NOAA staff cuts could affect Colorado wildfire, avalanche, flash flood warnings
Click play to listen to this article.
Meteorologists are warning cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will threaten Americans' safety, especially in states like Colorado with extreme weather events.
The Trump administration wants to cut up to 20 percent of NOAA's staff, more than 1,000 jobs.
Bernadette Woods Placky, chief meteorologist and vice president of engagement for Climate Central, said NOAA's National Weather Service provides critical weather data forecasters rely on for warnings and advisories.
"Because of NOAA data, we know when to evacuate ahead of storms, fires," Woods Placky pointed out. "We know when not to evacuate, which is also really critical because that saves a lot of money and a lot of time."
NOAA data also helps Coloradans navigate risks including avalanches, floods, high winds, air quality, red-flag wildfire warnings and extreme heat. Woods Placky added NOAA also helps farmers determine what to plant and when to harvest, especially as crop hardiness zones shift due to climate change.
NOAA's data collection, which dates back to 1950, helps inform global partners including the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Woods Placky noted unstable governments can interrupt data gathering.
"When you get that gap in the data, it invalidates the long-term data sets," Woods Placky emphasized. "You can't carry it with the same weight to tease out longer-term trends to keep people safe and prepared on longer-term shifts that we're seeing."
Some have argued NOAA's services could be taken on by private companies.
David Dickson with Covering Climate Now believes it would be extremely shortsighted.
"To argue against NOAA not being useful because we have private companies offering weather apps would be to argue against farmers because we have grocery stores," Dickson contended. "It really does fund the invisible backbone of virtually everything we consume."
