DOGE already compromising critical weather data as spring storms loom

It’s poised to be a crucial week for western United States rainfall in a winter wet season that has failed to deliver enough moisture to Southern California and the Desert Southwest. At the same time, warmth expands in the east and the next multi-day severe weather outbreak is on the horizon.

Weather Watch

Springtime in the USA. The weather map screams spring this week. Rain and snow are on the way for California and the west. Severe weather could be a big deal in the central and southern United States. Waves of daily records for warmth are also likely.

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Monday morning weather maps at risk

The Trump administration’s assault on science is particularly disturbing when it comes to NOAA and the National Weather Service, agencies that give much more than they take and are understaffed to begin with. Both also play tangible roles in the lives of Americans every day.

Following a quiet statement at the end of February that a location in northern Alaska would stop launching weather balloons due to staff cuts, similar word has emerged that the Albany office in New York and one in Gray, Maine will also limit launches.

It’s a staffing issue first. It takes a small team to prepare and launch the balloon twice a day, often in horrendous conditions. Alaska’s recently closed site uses an auto-launcher — très cool — but it can’t really function properly without technicians to keep it running.

Fundamental to the science, upper-air observation is a nearly 300-year-old practice, in its simplest forms. Something akin to the modern practice of balloon launches began about 100 years ago. A weather balloon carries instrumentation to measure and report on temperature, wind, humidity, atmospheric pressure and geopotential height throughout its ascent to about 100,000 feet.

In addition to providing forecast-enhancing details as to what is truly going on in the sky during critical weather days, the data is constantly feeding into computer forecast modeling. This builds a more accurate depiction of atmospheric layers, in addition to acting as ground truth for other information like data from satellites.

Despite rapid technological advances in the field, “the weather balloon remains the best platform for observing … above the ground,” the Weather Service notes.

Before the DOGEing of America, there were about 100 launch sites across the United States, the Caribbean and Pacific Islands. Worldwide, there are roughly 800 permanent locations active in some capacity during 2025, although each site is not necessarily used frequently.

Seasoned forecasters may point out that, historically, weather prognostication has been more difficult on the U.S. West Coast.

“Wait until the disturbance hits the balloon network” is also surely something keen weather watchers in the central and eastern U.S. have heard, when it comes to small shifts in data inputs leading to big changes in stormy expectation for their communities.

Both issues are apparently symptoms of weather modeling being less able to resolve exactly what is going on in the balloon data void comprising the vast Pacific Ocean, even considering the aid of today’s powerful satellites.

Way-out-there Kotzebue in Alaska’s Arctic northwest is a canary in this coal mine. Far northern latitudes are already widely underserved by balloon launches, and the region’s importance as a birthplace of weather across North America is outsized.

“Northern Alaska already has very few upper air sites relative to the lower 48. This makes it worse,” Alaska climatologist Rick Thoman wrote.

There are more upper-air data deserts than there once were, and it seems they are increasing.

The current sites of focus — Kotzebue, Albany and Gray — are in addition to several others decommissioned in recent years across the country. One in Chatham, Massachusetts, was closed in 2021 due to erosion at the seaside site. In 2022 the Denver site stopped launches due to a helium shortage, with Tallahassee following suit in 2024.

It is certainly plausible that weather balloons launched by the Weather Service are not the long-term solution for this ongoing need. Technology may end up offering smarter ideas that can scale with less human involvement at each node.

But we’re not there yet.

With news of another 1,000 job slashings on the way for NOAA and the Weather Service, one can easily imagine there are other upper-air sites and more launches at risk than presently known.

I live in D.C., and it’s lately been repeatedly obvious how few rights we have in this military district. If you have more, I suggest calling your senator or representative and sharing thoughts. The Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121. If Washington lines are busy, look into state offices of your senator or representative.

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Weekday morning newsletter by a journalist/forecaster that connects weather and climate change dots while occasionally stirring the pot.

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