National Weather Service hiring to cover field offices left shorthanded after DOGE cuts

The NWS was understaffed as spring storms hit towns in
the central-eastern U.S. (Photo by G. Johnson, Unsplash) 

After facing public backlash over unstaffed or understaffed field offices, the National Weather Service is back in hiring mode. "Erica Grow Cei, a National Weather Service spokesperson, says the new hires will fill positions at field offices where there's 'the greatest operational need,'" reports Greg Allen of NPR. The National Weather Service has been short-staffed since the Trump administration terminated 600 NWS employees in early 2025.

The NWS plans to hire around 125 people to fill positions that will help rebalance workloads and return some services to the field. Tom Fahy, legislative director with the union that represents NWS employees, told Allen, "The positions' categories are meteorologist, hydrologist, physical scientist and electronic technicians." Electronic technicians maintain and repair the sensitive radar equipment used to predict severe weather.

Following the staffing cuts, some NWS field offices "were no longer staffed around the clock," Allen reports. "Some also cut back on weather balloon launches, critical tools in gathering data needed for local and national forecasts, according to the National Weather Service."

The loss of vital employees throughout tornado season and heading into hurricane season left the NSW scrambling to cover high-risk areas. Mary Glackin, a former undersecretary at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told Allen, "We're in the middle of a severe weather season, and I know that's put quite a strain on the system. It's not a good time to be understaffed."

Filling the NWS positions will take time. Allen writes, "Glackin expects it will be September at the earliest before many of the positions are filled. And she notes, after the cuts earlier this year, NWS is short several hundred positions."