Trump budget cuts threaten accuracy of hurricane forecasts, scientists warn

Skyler Swisher, Orlando Sentinel on Jul 9, 2025

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The Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts to weather programs could damage the accuracy of hurricane forecasts, slowing or even reversing progress made in delivering storm warnings needed to keep Floridians safe, a group of retired scientists said Wednesday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s budget request calls for the closure of a dozen weather research labs — including a premier one in Miami — along with other deep funding reductions.

That could undermine advances in projecting how strong a hurricane will be when it makes landfall, said James Franklin, former branch chief of the hurricane specialist unit at the National Hurricane Center.

“My fear is that we’re going to look back 25 years from now and say, ‘This is when the progress stopped’,” he said.

Franklin and two other former government weather officials spoke at a Wednesday news conference, along with Democratic lawmakers seeking to highlight the proposed cuts ahead of the peak of hurricane season.

The Miami lab performs “critical” functions for hurricane forecasting, such as manning hurricane hunter flights, processing radar data and launching ocean gliders to gather measurements, said Robert Atlas, director emeritus of NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorology Laboratory.

NOAA and the National Weather Service are already reeling from the loss of probationary employees who were terminated and staff members who took buyouts. That has resulted in fewer launches of weather balloons, which collect data used in hurricane forecasts, Franklin said.

Several Democratic lawmakers said that they are fighting to get funding for NOAA and keep the Miami lab open. The budget request isn’t finalized and is subject to congressional approval.

Kim Doster, a NOAA spokeswoman, dismissed concerns that understaffing is threatening the public’s safety.

“NOAA continues to meet its core missions amid recent reorganization efforts and is taking steps to prioritize critical research and services that keep the American public safe and informed,” she said in a prepared statement. “NOAA will continue to keep the best interests of both our citizens and our great scientific communities at the forefront of our efforts as we work to streamline mission-critical functions, ensuring that the overall mission will not be impacted.”

The lawmakers didn’t directly blame staffing shortages for the deaths of more than 100 people in the Texas floods, saying it appears the weather service did its job. But U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the tragedy highlights the importance of cutting-edge weather research and the strongest forecasting tools, adding NOAA facilities in South and Central Florida are understaffed by 20% to 40%.

“If Trump continues to push expert NOAA, NWS and FEMA staff out the door through layoffs and forced retirements, people will needlessly die,” the South Florida congresswoman said.

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