COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Hundreds of employees have been fired from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS) as the Trump administration cuts the federal workforce. 

In the meantime, 300 employees are expected to take the latest federal buyout offer by Thursday’s deadline. 

Now, those firings and departures could impact central Ohio during severe weather season. 

Experts worry the cuts could have severe consequences, especially in instances like this weekend when there is the potential for dangerous storms.  

“It seems to me that the individuals in charge of these decisions don’t really understand the negative consequences of the decisions that they’re making, and they don’t have a full picture of how all of these pieces work together,” Ohio State associate professor of meteorology Dr. Jana Houser said. 

Houser worries forecast confidence could decrease. The cuts leave NOAA nearly 20% smaller than it was when Trump took office. A White House official said “an extensive process” was conducted before the NOAA layoffs to ensure “mission-critical functions” weren’t compromised. 

“Some of our offices were already understaffed by 50% or so, so pulling out additional employees means many of these offices are operating with four meteorologists instead of ten,” Houser said. 

NOAA oversees the NWS, the federal agency that’s responsible for generating weather forecasts on the local level as well as all weather warnings. Regardless of where you get your weather, the data comes from NOAA-based weather models. 

“We rely on those weather warnings to help us take shelter and to seek safety,” Houser said. “If we’re not getting those warnings, either because they’re being issued in a manner that’s untimely or because they’re not being issued at all, we have a serious problem here.” 

Houser said this means human lives could be at stake. 

“We’ve already seen two very active severe weather outbreaks and in some cases, one forecast office is issuing 20 or more tornado warnings, basically all active at the same time,” she said. 

The NWS also announced the reduction of its weather balloon observations. Twice a day, every day, the balloons are launched into the atmosphere, traveling higher than airplanes, allowing scientists to gather critical data used to help predict severe storms. 

“When we start to eliminate those observations, we are not sampling the atmosphere very accurately,” Houser said. “It’s kind of like trying to, you know, pull out individual pieces of the puzzle and then create a picture.”

Tornado damage surveys are also feeling the impact. The surveys help show when and where tornadoes occur, but due to staffing, Houser said, experts often have to rely on pictures. 

“When we don’t have sufficient on the ground eyes to determine what all of those characteristics are, we might end up with a false rating of the tornado, and that’s going to affect an overall climatology of how intense tornadoes are,” Houser said. 

A reduction-in-force plan is on the horizon with a goal to cut another 10% of the agency’s workforce.  

A NOAA spokesperson would not comment on the layoffs.