MPR News with Angela Davis

How federal job cuts at NOAA could affect weather forecasts and climate research

Storm clouds move across the sky
Storm clouds move over Mendota Heights as a line of severe storms rolls through the Twin Cities metro area on Monday evening, Aug. 26, 2024. Weather forecasts and climate research could be threatened by the recent Trump administration job cuts.
Andrew Krueger | MPR News file

Weather forecasts and climate research could be threatened by the recent Trump administration job cuts at federal agencies.

The National Weather Service and its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, cut hundreds of jobs in late February.

And NOAA is tasked with cutting an additional 10 percent of its workforce, according to PBS NewsHour. If those cuts move forward, nearly 20 percent of NOAA’s 13,000-person workforce would be eliminated.

Fewer workers could mean less data that meteorologists and climate researchers depend on to plan and keep people safe when severe weather hits.

MPR News host Angela Davis and her guest talk about how this could affect Minnesotans.

a man poses for a portrait
Paul Douglas, a meteorologist and founder and president of Praedictix, poses for a portrait in the Kling Public Media Center in St. Paul on Tuesday.
Nikhil Kumaran | MPR News

Guest:

  • Paul Douglas is a meteorologist with 50 years of broadcast television and radio experience. He provides daily print and online weather services for the Minnesota Star Tribune. He’s also worked at KARE 11 and WCCO in the Twin Cities. And he is the founder and president of Praedictix, a company that produces daily weather reports for web sites, newspapers, cable channels and TV broadcasters. 

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