Ahead of wildfire season, Sen. Cantwell says staff shortage at National Weather Service has a ‘dangerous impact’

Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell has voiced concern over staffing cuts at the National Weather Service, which she says have left much of the country ill-prepared for this year’s hurricane and fire seasons.

The concern comes as recent wildfire maps show Washington faces an “above-normal” threat for “significant wildland fire potential” over the next four months.

According to Cantwell, the agency has lost more than 560 employees in recent months due to layoffs and retirements. Although it recently announced plans to hire 126 new employees, the agency’s current staffing shortage has left it struggling to fill critical roles.

“We’re very concerned about the administration slashing a workforce that is essential for weather forecasting that affects both hurricane and wildfire seasons,” Cantwell said during a news call Wednesday afternoon.

Cantwell said in total, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the National Weather Service, has lost 1,867 employees, or 16% of its workforce, as a result of the termination of probationary employees, early retirements and other cuts.

“Their staffing shortages are having a dangerous impact on the weather service,” Cantwell said.

The shortages, Cantwell said, have left many weather forecast offices across the country “critically understaffed.”

As of May 15, the Pendleton, Oregon, forecast office – which serves Klickitat, Yakima, Kittitas, Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla and Columbia counties – no longer has enough meteorologists to staff the overnight shifts, according to the National Weather Service Employees Organization. The office is short six meteorologists, which represents 40% of the typical workforce.

The office also has two vacant manager positions and three vacant technical specialist positions.

“We need the National Weather Service to be appropriately staffed and funded and appropriate people to give us the lifesaving information that we need,” Cantwell said.

In a May 29 letter to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Charles Ezell, the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, Cantwell said due to the lack of overnight staffing at the office, “we’ll lose the consistent local knowledge about weather hazards that impacts the accuracy of forecasts and warnings needed to inform transportation agencies, farmers, schools, firefighters, emergency responders.”

During a Senate committee hearing Wednesday, Lutnick said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is “fully staffed.”

“We are fully staffed with forecasters and scientists. Under no circumstances am I going to let public safety or public forecasting be touched,” Lutnick said.

According to Cantwell, however, 30 of the 122 weather forecast offices across the country do not have a meteorologist in charge, while at least 10 forecast offices have suspended or limited the weather balloon launches needed for daily forecasts.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is also short more than 90 staff members tasked with maintaining Doppler radar and automated airport weather sensors across the nation, Cantwell said.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Sen. Patty Murray said she is “deeply concerned” over the decreased staffing at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which she said is “really, seriously jeopardizing the weather forecasting that we all count on.”

In central Washington, the National Weather Service has implemented a “workaround solution” in an attempt to provide around-the-clock forecasting services. Surrounding forecast offices, which include Seattle and Spokane, are coordinating to monitor weather conditions in the region overnight, and to issue warnings if needed.

The fix, Cantwell said, is an ineffective solution for the loss of meteorologists with specialized knowledge of an area.

“If you think you’re going to substitute somebody that’s going to be somewhere else, I don’t know where, some other part of the state or some other state, and you think you’re going to give them accurate weather information, it doesn’t work that way,” Cantwell said. “It just doesn’t.”

Jeff Renner, a long-time meteorologist for King 5 News in Seattle, said meteorologists who respond during wildfire season have “very specific training and very specific experience that can’t be easily duplicated.”

“Particularly from those outside of the area,” Renner said. “Not only do they have the business of alerting local communities to the potential for danger, but also providing guidance for response crews.”

If the need arises, staff from the Pendleton office will also report to coordinate with emergency managers and public safety officials.

In a statement Wednesday, Erica Grow Cei, a spokesperson for the National Weather Service, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is taking “steps to address those who took a voluntary early retirement option.”

“NWS continues to conduct short-term Temporary Duty assignments (TDYs), and is in the process of conducting a series of Reassignment Opportunity Notices (RONs) to fill roles at NWS field locations with the greatest operational need,” Cei said.

Cei added that “a targeted number of permanent, mission-critical field positions will soon be advertised under an exception to the Department-wide hiring freeze to further stabilize frontline operations.”

Recent wildland fire forecast maps from the National Weather Service show that most of the area east of the Cascades faces an elevated danger for June. In July, the at-risk area expands to cover most of the western portion of the state as well, and the entire state is considered an “above-normal” threat for “significant wildland fire potential” in August and September.

According to the National Weather Service, the increased threat is partially attributed to a lack of rain and a rapidly decreasing snowpack.

“Regional snowpack continued rapid melting at rates faster than average through May given mild temperatures and no significant reinforcing precipitation,” the outlook states. “Very few basins are holding snow cover at or above their end of May daily averages.”