The National Weather Service (NWS) is probably the single most important federal agency you benefit from on a daily basis. We must protect it from indiscriminate cuts and outsourcing.
Every time you check your weather forecast, whether it's from a private
weather company or the NWS itself, you're relying on the agency's vast
resources and expertise to plan your day and keep your family safe.
Value on a scant budget
The agency runs on a budget of just over $1.3 billion per year, meaning the NWS and all its services only costs each American about $3.91 per year.The
American Meteorological Society
estimated in 2021
that the NWS's output is worth about $102 billion per year. That's an average return of about $74 for every $1 spent on the agency—a
tremendous bargain given the forecasts, warnings, products, and services
they offer the country on such a lean budget.
The National Weather Service employs thousands of meteorologists at 122
offices around the country, each staffed with professionals who are experts
in the local climate.
Combined, these offices are tasked with the lifesaving mission of issuing forecasts for
every square mile of the United States. Every severe thunderstorm, tornado,
and flash flood warning you've ever heard began with an NWS forecaster's keen
eye.
Forecasters with the NWS routinely provide Impact-Based Decision Support Services (IDSS) for local, state, and federal officials during high-impact weather events. This support ranges from telephone weather briefings to on-site decision support, such as deploying meteorologists into the field to help crews battle wildfires. It's an invaluable link that helps key decisionmakers direct where and how to deploy resources and aid before, during, and after a storm.
Lifesaving tools to stay safe in severe weather
Have you ever checked the radar on your phone? Whether you looked on a weather app or the NWS's website itself, all that radar data came from one of 143 NEXRAD Doppler radar sites across the contiguous United States.
Forecasters use the data collected by these sites to keep tabs on showers and supercells alike, saving countless lives every year
by providing crucial warning before tornadoes, damaging winds, hailstorms, winter storms, dust storms, and flash floods.
Trained storm spotters are an important piece of the puzzle during severe weather events. The National Weather Service offers free SKYWARN training courses to help educate the public on severe weather—everything from identifying tornadoes to properly measuring snow.
Specially built radio receivers can tap into free NOAA Weather Radio
stations that cover almost every populated portion of the United States. A
NOAA Weather Radio is like a smoke detector for the weather, providing a heads-up when severe weather alerts are issued for your location.
In fact, the wireless emergency push alerts that screech on your phone during tornadoes, flash
floods, hurricanes, and snow squalls arrive in your pocket based on the
warnings drawn by NWS forecasters. You get that alert mere moments after a
government meteorologist hits the 'send' button on their
computer.
Branches of the NWS keep us safe year-round
The Storm Prediction Center is a branch of the National Weather Service that
provides severe weather outlooks, severe thunderstorm and tornado watches,
as well as fire weather outlooks across the country. Every tornado watch
you've gotten in the past few decades came straight from a meteorologist
working at the SPC.
Hurricane season is a scary time for coastal residents. The National Hurricane Center is responsible for closely tracking the Atlantic and
Pacific basins from the moment a tropical disturbance shows up in the models
until a hurricane swirls ashore. Almost every hurricane forecast you see
during the summer and fall comes directly from the NHC.
Worried about what the weather might look like in a couple of weeks? Medium- and long-range outlooks provided by the Climate Prediction Center can help people and businesses alike prepare for cold spells, heat waves, droughts, and potential deluges on the horizon.
They're not just focused on storms happening on Earth. Solar storms can pose a significant threat to communications, navigation, and power grids. The Space Weather Prediction Center constantly monitors the Sun and issues alerts when strong solar storms are detected.
Observations form the bedrock of weather forecasting
Many of the weather models forecasters use on a daily basis are run by the National Weather Service and NOAA. This includes the "American" (GFS) model and high-resolution models like the NAM,
the HRRR, and the RAP. This may not sound impressive to the average person,
but these models are responsible for helping
meteorologists issue exceptionally accurate forecasts.
Models don't operate in a vacuum. The model has to "know" what the weather
looks like right now in order to predict what the weather might look like
tomorrow.
A major resource for these observations comes from upper-air soundings gathered by devices attached to weather balloons. The NWS is
directly responsible for launching hundreds of weather balloons every day.
Not only does this data help improve models, but the information gathered
can help forecasters predict events like tornado outbreaks and ice
storms.
And, of course, there's satellite data. Best of luck to the private weather
company that wants to launch their own satellites into geosynchronous
orbit. These satellites provide more than photorealistic imagery of our skies above. They can monitor lightning, track dust and pollution, detect wildfires, and even monitor the Sun for potentially disruptive solar storms.
A serious ongoing threat to the agency's mission
The White House is currently undertaking an unprecedented effort to gut the federal government, strangling and cutting off programs legally funded by acts of Congress. NOAA, and possibly the NWS by extension, may be on the chopping block soon.
Many NWS offices already struggle with barebones staffing. This month's indiscriminate firing of new hires and recently promoted individuals will make these staffing issues worse.
Project 2025, the current administration's governing blueprint, outright calls for the abolition of the National Weather Service as we know it.
"The NWS provides data the private companies use and should focus on its data-gathering services. Because private companies rely on these data, the NWS should fully commercialize its forecasting operations," Project 2025 says on page 707.
Private companies cannot—and should not—replace the National Weather Service. Critical weather forecasts and lifesaving severe weather warnings are a public good.
Privatization wouldn't save any money. Abolishing the NWS as we know it would force Americans to pay to receive weather forecasts twice—once through our tax dollars subsidizing private companies, and then again by requiring us to pay those private companies to receive our forecasts and warnings.
Any further cuts or changes to this critical federal agency will directly endanger lives.
Please contact your representatives to urge lawmakers to save NOAA and the National Weather Service from irreparable damage. This could be the most important thing we do to protect ourselves over the next four years.
[Top Image: Pierre cb via Wikimedia Commons]
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