‘Cruel and thoughtless’: Trump fires hundreds at US climate agency NOAA

Summary

The Trump administration has fired hundreds of employees at NOAA, the U.S.’s top climate research agency, affecting probationary workers, a categorization that applies to new hires or those moved or promoted into new positions.

Critics, including NOAA veterans and lawmakers, call the move “cruel” and warn it endangers weather forecasting, climate research, and public safety.

Senator Chris Van Hollen deemed the mass firings illegal, while scientists and policymakers condemned the decision.

Former NOAA officials argue the cuts lack justification and will harm national security and disaster preparedness. The administration has not commented.

‘Cruel and thoughtless’: Trump fires hundreds at US climate agency NOAA

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/27/trump-noaa-cuts-climateOpen link View original on lemmy.world

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Comments14

water

lemmy.world

AccuWeather has been working on this since 2005

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Weather_Service_Duties_Act_of_2005

tal reply

lemmy.today

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AccuWeather

On October 12, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated AccuWeather CEO Barry Lee Myers, the younger brother of the company's founder, to head the National Weather Service's parent administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It was noted that unlike 11 of the previous 12 NOAA administrators, Myers lacks an advanced scientific degree, instead holding bachelor's and master's degrees in business and law.[37] Barry Myers stepped down as CEO of AccuWeather on January 1, 2019, and completely divested himself of any ownership of AccuWeather in accordance with his pledge to the Office of Government Ethics and the U.S. Senate. After two years of inaction on the nomination, Myers withdrew his consideration for nomination on November 12, 2019, due to ill health,[38] though allegations of a hostile workplace and pervasive sexual harassment while Myers was at AccuWeather are rumored to have stalled it.[39][40] Myers sent a letter to The Washington Post in 2019 to address these allegations.

Huh.

evilcultist reply

sh.itjust.works

StrawberryPigtails

lemmy.sdf.org

Well crap. Knew it was coming but still.

Anyone know of a good weather service that doesn’t rely on NOAA?

empireOfLove2 reply

lemmy.dbzer0.com

None of them.

There are private companies that run a lot of their own independent forecasting models e.g AccuWeather, but all of them almost exclusively rely on NOAA's scientific models, experimental tests, weather balloons, satellites, sensor stations, etc for input data to forecast anything useful.

catloaf reply

lemm.ee

Yeah. Even if they employ their own meteorologists, they're still interpreting the maps and imagery from government satellites and weather stations. You take those away, and AccuWeather can't afford to stay in business.