Lutnick says hurricane center is fully staffed despite key vacancies

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told a congressional committee that the U.S. National Hurricane Center was fully staffed even though key positions are going unfilled as hurricane season begins.

“There are no openings on the National Hurricane Center. Zero,” Lutnick said during a Senate Appropriations Committee meeting Wednesday. “We are fully staffed. We are fully ready for hurricane season.”

Yet the center’s website shows at least four meteorologist roles are vacant. While such vacancies may not have drawn much attention during previous hurricane seasons, staffing numbers are coming under increased scrutiny this year.

That’s because the Trump administration’s overhaul at weather agencies has sparked concerns over whether the U.S. will be fully prepared with detailed forecasts and data for the Atlantic season that began Sunday.

On Tuesday, Miami’s NBC-6 meteorologist John Morales told viewers while he once had great confidence in government forecasts over his 34 years in south Florida newscasting, he has begun to have doubts “because of the cuts, the gutting, the sledge-hammer attack on science in general.”

Asked about Lutnick’s comments in light of the listed vacancies, the National Weather Service, which oversees the hurricane center, said in a statement that it “has a sufficient number of forecasters to fill mission-critical operational shifts during the 2025 hurricane season.”

Officials will soon hire staff throughout the entire weather agency for “mission-critical field positions” as an exception to an ongoing hiring freeze and are reassigning workers for short-term assignments to fill gaps, according to the statement.

The National Weather Service overall was bracing for the loss of as many as 1,000 staffers.

This year’s Atlantic hurricane season was already projected to see more storms than the typical 14. Besides threatening lives, storms can have a massive impact on U.S. energy, agriculture and financial markets. From 1980 to 2024, hurricanes and tropical storms have killed at least 7,211 people and caused $1.5 trillion in economic losses to the U.S., the National Centers for Environmental Information said.

The National Weather Service is part of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and falls under the Department of Commerce because of weather’s economic impacts. Lutnick is scheduled to testify before the House Appropriations Committee Thursday.