Mass firings in NOAA today

Today was my profession’s turn to get the DOGE treatment. Meteorology is a pretty small community so I already know dozens of federal level workers who lost their jobs, plenty of whom work in the same building as I do. These were people who did years of research and upkeep on global forecasting models, people who forecasted and issued warnings, people who maintained things like radars and weather instruments, all canned today. It’s surreal seeing accomplished scientists and forecasters carrying all their shit out of the building and it’s one of the more helpless feelings I’ve ever had that I can’t do jack shit to help.

It’s also doubly cruel that this is happening right as spring/severe weather season is ramping up. Cutting an already understaffed agency that is supposed to help convey the dangers of natural disasters the public is going to get people killed. I hate that it’s come to this, but maybe another Katrina or Joplin or Helene will make the people who supported this garbage realize that there are still vital governmental functions that exist and are being kneecapped for now and long into the future.