Recent mass firings within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Weather Service (NWS), initiated by the Trump administration, may endanger public safety. Approximately 800 staff could face layoffs, primarily affecting probationary employees. Experts, including climatologist Daniel Swain, warn that these cuts could diminish crucial weather alerts and ultimately lead to deaths during extreme weather events. Swain emphasizes the historical importance of NWS warnings, citing instances where their forecasts were pivotal in saving lives during severe weather incidents.
If there were to be large staffing reductions at NOAA and NWS-[as] appears is now indeed underway, with credible reports of much larger further cuts on the horizon-there will be people who die in extreme weather events and weather-related disasters who would not have otherwise.
There have been multiple cases in just the past several years where NWS predictions and real-time emergency warnings saved hundreds (or even thousands of lives) in a single event.
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