In A Time Of Climate Crisis, Mass Firings At NOAA Threaten Public Safety
First, this makes the country less safe. Full stop. NWS offices were operating with staffing constraints (meaning they were already doing more with less). They are now operating doubly so. This is going to lead to stress, burn out, risk for miscues, and critical tools breaking.
This is not hype, hyperbole, exaggeration, any of it. I know dozens of NWS employees. This has been an issue for *years.* It was already a problem, and this has now just been made immeasurably worse. And there will be noticeable impacts. Second, I am gravely concerned about tools breaking that are critical to observations, analysis, and forecasts and not being repaired in a timely manner as we head into severe and hurricane seasons.