Cuts, staffing shortages at National Weather Service make KC area officials nervous
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Staffing cuts leave NWS offices in Kansas and Missouri short staffed.
- Emergency managers warn reduced services could delay severe weather warnings.
- Former NWS leaders caution that staffing, budget cuts may lead to avoidable fatalities.
Moments after the last name was drawn in the 2023 NFL Draft in Kansas City, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Kansas City’s emergency operations center noticed a potential life-threatening weather event unfolding.
“Hey, we’ve got strong winds coming in,” the meteorologist suddenly alerted others in the center.
The winds would be stronger than what the performers’ stage was designed to handle, recalled Chris Carroll, Kansas City’s acting emergency manager.
But by having the meteorologist in the same room, officials were able to quickly blast a severe weather evacuation alert through the NFL OnePass, giving fans time to safely exit the venue and head to the nearest shelter before the wind hit, Carroll said. The stage stayed upright, but it wobbled quite a bit as the winds blew through, Carroll said. After about an hour delay, fans were allowed back in for the wrap-up concert featuring Thundercat.
“But that kind of right there, in the office, somebody we have a relationship, is critical in those kind of situations,” Carroll said.
With the National Weather Service facing cuts and staffing shortages due to efforts by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to shrink the government, Carroll is concerned about what those cuts will mean.
“We’re all nervous about how much further those cuts and reorganizations are going to go,” Carroll said.
The Star reached out to the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill, the forecasting office for Kansas City and parts of northeast Kansas and most of northern and western Missouri, for comment about the cuts and staffing issues, but was referred to the weather service’s public affairs in Washington, D.C.
In a statement, Kim Doster, communications director for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, said the weather service continues to meet its core mission of providing life-saving forecasts, warnings, and decision support services to the public, partners and stakeholders.
“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. “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.”
The Pleasant Hill office, however, is contending with a staffing shortage, including a 38.46% shortage of meteorologists, that can’t be addressed given a federal hiring freeze, according to the National Weather Service Employees Organization, a union representing agency workers.
Between staffing shortages and the nationwide cuts to the National Weather Service and NOAA, concerns have been raised in the Kansas City area about whether local shortages and potential staffing cuts could impact the timeliness and accuracy of weather forecasts and warnings and other services.
Worst nightmare: ‘Needless loss of life’
Local emergency management directors are not alone in their concerns. In an unusual step earlier this month, five former directors of the National Weather Service signed an open letter warning that the Trump administration’s cuts to the weather service and its parent agency NOAA may endanger lives.
“Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life,” the letter said.
Louis Uccellini, who led the weather service from 2013 to 2022; Jack Hayes, who led it from 2007 to 2012; D.L. Johnson, who led it from 2004 to 2007; John J. Kelly Jr., who led it from 1998 to 2004; and Joe Friday, who led it from 1988 to 1997, all signed the letter.
Until recently, the weather service has provided around-the-clock operations at its 122 weather forecasting offices nationwide. However, because of cuts, six offices no longer have enough meteorologists to staff the 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. overnight shift, according to the National Weather Service Employees Organization.
The offices without around-the-clock staffing are Goodland, Kansas, Cheyenne, Wyoming, Marquette, Michigan, Sacramento, California, Hanford, California and Jackson, Kentucky. A seventh office, Fairbanks, Alaska, will suspend overnight operations on June 1st, and an eighth location, Pendleton, Oregon, is under review.
The weather service had around 4,200 staff before Trump took office. So far this year, it has lost close to 600 employees, including probationary employees who were let go right after Trump took office and others who took the deferred resignation program or early retirement, said Tom Fahy, legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization.
To put that in perspective, that is the same number of departures the agency saw over 15 years between 2010 and early 2025 before the president took office, Fahy said.
“It’s like a jolt of the system in terms of how we manage our resources and our various different offices,” Fahy said.
The weather service also can’t do any rehiring because Trump has a federal employment ban on new hires until July 15. The weather service has asked the Trump administration for a special exemption that would enable it to recruit and hire replacement meteorologists, hydrologists and technicians to fill the ranks.
That has led to shortages of meteorologists across the nation and locally. Here’s how Fahy said it has affected forecasting offices in Kansas and Missouri:
- Pleasant Hill (Kansas City) has six vacancies in what should be a full staff of 27 employees, including five meteorologists and one manager. It has a 38.46% shortage of meteorologists.
- Springfield is down 2 of its 23 employees, including one meteorologist and one manager, a 7.69% shortage of meteorologists.
- St. Louis has five vacancies in what would be a full staff of 25 employees, including three meteorologists, a technician, and its top operational manager known as the meteorologist in charge, a 21.4% shortage of meteorologists.
- Topeka is down three of its 22 employees, including two meteorologists and one technician, a 15.38% shortage of meteorologists.
- Wichita has eight vacancies in a full staff of 22 employees, including three meteorologists, two managers, a senior service hydrologist and two technicians. It has a 25% shortage of meteorologists.
- Dodge City is down five of its 22 employees, including one meteorologist, a manager,a senior service hydrologist and two technicians, a 7.69% shortage of meteorologists.
- Goodland has nine vacancies in a full staff of 22 employees, including eight meteorologists and one technician. It has a 61.5% shortage of meteorologists, one of the worst in the nation.
“The National Weather Service exists to protect the American public,” Fahy said. “Their mission is to save life and property. That’s something that their personnel all across the country take very seriously.”
He called the National Weather Service one of the greatest bargains for the American people.
“For every American citizen, the complete services of the National Weather Service cost about $3.50 — the price of a cup of coffee,” Fahy said. He expanded that by saying for the price of a “Happy Meal” — cheeseburger, fries and a drink — the country gets the complete services of NOAA.
The fear is staffing and budget cuts will damage the system built over the past 75 years, leading to less precise weather information, including the 5-day and 7-day forecasts, impacting preparedness for severe weather, Fahy said.
Exodus of meteorologists
Local emergency management officials speak highly of the weather service’s office in Pleasant Hill, saying they have a great partnership and working relationship.
“We have a first-name basis type of relationship with the meteorologists and staff at Pleasant Hill,” said Carroll, Kansas City’s acting emergency manager. “So you know, I’m calling up a friend, so to speak.”
Having that close relationship is key because the meteorologists get to know what the emergency manager is looking for and what will help them make their best decisions, Carroll said. Given that, emergency management officials also express concerns about the budget and staffing cuts and what impact it could have on keeping people safe.
The weather service, like many other federal agencies, is seeing a mass exodus of people who’ve been asked to leave because they were probationary employees or are taking the buyouts and early retirement, said Matt May, director of emergency management for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City.
It’s leading to a loss of institutional knowledge, particularly from skilled meteorologists with expertise in the local climate, said May, who worries about future cuts, including providing meteorologists at command center for large events like NASCAR races at the Kansas Speedway.
“So far, they have not had to tell me no for those kind of events, but I can’t believe that they can continue to do the level of service that they’ve been doing without telling me no at some point,” May said.
Beyond severe weather warnings
Meteorologists are still available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through Slack, a messaging app, to chat and get micro-forecasts, as well as being able to dedicate a meteorologist for large-scale events, said Jared McPhee, emergency management coordinator for Overland Park.
“Every weather app that you get on an iPhone or Android, every weather website you go to is directly fed by their data from their radar system,” McPhee said. “If you look at it from that standpoint, they are vital because you wouldn’t have any of that information publicly or what we do without their radar systems and those techs that operate those.”
Emergency managers also rely on the weather service’s data for regional hazard mitigation plans. For instance, Johnson County examined tornado data and changed its siren activation zones based on the historical data.
In the past, most tornadoes came from the southwest and followed up the Interstate 35 corridor. That’s not necessarily the case anymore. Recent tornadoes have been more sporadic, so siren zones have been broken down into smaller grids, McPhee said.
While there’s no indication yet that the Pleasant Hill office is facing staffing challenges that could prevent around-the-clock staffing, the broader national trend raises concerns, said Samantha Morris, chief of emergency operations for Independence. Morris said Independence is preparing for the possibility of cuts.
“Our contingency planning includes strengthening coordination with regional emergency management partners to ensure we maintain consistent situational awareness and information-sharing should disruptions occur,” Morris said.
If cuts do happen, it could impact a broad swath of the region, since the National Weather Service office in Pleasant Hill serves a large area — 44 counties in the Kansas City region — and does a fantastic job, May said.
“It’s not magic, and it takes people, and it takes, preferably, experienced people,” May said.
