-generation impact on science in this country' and advised his viewers to call their representatives.
'What we're starting to see is that the quality of the forecasts is becoming degraded,' he said.
'There's also a chance because of some of these cuts that NOAA hurricane hunter aircraft will not be able to fly this year and with less reconnaissance missions may be flying blind. And we may not exactly know how strong a hurricane is before it reaches the coastline.'
In 2024, four separate hurricanes killed at least 370 Americans during hurricane season.
The most deadly was Hurricane Helene, which tore through Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas in late September and killed 241 people.
Hurricane Milton came shortly after and was expected to be even worse than Helene, but locals who were still picking up the pieces avoided the catastrophic damage which was expected. Still, 44 people across Florida died in Milton.
Hurricane Beryl killed at least 40 people in Texas, while nine people in South Carolina and Florida died in Hurricane Debby.
Trump's new head of the beleaguered Federal Emergency Management Agency told staff he was not aware that the United States had a 'hurricane season.'
David Richardson, who has been in charge of FEMA since early May, made the astounding revelation during a briefing recently, four sources with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.
The context behind his remarks - and whether he meant them to be a joke - was not immediately clear.
But a spokesperson for FEMA's parent agency, Kristi Noem's Department of Homeland Security, maintained the comments were a joke and not to be taken literally.
'FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens,' the spokesperson said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasted last week that this year's season is expected to bring as many as 10 hurricanes.