Following the second inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States, and the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on January 20, 2025, several major changes occurred at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), including hundreds of employees being terminated, dozens of federal contracts and leases being terminated, and the enactment of executive orders which affected the operations of NOAA. The operations of the National Weather Service (NWS) were affected, with several offices stopping weather balloon launches, and NOAA databases and websites went offline. The National Weather Service was also the target of domestic terrorism threats for conspiracy theories regarding weaponizing the weather.
Federal employee buyouts, resignations, and terminations
On February 27, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) abruptly terminated around 880 employees, over 7.3% of the total staff from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Before the terminations, NOAA had approximately 12,000 employees that included 6,773 scientists and engineers. Shortly after the firings, William Alsup, Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, ruled that the OPM "had no authority to order the firings of probationary employees".
Rick Spinrad, the former NOAA Administrator who was picked by former president Joe Biden, stated firings occurred at the National Hurricane Center and Storm Prediction Center. Spinrad stated 25% of the NOAA Environmental Modeling Center was terminated. Congressman Jared Huffman responded to the firings by saying the entire American public "depend on NOAA for free, accurate forecasts, severe weather alerts, and emergency information". Daniel Swain, a scientist at the University of California, in response to the firings said, "Most or all private weather companies in US (including forecasts that you see on TV or your favorite app) are built directly atop backbone of taxpayer-funded instrumentation, data, predictive modeling, & forecasts provided by NOAA". On March 5, 113 members of the United States Congress sent a letter to the United States Department of Commerce to "express profound outrage" to the termination of 880 NOAA employees. The 113 members of Congress went on to say:
On March 6, over 1,000 people protested outside of the NOAA office complex in Boulder, Colorado and on March 7, a protest occurred outside of the National Weather Center in Norman, Oklahoma; both to protest the 880 NOAA terminations.
On March 8, The New York Times reported at least 1,000 more NOAA employees were set to be terminated, downsizing NOAA's pre-terminations workforce by 20%. Throughout the day on March 8, several terminated NOAA employees posted on X and Bluesky they were rehired by the Department of Commerce. Andy Hazelton, a former physical scientist at the NOAA Environmental Modeling Center (EMC), reported none of the EMC terminated employees were rehired. However, on April 10, reports came out that some probationary employees had been "re-fired" after being placed on administrative leave in mid-March.
On April 22, NOAA approved the deferred resignations or buyouts of 1,029 NOAA employees, which was offered by President Donald Trump to all U.S. government employees on January 28, 2025.
On May 7, the Department of Commerce (DOC) sent a letter to all 880 probationary employees that were fired on February 27 and those rehired and refired on April 10. The letter stated its issuance to the fired probationary employees was ordered by Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The letter stated Judge Alsup determined the probationary employees were not fired based on the initial firing reasonings of "performance or fitness based" but was rather "part of a government-wide mass termination". John Guenther, the Department of Commerce's acting General Counsel stated in the letter, "the Department believes it to be both legally and factually erroneous" on employees not being fired based on "performance or fitness based" reasonings, and that the DOC "intends to rigorously defend its actions as this matter continues through litigation". On May 30, the White House released that only 850 probationary employees from the entire Department of Commerce were fired, not that 880 were fired from NOAA, a single branch of the Department of Commerce.
Effects of the terminations
A weather balloon launch station maintained by the National Weather Service in Alaska was forced to cease launches due to the terminations resulting in staff shortages. The NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), a branch of the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research announced the terminations resulted in a staff shortage and the office would be taking an "indefinite hiatus". Nicole Rice, an employee at the GLERL who was terminated reported 20% of the GLERL office was terminated. Axios reported that one of the "deepest of NOAA's cuts was to the Office of Space Commerce" (OSC). Researchers, including dual-role University of Oklahoma (OU)-federal researchers at the National Weather Center, located on the OU campus were terminated, which included students in the OU School of Meteorology. Ten employees were fired from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton University.
On March 4, the National Weather Service office in Paducah, Kentucky cancelled their student volunteer program and moved to "suspend new arrangements for prospective meteorology students to shadow at our office" due to the terminations. The National Weather Service office in Boston, Massachusetts, had over 36% of its staff terminated, leaving only seven meteorologists, four less than required for minimal staffing to run the 24/7 office. On March 7, the National Weather Service offices in Albany, New York, and Gray, Maine, stopped launching weather balloons due to staffing issues from the terminations. The offices in Omaha, Nebraska, and Rapid City, South Dakota, also stopped launching weather balloons on March 20 due to staff shortages. On March 31, the NWS provided a complete list of offices across the country affected by the cancellation or reduction of weather balloon launches (image to the right). The terminations are expected to cause a loss in the ability to predict events such as blizzards and tornadoes, not only affecting the U.S. but neighboring Canada as well. On March 31, U.S. Representative Mike Flood visited the National Weather Service office in Omaha, Nebraska, saying he would work to restore weather balloon launches at the office.
On May 2, CNN reported there were 30 National Weather Service offices without a lead meteorologist. It was also reported that the National Weather Service office in Goodland, Kansas was the first NWS office no longer operating 24/7 and that "about a dozen more" are likely to stop 24/7 service as well. CNN also reported there were more than 90 vacancies for NOAA NEXRAD-radar technicians and repairmen jobs.
Involvement of DOGE
On February 4, 2025, The Guardian reported employees of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had entered the headquarters of the NOAA in Silver Spring, Maryland, reporting "they apparently just sort of walked past security and said: 'Get out of my way,' and they're looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies". ABC News reported on February6 that DOGE employees had gained access to the NOAA computer systems. Staff from the NOAA Information Technology group and the Department of Commerce attempted to keep the operatives from the systems according to security protocols, but the operatives defied authorized security staff and forcefully entered the facilities. Two Democratic Congress members characterized DOGE's presence in NOAA systems as "hackers". NOAA staff noted that the actions of the operatives could directly cause risk to human life by hindering NOAA and National Weather Service operations. ABC also reported that operatives were also looking for anything connected to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) on bulletin boards and were inspecting bathroom signs to ensure compliance with Trump's executive orders.
On February 12, Grist reported that the Trump administration started to shrink the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), nearly 170 employees at the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights were placed on paid administrative leave. On March 2, Ryan Maue, the chief scientist for NOAA during the first presidency of Donald Trump, suggested on X that the United States House of Representatives should redirect all NOAA funds saved by DOGE to the National Weather Service.
On March 9, The Salt Lake Tribune reported the wife of Brent Pounds, a former officer for the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps, was assisting DOGE and was giving notes to Elon Musk.
NOAA contract involvement On February 17, 2025, DOGE released the names of 1,127 federal contracts spanning 39 federal departments and agencies, including the NOAA, that DOGE says had been terminated. A Wall Street Journal analysis of these over 1,000 contracts found inaccuracies of DOGE's reported savings, including counting contracts multiple times, listing contracts that have already been paid as savings, and misrepresenting potential savings based on contract limits rather than actual spending. On February 24, 2025, DOGE released more documents, with the total nearing 2,300 contracts released. The Associated Press found that "nearly 40%" of the terminated contracts would not save the government any money. On March 1, NOAA, at the recommendation of DOGE, terminated the University of Maine's multi-million-dollar Maine Sea Grant, saying "it has been determined that the program activities proposed to be carried out in Year 2 of the Maine Sea Grant Omnibus Award are no longer relevant to the focus of the Administration’s priorities and program objectives". This grant termination has not been announced by DOGE.
As of June 29, 2025, DOGE released 196 NOAA-specific contracts it claims to have terminated, partially terminated, or interacted with, for a total contract value of $133,927,153.01, and a claimed savings of $42,481,923.88. On May 30, 2025, the White House reported DOGE terminated a $5.9 million Department of Commerce contract for "environmental consulting support services", and from that termination it was reported DOGE saved the federal government $613 million. This contract termination has not yet been reported by DOGE yet. In total, the DOGE contract terminations eliminated 0.3846% of the National Weather Service (NWS) budget. Below is an incomplete list of NOAA-specific contracts DOGE terminated, partially terminated, or interacted with.