Legislators and weather experts said hundreds of weather forecasters, as well as other states’ trial status, were fired on Thursday.
Federal workers who were not laissez-free said the afternoon layoffs included meteorologists who made important local forecasts at the National Meteorological Services office nationwide.
Craig McLean, former NOAA chief scientist, said NOAA’s cuts appear to have happened in two rounds, with one of 500 and 800 players. That’s 10% of NOAA’s workforce.
The U.S. federal government, led by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), allegedly saved $55 billion through layoffs and contracts. Some government workers have resigned in protest against reorganization and Musk’s access to sensitive data.
McLean said the first round of layoffs was to probation employees. The National Weather Service has approximately 375 probation staff, here to conduct daily forecasts and hazard warnings.
Billionaire Elon Musk and his government’s efficiency ministry have cuts on what President Donald Trump calls a swollen and hasty federal workforce. Thousands of probation employees in the government have been fired.
Democratic Rep. Grace Meng Meng issued a statement: “Today, hundreds of employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), including weather forecasters from the National Weather Service (NWS), terminated the notice for no good reason. This is unreasonable.”
Meng added: “These are dedicated, hard-working Americans whose efforts help save lives and property from the devastating effects of natural disasters across the country. This action will only endanger life in the United States.”
World President Donald Trump is not elected, but U.S. President Donald Trump cut government waste, Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, faces resistance to his cuts on federal work and departments, what a Democratic senator calls “illegal robbery.”
Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, a ranking minority member on the House Natural Resources Committee, also said “hundreds of scientists and experts at NOAA” were let go.
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said on social media that the work cuts “a very brief perspective that will ultimately cause serious damage to Americans’ public safety and the resilience of the U.S. economy and resilience in weather and climate-related disasters.”
