News of the DOGEing of NWS spreads as severe weather targets South

Many people are saying we shouldn't be degrading science in America.

Author

Ian Livingston
March 03, 2025

Fallout from the first round of cuts to NOAA and the NWS grew through the weekend as typically volatile climatological spring began Saturday. On cue, severe weather season seems ready to deliver an active first half of March to the United States. The first round is getting underway.

Weather Watch

Spring storm. It’s acting like the warm season in the central and southern U.S. as a significant severe weather threat marches eastward. The focus of the worst severe storms — including strong tornadoes — will be Louisiana, Mississippi and adjacent locations on Tuesday. Today’s threat runs from Dallas to Oklahoma City, while Wednesday could offer storms to the mid-Atlantic. On the backside of the big central U.S. low, blizzard warnings are up from Nebraska to northeast Colorado and a high-end fire threat will develop on the southern Plains.

Scorched Australia. Widespread record heat has overtaken Australia. It’s summer but the numbers being put up are as hot as it gets so late. March records up to 115 degrees (45.9 Celsius) have been observed in Learmonth in the country’s west. It comes after the second hottest climatological summer on record and the hottest spring/summer combo.

Eastern U.S fires. Fire tallies reached at least 175 over the weekend in the Carolinas. While most were small, a total of around 5,000 acres had burned through Sunday. A large fire near Myrtle Beach caused evacuations. Much of the region is in drought despite winter moisture.

Across much of the country, weather information can be the difference between life or death. Amid a slew of cuts to agencies many have never heard of, it’s the local impacts that stand out. Those impacts are just getting started.

Below, more like a lightning storm… amirite?

72% of Americans impacted by extreme weather in recent years consider climate change a factor.

This diverse selection of news sources strongly highlights the value added from the NWS. This is not a partisan issue. Or it shouldn’t be.

And, of course, it’s not just red states, but also red states.

Maryland was probably hit hardest by this wave of the administration’s incoherent hobbling of critical science. The state is home to several national centers and various research arms of NOAA.

Make sure your friends and family know what DOGE is up to. Elon Musk is an unelected technocrat cutting vital programs in a “fire first, ask questions later” kind of way. He and his unvetted team of hackers are accessing and manipulating huge amounts of private and sensitive data in various unknown manners.

Monday morning weather map

Over the weekend I decided to put together some new severe weather focused maps.

Here’s one of my favorites. Relatively simple but a classic nonetheless, especially this time of year. All you have to do is glance to see there’s a potent severe weather setup in the South.

Upper-level winds (around 25-30k feet) and geopotential heights are shown.

Want to learn more about the 500 mb map? Check out the great tutorial from Convective Chronicles on YouTube.

About

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

Help keep people informed. If you find this interesting, please share with others.

Reply

or to participate.