Tornado hits Kansas town days after staffing cut at weather service office
A tornado swept through Grinnell, Kansas, Sunday evening, causing widespread damage just over a week after the National Weather Service announced it was cutting around-the-clock staffing at its Goodland office in the northwestern part of the state.
The cuts at the Goodland office came as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency continue their efforts to shrink the government, according to The Washington Post.
Nationally, the weather service had more than 4,200 employees before Trump took office, but since then nearly 600 people have left amid staffing reductions and early retirements, a union official representing the weather service staff told The Washington Post.
The cuts have left weather forecasting offices nationwide without enough meteorologists to staff overnight shifts that run from midnight to 7 a.m., with neighboring offices taking over the duties to monitor the weather and issue forecasts and warnings, The Washington Post reported.
The Goodland office continues to issue weather warnings and provide weather support for local emergency managers, according to the Hays Post.
On Sunday, severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings were issued before the tornadoes swept through Grinnell shortly before 7 p.m. , and weather service staff interacted with people on social media.
“Our severe/tornado threat has ended for the day (Sunday),” the weather service in Goodland said on X shortly after midnight.
On Tuesday, the Goodland meteorologist in charge, Jeremy Martin, said the office had two early retirements in May, but they weren’t heavily affected by cuts.
“We’ve done everything we can to make it so there’s not an impact,” Martin told The Star. “All of our main mission, mornings, high-impact advisories, decision support, services, all that is being maintained. We’re not going to miss anything. We’ve had some recent really bad severe weather, and we were able to function as we normally do, maybe a little tired, but things are working okay.”
Kim Doster, communications director for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the weather service, sent a statement to The Star.
“In the near term, NWS has updated the service level standards for its weather forecast offices to manage impacts due to shifting personnel resources,” Doster said in the statement. “These revised standards reflect the transformation and prioritization of mission-essential operations, while supporting the balance of the operational workload for its workforce. NWS continues to ensure a continuity of service for mission-critical functions.”
Tornadoes that occur at night are nearly twice as likely to be deadly as those during the day, according to a recent study.
The study, led by Stephen Strader from Villanova University, examined 140 years of tornado records and found that the proportion of all tornado fatalities that occurred during daytime hours decreased 20%, while the nocturnal fatality proportion increased 20% during that time period.
The weather service said people are less likely to receive warnings overnight because they are asleep. Tornadoes are also more difficult to spot in the dark.
The Lexington Herald-Leader, which is owned by The Star’s parent company McClatchy Media, reported Sunday that the weather service’s office in Jackson, Kentucky, is also among the eight forecasting offices that no longer have overnight staff.
On Friday night, deadly tornadoes tore through southeast Kentucky. The Hearald-Leader reported that the Jackson was staffed overnight when the strong winds and tornadoes swept through Laurel and Pulaski counties.
Other forecasting offices that either ceased or are expected to stop 24-hour staffing include Sacramento, California, Hanford, California, Cheyenne, Wyoming, Marquette Michigan, Pendleton, Oregon and Fairbanks, Alaska.
The Star’s PJ Green contributed reporting.
This story was originally published May 19, 2025 at 6:09 PM.
