On 27 February, the Trump administration fired hundreds of employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Among those fired were two flight directors for NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters, a loss that threatens to worsen the quality of hurricane forecasts ahead of Atlantic hurricane season.
“Hurricane Hunters fly into active storms to collect data used for weather forecasts,” wrote Jeff Masters, who served as a Hurricane Hunter flight director from 1986 to 1990. NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters program operates three aircraft. The planes fly at least twice a day during significant hurricane threats and 24/7 during an active hurricane. Data collected on those flights are used to forecast the wind speeds, rainfall potential, and tracks of hurricanes, information that is critical to saving lives.
A flight director is a meteorologist who ensures the safety of the mission from a meteorological perspective. Every Hurricane Hunter flight needs a flight director, Masters explained. NOAA typically has eight flight crews and therefore eight flight directors. A loss of two flight directors constitutes a 25% reduction in NOAA’s capacity.
In addition to NOAA, the Air Force also maintains a fleet of 10 hurricane hunter aircraft, and those have not yet been affected by staff cuts. The data provided by Air Force craft, however, may be of lower quality than those collected by NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters, so the NOAA cutbacks may result in less accurate hurricane forecasts.
“We shouldn’t be surprised if further staff depletions occur before hurricane season,” Masters wrote. “I know that if I still had my old job as a flight director for NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters, worries about my job security would have me looking hard for new employment.”
—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@astrokimcartier.bsky.social), Staff Writer
Research & Developments is a blog maintained by writers and editors at Eos to help put science policy news in context for Earth and space scientists. If you have a tip for R&D, email us at eos@agu.org.
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