Fund US Weather Prediction & Climate Science (UPDATED 7/6)

Updates

July 6, 2025: Poor distribution of warning alerts and evacuation orders to endangered communities ahead of the flash flooding in Texas that has now led to at least 78 deaths has highlighted concerns about local alert systems and the current funding and staffing of the National Weather Service under the Trump administration. While the NWS was able to provide as good of a prediction as could be expected, key “warning coordination” roles responsible for communication to local authorities have been vacant.

June 16, 2025: Nearly all staff members behind Climate.gov, the crucial public-facing information hub of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), have been fired. It is now unclear if the website will be shut down to hide information about climate change effects or if it will be repurposed to spread anti-science misinformation.

May 30, 2025: The White House has released its budget request for FY2026 and it is devastating for weather & climate science: NSF sees a 55% cut, NASA Earth science sees a 52% cut, NOAA sees a 39% cut - and the research division OAR is completely eliminated, USGS sees a 31% cut, and the EPA sees a 53% cut.

The United States has long been a world center for climate and weather prediction. We have pushed the scientific bounds of what humanity thought possible, by pioneering computerized weather and climate forecasts, furthering our understanding of the physics of our world, and deploying an unparalleled observational network. Thanks to this work, we can now predict both future weather conditions days in advance and the impact of carbon pollution over the coming decades. This “quiet revolution” in science was made possible by decades of investment by the American public and has benefited everyone from farmers to city planners, from first responders to businesses, and many more.

Cuts to the funding for meteorologists at the National Weather Service (NWS); for scientists improving climate and weather prediction methods at NOAA and NASA and through the NSF, DOE, EPA, USGS, and other federal agencies; and for the observational programs supported by all these agencies that keep these predictions grounded in reality undermine our ability to continue our research to protect American lives and livelihoods.

Congress must support weather and climate research for prediction and communication of day-to-day weather, extreme weather events, and climate change by fully funding NOAA, NASA, NSF, EPA, USGS, and Department of Energy (DOE).

Issue brief content kindly contributed by The Weather & Climate Livestream