NOAA fires more than 800 scientists and forecasters in mass federal workforce purge

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration dismissed more than 800 employees, including meteorologists, marine scientists, fisheries researchers, and climate scientists, as part of the Trump administration's broad federal workforce reduction. NOAA employs roughly 12,000 people and runs the National Weather Service, which issues tornado warnings, hurricane forecasts, and flood alerts affecting millions of Americans each day. The firings hit probationary employees disproportionately, including scientists who were early in their careers after completing PhD programs and postdoctoral appointments. Weather forecasters in regional offices lost experienced colleagues whose institutional knowledge of local weather patterns can't be quickly replaced. NOAA also conducts long-term ocean monitoring for sea surface temperatures and tracks fishery populations that fishing industries depend on. The scale of the layoffs drew warnings from meteorological societies that gaps in operational weather forecasting capacity posed direct public safety risks.