Weather service is hiring hundreds after sweeping cuts earlier this year
By Judson Jones | The New York Times
August 8, 2025 at 10:46 AM EDT
The National Weather Service plans to hire hundreds of new employees, months after it lost more than 500 people to the Trump administration’s sweeping effort to reshape the federal workforce, according to the union representing the department’s meteorologists.
Tom Fahy, the union’s legislative director, said Thursday that between the cuts and other vacancies that existed at the start of the year, up to 770 empty positions at forecast offices and other departments could be filled. They include meteorologists, hydrologists, physical scientists and electronics technicians who maintain the infrastructure that delivers the nation’s forecasts.
A statement from Reps. Mike Flood, R-Neb., and Eric Sorensen, D-Ill., said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the weather service’s parent agency, would be hiring for 450 “critical positions.” That would restore nearly all the positions lost to cuts earlier this year.
A spokesperson for the NOAA directed questions on how many positions would be filled to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In June, the weather service said it had received permission to hire for 126 positions to help stabilize the agency after the sweeping cuts earlier in the year. There has been little immediate progress to fill those jobs, but late last month the agency posted a handful of electronics technician positions on USA Jobs, the federal hiring portal.
“Those positions were regretfully tied up in administrative red tape for too long,” Fahy said.
It was unclear when the additional positions would be posted, or how quickly the agency would move to fill them. The weather service has been granted the authority to hire directly, potentially cutting through the traditional bureaucracy that has slowed hiring in the past, according to John Sokich, a former director of congressional affairs for the weather service.
It typically takes months to go through the hiring process, Sokich said. But with direct hiring authority, he said, the weather service’s director could “go to a job fair with graduate students and say, ‘You, you, you and you, come work for the weather service,’ and they can start really quickly.”
Days after the devastating July 4 flooding in Texas, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum classifying weather service employees as public safety employees. The designation does not protect these employees from future cuts, but it does make them exempt from the current government hiring freeze, Fahy said.
Sorensen, who was a TV meteorologist before being elected to Congress, said that while he welcomed the “overdue news” that the weather service would be hiring, a bipartisan bill that he and Flood introduced in June that would make it harder to fire most weather service workers was still necessary to prevent future cuts.
It was also unclear if any of the employees who left or were asked to leave earlier this year would be allowed to apply for the new positions.
In June, a weather service spokesperson said the first batch of new positions was meant to “stabilize” the department after the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts. The meteorologists still on staff were being asked to shuffle around the country in short-term assignments to fill gaps where the cuts had made the deepest impact.
The National Weather Service has been understaffed for years, but for the first time, some offices were no longer able to operate overnight, and some curtailed daily launches of weather balloons that send back critical data to power forecasts and forecast models.
The United States has endured several destructive weather events this year, including California wildfires, several tornado outbreaks and severe hailstorms. Ahead of the flash floods in Texas last month, which resulted in the deaths of more than 130 people, the agency issued increasingly urgent warnings as the forecast became clear. But key leadership positions at forecasting offices in flash flood hotspots around the country remain unfilled.
Sokich said he hoped the hiring spree could help forecasters coordinate better with emergency managers around the country. That “might help mitigate” events like the deadly Texas flooding, he said.
The announcement also comes as the Atlantic Ocean enters the second half of its hurricane season, when some of the most destructive storms typically hit. Some meteorologists have expressed concern that they would be unable to accurately forecast hurricanes this year because of the loss of staff and critical data.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2025 The New York Times
Tom Fahy, the union’s legislative director, said Thursday that between the cuts and other vacancies that existed at the start of the year, up to 770 empty positions at forecast offices and other departments could be filled. They include meteorologists, hydrologists, physical scientists and electronics technicians who maintain the infrastructure that delivers the nation’s forecasts.
A statement from Reps. Mike Flood, R-Neb., and Eric Sorensen, D-Ill., said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the weather service’s parent agency, would be hiring for 450 “critical positions.” That would restore nearly all the positions lost to cuts earlier this year.
A spokesperson for the NOAA directed questions on how many positions would be filled to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In June, the weather service said it had received permission to hire for 126 positions to help stabilize the agency after the sweeping cuts earlier in the year. There has been little immediate progress to fill those jobs, but late last month the agency posted a handful of electronics technician positions on USA Jobs, the federal hiring portal.
“Those positions were regretfully tied up in administrative red tape for too long,” Fahy said.
It was unclear when the additional positions would be posted, or how quickly the agency would move to fill them. The weather service has been granted the authority to hire directly, potentially cutting through the traditional bureaucracy that has slowed hiring in the past, according to John Sokich, a former director of congressional affairs for the weather service.
It typically takes months to go through the hiring process, Sokich said. But with direct hiring authority, he said, the weather service’s director could “go to a job fair with graduate students and say, ‘You, you, you and you, come work for the weather service,’ and they can start really quickly.”
Days after the devastating July 4 flooding in Texas, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum classifying weather service employees as public safety employees. The designation does not protect these employees from future cuts, but it does make them exempt from the current government hiring freeze, Fahy said.
Sorensen, who was a TV meteorologist before being elected to Congress, said that while he welcomed the “overdue news” that the weather service would be hiring, a bipartisan bill that he and Flood introduced in June that would make it harder to fire most weather service workers was still necessary to prevent future cuts.
It was also unclear if any of the employees who left or were asked to leave earlier this year would be allowed to apply for the new positions.
In June, a weather service spokesperson said the first batch of new positions was meant to “stabilize” the department after the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts. The meteorologists still on staff were being asked to shuffle around the country in short-term assignments to fill gaps where the cuts had made the deepest impact.
The National Weather Service has been understaffed for years, but for the first time, some offices were no longer able to operate overnight, and some curtailed daily launches of weather balloons that send back critical data to power forecasts and forecast models.
The United States has endured several destructive weather events this year, including California wildfires, several tornado outbreaks and severe hailstorms. Ahead of the flash floods in Texas last month, which resulted in the deaths of more than 130 people, the agency issued increasingly urgent warnings as the forecast became clear. But key leadership positions at forecasting offices in flash flood hotspots around the country remain unfilled.
Sokich said he hoped the hiring spree could help forecasters coordinate better with emergency managers around the country. That “might help mitigate” events like the deadly Texas flooding, he said.
The announcement also comes as the Atlantic Ocean enters the second half of its hurricane season, when some of the most destructive storms typically hit. Some meteorologists have expressed concern that they would be unable to accurately forecast hurricanes this year because of the loss of staff and critical data.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2025 The New York Times