Current and former staff at the federal government’s leading climate agency are warning of threats to public safety following the mass firing of hundreds of employees.

The first round of terminations at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration took place last week as the Department of Governmental Efficiency targets thousands of probationary employees who can be more easily fired from their posts.

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About 880 probationary employees were terminated on Feb. 27, according to a congressional source. In addition, about 500 employees took a deferred resignation offer on Feb. 28. The agency employs scientists with specialties in weather, oceans, climate, biodiversity, and planetary monitoring fields.

The staffing cuts could endanger the agency’s work, according to conversations with nearly a dozen current and former employees, as the weather forecaster helps with the federal response to natural disasters and facilitates international commerce. NOAA’s purview extends to shipping operations, water quality, fisheries, tourism, and more.

“It’s going to really be detrimental to everybody in the country, and it’s going to have an impact globally,” said Mike Garza, an IT specialist who worked at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, a subagency of NOAA.

“They just don’t know it yet, but once the cuts happen, everybody is going to feel it and by then, it’ll be too late — the damage will have been done,” said Garza, who was terminated last week along with dozens within the department.

Garza said he considered his team to be the 911 center of the agency and was shocked when he received his termination email because he was classified as an essential employee.

“We’re the people on the other line and we open up a ticket with the actual teams that need it and actually troubleshoot and fix the issue,” he said. “We’re deemed essential, so when there’s a government shutdown, we still have to work and not get paid.”

In his separation paperwork, Garza was told he “is not fit for continued employment because [his] ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs.”

Former agency employees have raised particular concerns over NOAA’s role in weather forecasting. The National Weather Service, another subagency, had already been suffering its lowest staffing in decades but cut about 170 additional positions, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

NOAA fired meteorologists, scientists who build weather models, hydrologists, and staff responsible for warning the public about tsunamis, hurricanes, and tornadoes.

The layoffs come as NOAA confirmed 27 weather disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion last year, resulting in the deaths of 568 people in the United States.

Nancy Hann, the NOAA deputy undersecretary for operations, emailed NWS employees that officials are working to “identify the mission impacts of these departures and … will communicate any changes we need to make as a result.”

A NOAA spokesperson said the agency would not comment on the layoffs.

“We are not discussing internal personnel and management matters,” NWS public affairs officer Susan Buchanan said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner. “NOAA remains dedicated to its mission, providing timely information, research, and resources that serve the American public, and ensure our nation’s environmental and economic resilience.

“We continue to provide weather information, forecasts and warnings pursuant to our public safety mission. Thanks for your understanding.”

Ethan Clark, who runs the online weather page North Carolina’s Weather Authority, said meteorologists across the country rely on NWS data. The NWS collects critical information using satellites, radar, and weather balloons that are used by private companies and utilized in forecasts for local news and various weather apps.

“All your day-to-day weather models in the United States are run and funded by the National Weather Service,” said Clark, a meteorology student at North Carolina State University who helped residents stay safe during Hurricane Helene with his accurate weather forecasts.

“It’s the backbone of weather forecasting,” Clark said. “All weather forecast offices for each area across the country, they launch weather balloons, and those weather balloons ingest data into our models. All of the radar data that most meteorologists use is also provided by the weather service.

“Most private meteorologists, AccuWeather, Weather Channel, use National Weather Service data. They are the ones that issue the weather watches and warnings.”

Some of the impacts of the cuts were clear almost immediately. Shortly after the terminations, the NWS office in Kotzebue, Alaska, announced it would suspend releasing weather balloons. NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory posted that it would stop posting to social media.

“Due to a reduction in staff, NOAA GLERL’s communications services will be taking an indefinite hiatus,” it posted on X.

The NOAA External Affairs section of the website now reads: “Due to the recent layoffs at NOAA, all members of the External Affairs team were relieved of their duties.”

Clark said the cuts are coming at the worst possible time, with severe weather season coming up.

“It’s the perfect storm,” he said. “The warmer weather brings tornadoes, hurricane season. These offices are already overworked. Some of these people are working 24-hour shifts during hurricane season to keep up with the request and demand.

“If you have an iPhone, you get that government alert. That’s from the National Weather Service. If there’s not enough people staffed, especially in underserved parts of the country, lives could be lost.”

The consequences go beyond weather science. Ships use the agency’s weather forecasts and mapping of water channels for safe travel. The agency also manages U.S. fisheries, which generate $320 billion annually.

“Ultimately, economically, what we do is kind of irreplaceable,” a marine engineer who works at an operation center on the West Coast said on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

The engineer said his small team has been hit with some terminations and is already stretched thin. He worries about how they will be able to collect and relay critical information with any more cuts.

“You can’t have a skeleton crew tasked with protecting the nation from storms and protecting our economy and keeping us ahead of these things,” he said. “We’re dedicated to our mission, and we will work. We’ll do the best that we can, as long as we can, but, I mean, there’s no telling, truly, what the fallout from that could be.”

NOAA was one of the agencies targeted by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which called for the administration to break up the climate agency. The policy blueprint called the department “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.”

Staffers from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency entered NOAA offices earlier in February.

Prior to the terminations last week, NOAA had about 12,000 employees worldwide, including 6,773 scientists and engineers, according to the agency’s website.

Democrats have been quick to criticize the terminations. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees NOAA, said the cuts “jeopardize our ability to forecast and respond to extreme weather events like hurricanes, wildfires and floods — putting communities in harm’s way.”

Many Republicans, for their part, said they need more information to assess the impact. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said he is keenly aware of how important NOAA services are to his state of Oklahoma, which recently experienced several tornadoes.

“We’re trying to be able to determine what is actually happening and what’s being reported is going to happen,” Lankford told the Washington Examiner. “So, yeah, there’s some concern, obviously for the entire country, not just for us.

“You’ve got to make sure you got forecasters on there, 24 hours a day, and the support staff around them, because there’s always a threat somewhere in the country with Alaska, Hawaii, and all the way over to Florida.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) also reiterated the importance of the work that takes place at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, also a part of NOAA, but said the elimination of some staff is “an effort to streamline” while also “providing all the services.”

“It’s no different than what I did in business, where you’re trying to figure out how you provide more with less all the time,” Scott said.

US WEATHER AND CLIMATE AGENCY NOAA FIRES HUNDREDS OF PROBATIONARY WORKERS

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, also said he needed more information and referred the Washington Examiner to his committee staff, which provided no further comment.

President Donald Trump nominated Neil Jacobs to lead NOAA after he served as acting director for a stint during the president’s first term. The Senate has yet to vote on his nomination.