On February 27, 2025, the
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) abruptly terminated around 880 employees, over 7.3% of the total staff from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Before the terminations, NOAA had approximately 12,000 employees that included 6,773 scientists and engineers. Shortly after the firings,
William Alsup,
Senior Judge of the
United States District Court for the Northern District of California, ruled that the OPM "had no authority to order the firings of probationary employees". The 113 members of Congress went on to say: On March 6, over 1,000 people protested outside of the NOAA office complex in
Boulder, Colorado and on March 7, a protest occurred outside of the
National Weather Center in
Norman, Oklahoma; both to protest the 880 NOAA terminations. On March 8,
The New York Times reported at least 1,000 more NOAA employees were set to be terminated, downsizing NOAA's pre-terminations workforce by 20%. Throughout the day on March 8, several terminated NOAA employees posted on
X and
Bluesky they were rehired by the
Department of Commerce. Andy Hazelton, a former physical scientist at the NOAA
Environmental Modeling Center (EMC), reported none of the EMC terminated employees were rehired. However, on April 10, reports came out that some probationary employees had been "re-fired" after being placed on administrative leave in mid-March. On April 22, NOAA approved the
deferred resignations or buyouts of 1,029 NOAA employees, which was offered by President Donald Trump to all U.S. government employees on January 28, 2025. On May 7, the
Department of Commerce (DOC) sent a letter to all 880 probationary employees that were fired on February 27 and those rehired and refired on April 10. On May 30, the
White House released that only 850 probationary employees from the entire Department of Commerce were fired, not that 880 were fired from NOAA, a single branch of the Department of Commerce.
Axios reported that one of the "deepest of NOAA's cuts was to the
Office of Space Commerce" (OSC). Ten employees were fired from the
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, located on at
Princeton University. On March 4, the National Weather Service office in Paducah, Kentucky cancelled their student volunteer program and to "suspend new arrangements for prospective meteorology students to shadow at our office" due to the terminations. The National Weather Service office in
Boston,
Massachusetts, had over 36% of its staff terminated, leaving only seven meteorologists, which is four less than what is required for minimal staffing to run the 24/7 office. On March 7, the National Weather Service offices in Albany, New York, and Gray, Maine, stopped launching weather balloons due to staffing issues from the terminations. The offices in Omaha, Nebraska, and Rapid City, South Dakota, also stopped launching weather balloons on March 20 due to staff shortages. On March 31, the NWS provided a complete list of offices across the country affected by the cancellation or reduction of weather balloon launches (image to the right). The terminations are expected to cause a loss in the ability to predict events such as blizzards and tornadoes, not only affecting the U.S. but neighboring Canada as well. On March 31,
U.S. Representative Mike Flood visited the National Weather Service office in Omaha, Nebraska, saying he would work to restore weather balloon launches at the office. On May 2,
CNN reported there were 30 National Weather Service offices without a lead meteorologist. It was also reported that the National Weather Service office in
Goodland, Kansas was the first NWS office no longer operating
24/7 and that "about a dozen more" are likely to stop 24/7 service as well. CNN also reported there were more than 90 vacancies for NOAA
NEXRAD-radar technicians and repairmen jobs. ==Involvement of DOGE==