As snow blankets a broadening swath of the United States and meteorological winter sets in, the National Weather Service remains constrained by a severe staffing shortage, despite a Trump administration commitment to refill hundreds of jobs cut by Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service.
The administration gave the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the Weather Service, permission to post 450 critical roles — seeming to acknowledge that DOGE had gone too far in a push for cuts that resulted in some 550 firings, resignations and early retirements. Back in June, National Weather Service Director Ken Graham called the ability to rehire “fantastic news” that would enable “timely and accurate forecasts and warnings.”
But months later, offices in more than half a dozen states, from Maine to Wyoming, have vacancies, according to Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, citing the latest figures tracked by the group. The unfilled roles include meteorologists, technical experts and scientists who work to deliver accurate forecasts and warnings to communities around the clock.
In some locations, nearly half of the meteorologist roles were left vacant.
NOAA said progress in hiring has been made. “The NWS successfully advertised 184 positions to date, and the final selections and onboarding of employees are in various stages,” NOAA spokeswoman Kim Doster told The Washington Post in a statement Friday. She added that the Weather Service was on track to fill the remaining authorized roles by the end of the 2026 fiscal year.
But many of these specialized and demanding jobs have historically taken up to a year to hire for, said Rick Spinrad, who served as the agency’s administrator under former president Joe Biden.
Any shortages could put communities at risk, weather experts said.
“It would not be a surprise if we saw a major devastating storm this winter, for which loss of life and damage to property in part was a consequence of not being as prepared as we were with a fully staffed NOAA,” said Spinrad.
The NWSEO’s latest vacancy figures are as of Oct. 1, Fahy said. Federal hiring stalled during the 43-day government shutdown.
The shortages are widespread across some of the coldest, snowiest parts of the country.
The office in Des Moines, has eight meteorologists on staff, but Fahey said that, according to the latest count, it was short six meteorologists and two technical staffers — one who launches weather balloons and one who manages the computer equipment. An office needs at least 13 meteorologists to conduct around-the-clock operations, he said.
Like many offices, Des Moines had vacancies during the Biden administration as well. But this year that vacancy rate went up from 13 percent to 38 percent.
Rapid City, South Dakota, the gateway to Mount Rushmore, has seven meteorologists on staff, and was short six by the last count. There were several other vacancies, including a science and operations officer — the top research position — and a senior service hydrologist, the lead on flood forecasting. Rapid City’s vacancy rate under Biden was 17 percent; under Trump it rose to 42 percent.
Goodland, Kansas, which halted its 24-hour forecasts this year due to staffing shortages, was missing eight meteorologists. Under Biden, the vacancy rate was 32 percent. Under Trump the vacancy rate hit 41 percent.
The shortages have put strains on employees, who were hopeful the job postings would offer a reprieve from difficult working conditions.
One National Weather Service employee in an East Coast office, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said his office was already slightly understaffed before Trump’s second presidency, but lost several more people to resignation or retirement amid DOGE’s push to downsize government.
Over the summer, his office was promised help through a government-wide initiative reassigning Weather Service personnel to key offices. But his office only got one new employee through that program, he said.
Toward fall, two of his office’s vacancies were posted on USAJobs, the federal jobs site. He and his colleagues were thrilled to see candidates moving through interviews. They even picked who they wanted for one position.
But nothing has happened on the hiring front since at least Halloween, the employee said. He suspects the government shutdown might have delayed the required background checks.
Even if people are hired, Spinrad said, they might have the qualifications but not the institutional knowledge of those who were fired or chose to resign early this year.
“They may be able to fill those slots,” he said. But critical experience — and relationships — were lost. Warning coordination meteorologists, for example, analyze weather models and would be the ones advising states and counties on where to deploy snowplows first.
“The emergency managers know and trust these WCMs,” Spinrad said.
Each season brings different challenges for the Weather Service, but communities tend to take winter less seriously to their own detriment, said John Sokich, who worked for the Weather Service for 45 years before retiring in early January.
“Hurricanes, people kind of know what to do,” Sokich said. “Winter storms, they say, ‘Oh, it’s just snow.’”
“No, it could be life-threatening,” he continued. “If you get stuck in 18, 20 inches of snow and the wind’s blowing at 20 miles an hour, you’re in trouble.”
At the East Coast office, the first snowstorm arrived last week. The employee said his office navigated the snowfall, but that was largely because the storm proved relatively uneventful. Even then, people had to work overtime.
He said he worries what will happen as his office enters its busiest time of year: Snow every couple of days, along with the holidays, when staffers will want to take vacation. Possibly making things worse, this year — because of the staffing losses — no one has been able to give the office’s typical presentations to local emergency management services, explaining how to best respond to weather in coordination with the Weather Service. That could hurt, the employee said, when heavy snows arrive.
“I’ve been worried for months now about the accumulated stress of trying to plug holes, and now we’re here,” he said. “If we don’t start filling these positions soon, the people who are left will start to get pretty burnt out.”
He compared his office to a car slowly running out of gas. “We’re still driving down the road right now, but we know it can’t go on forever,” he said. “We just don’t know when it is going to stop.”
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