The National Weather Service Employees Organization, the union that represents NWS employees, estimates that the agency has lost nearly 600 critical staff positions under the Trump Administration.
Tom Fahy is the organization's legislative director. He said that with remaining staff stretched thin, mistakes can happen.
“Someone gets tired. Someone gets exhausted. Someone is like, ‘Oh, I just closed my eyes for a minute. I just need to refresh my eyes just for a second.’
"And then that split instance of a second, that's when what they call a hook signature echo could appear on the radar screen. And that's a tornado,” Fahy said.
Watching the weather
In Michigan, Fahy said all four NWS offices are short at least two meteorologists, and some are also experiencing technical or administrative staffing issues. Most shortages are due to efforts by the executive branch to reduce the size of the federal workforce. (The National Weather Service did not respond to WMUK's request to confirm staffing levels.)
The Marquette and Grand Rapids Weather Forecasting Offices are the hardest hit, with staffing levels that Fahy described as dangerous or seriously insufficient.
Fahy said Marquette's forecasting office, which covers most of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, was in danger of losing overnight coverage. Almost half the meteorologist positions in Marquette are vacant.
Staffing in Grand Rapids is only slightly better. Fahy said the office is down five meteorologists. He said 13 are needed for the office to run efficiently.
To continue providing 24-hour forecasting services, Fahy said better-staffed offices are helping to cover for Marquette and Grand Rapids.
He added that the Detroit office, which he described as well-staffed relative to Grand Rapids, is "monitoring the conditions that are going on inside of the Grand Rapids warning area, for the whole area of Southwestern Michigan," and the Gaylord and Green Bay Weather Forecasting Offices are assisting Marquette.
"It comes at a cost"
Along with monitoring the weather and issuing severe weather warnings, Fahy said the regional offices provide forecasts several times a day to airports across the state. The NWS in Grand Rapids is responsible for six of these forecasts, including those for the Gerald R. Ford International Airport and the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek International Airport.
Meteorologist John Sokich was the director of Congressional affairs for NWS when he about retired six months ago, not long before President Donald Trump took office. Sokich worked at NWS for 45 years and said he worries about employee burnout.
“During extreme events, the weather service will go to great pains to make sure staff is in the office locally to provide those watches and warnings. But it comes at a cost. It comes at a physical, emotional, and stressful cost," he said.
Sokich is critical of the president’s method for reducing the federal workforce.
“They’re draconian cuts without any planning and just like, throwing a hand grenade and see what survives. Now, you need to use a scalpel when you talk about the life-saving mission that the Weather Service has.”
The Trump administration recently announced that the agency can hire 126 more people to fill critical positions left vacant because of the hiring freeze.
Critics say that is not nearly enough to adequately staff NWS.
Earlier this month, Michigan Senator Gary Peters introduced the FORECAST Act, a bill to exempt critical NWS positions from hiring freezes ordered by the executive branch.
