Staff and constituents of the Southeast Regional Climate Center are breathing a sigh of relief as a new contract has restored federal funding after the previous contract lapsed last week, temporarily closing the center and its online resources. But concerns linger about how funding and staffing cuts to NOAA entities are affecting the collection and availability of weather data.
The SERCC, one of six regional climate centers nationally, serves Virginia and five other states, and is based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Chip Konrad, a Roanoke native who is the director of the SERCC, said the center answers several thousand public climate inquiries each month and its web site, which presents synthesized historical weather information, receives several million visits annually. But all that went dark late last week when the funding ran out.
“We were informed at least six weeks ago that the last year of funding on our five-year contract, beginning on April 17, now had to be approved by NOAA and then by the Secretary of the Commerce,” Konrad said. “Given all of the cuts being made in NOAA, we were concerned. Our worry only increased as April 17 approached without a signed contract; we had to grapple with the possibility that we were going away.
“Then April 17 arrived and we were forced to shut down. And shortly after that, we got the really unexpected news that our contract was signed by the Secretary of Commerce. Still being in shock, several hours were required to process it and start to feel relief and elation.”
Four of six regional climate offices lost funding last week but received a two-month extension earlier this week, with the expectation that all six will be funded for the next two years in June.
The regional climate center re-funding does not end all concerns about loss of weather data resulting from federal cuts to funding and staffing, as was detailed in a Monday article that appeared in Cardinal News by Cora Perkins of Capital News Service.
National Weather Service offices that cover parts of Cardinal News’ Southwest and Southside coverage area in Blacksburg, Sterling and Wakefield, Virginia; Morristown, Tennessee; and Charleston, West Virginia, have not been specifically mentioned in statements about operational changes, nor has any loss of services yet become obvious to the general public. But virtually all weather service offices have been affected by reduced staffing from widespread layoffs earlier this year, with further staff reductions via retirements and layoffs expected to come.
Some early-career meteorologists with recent Virginia Tech degrees have been laid off around the country during the first round that largely focused on employees in a probationary period after recent hires. This included entry-level employees but also some with significant experience who were recently promoted to a higher-level position.
“Until further notice, the National Weather Service (NWS) may temporarily reduce or suspend scheduled radiosonde launches at selected NWS upper-air sites due to staffing limitations or operational priorities,” posted Mike Hopkins, director of the surface and upper air division at the National Weather Service headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, in a service change notice on Thursday, April 17.
This change included a reduction from two balloon launches to one per day from weather service offices at Aberdeen, South Dakota; Grand Junction, Colorado; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Gaylord, Michigan; North Platte, Nebraska; and Riverton, Wyoming. In February, balloon launches were suspended entirely at Kotzebue, Alaska.
While atmospheric data for forecast models is collected in many ways, balloons carrying radiosonde instruments supply unique data in how wind direction and speed, moisture levels, barometric pressure and temperature are layered from the surface to far aloft over particular locations. This information is fed into computer forecast models that help guide weather forecasts and warnings.
Data collected by NOAA is also the basic information driving nearly all output from private meteorological firms, including forecasting services and media outlets. Furthermore, the location of many of the announced reduced balloon-launch locations is upstream from the central and eastern U.S. during the height of what has already been a highly active tornado season and, later this year, the Atlantic hurricane season.
Journalist Kevin Myatt has been writing about weather for 20 years. His weekly column, appearing on Wednesdays, is sponsored by Oakey’s, a family-run, locally-owned funeral home with locations throughout the Roanoke Valley. Sign up for his weekly newsletter: