The National Weather Service has received permission to hire 450 meteorologists, hydrologists and radar technicians just months after being hit hard by Department of Government Efficiency-related cuts and early retirement incentives.
The new hiring number includes 126 new positions that were previously approved and will apply to “front-line mission critical” personnel, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official told CNN.
The NWS cuts have spurred concerns over how well-prepared the country is to withstand hurricane season, which is just starting to heat up in the Atlantic. The staff reductions also have been scrutinized in the wake of the deadly Texas floods in July, with vacancies at weather service forecast offices there.
The cuts to probationary employees, as well as early retirement incentives, meant the nation’s front-line weather forecasting agency’s staffing levels fell by more than 550 people since the second Trump administration began, to below 4,000 total employees.
CNN has reached out to NOAA for comment.
Agency employees are greeting the news, unveiled at an all hands meeting on Monday, with guarded optimism and relief. Current employees have been working additional hours with additional responsibilities since the layoffs and retirements earlier this year, trying to maintain the 24/7 posture US extreme weather requires. The agency has also been functioning with less data from fewer, less frequent weather balloon launches.
The announcement was also met with frustration over the people the agency lost in the failed attempt at government savings.
“How much time/money is it going to cost to train a bunch of new people when we had already-trained people in place?” asked another NOAA official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. It is possible that some of the new hires will have been previously trained employees who were let go in the DOGE cuts.
The first NOAA official said there is going to be a focus on hiring in a smart, “asymmetric” way that is “based on workload.”
The NWS, aided by lawmakers on Capitol Hill, had been arguing for months for a public safety exemption from the federal hiring freeze. That exemption has been granted, and the agency now has direct hiring authority under the Office of Personnel Management, the official told CNN.
Direct hiring authority, according to OPM’s website, can be given to federal agencies “for filling vacancies when a critical hiring need or severe shortage of candidates exists.” It can help speed up the hiring process, the NOAA official said.
