South Florida weather experts and members of congress are sounding the alarm over a proposed $2.2 billion dollar cut to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under President Trump's 2026 fiscal year budget.
The cuts would eliminate the agency's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.
At a virtual briefing on July 9, Robert Atlas, the former director of NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorology Laboratory, said the proposed cuts could hinder further progress in predicting storms.
"Every year the errors in our track and our intensity forecasts have been reduced," he said. "Previously there had been no improvement in hurricane intensity forecasting. In forecasting the intensity of hurricanes where they will make landfall, and being able to extend the forecast lead time on those is extraordinarily important."
Atlas and other professionals were joined at Wednesday's roundtable by Democratic representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Lois Frankel, Sheila Cherfilus McCormick and James Clyburn.
READ MORE: NOAA delays the cutoff of key satellite data for hurricane forecasting
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