The National Weather Service has taken steps to begin filling some of the more than 550 positions left vacant by federal cutbacks and early retirements since Inauguration Day.
Earlier in the summer, the agency received an emergency hiring exemption to fill 126 of its vacant positions and has begun to post those jobs on usajobs.gov. But in an all-hands meeting on Aug. 4, weather service employees learned the agency has since received permission to hire a total of 450 people by September 2026, said two long-time weather service veterans who retired earlier this year.
The mass exodus of workers this winter and spring, as the Trump administration aimed to shrink the federal budget and bureaucracy, prompted widespread concern across the weather service staff, many members of Congress and the broader weather forecasting community.
Vacancy rates were as high as 40% in some weather service offices, USA TODAY previously reported. Several weather service forecast offices began closing overnight because they could no longer staff the typical 24/7 operations and weather balloon launches to gather critical data were interrupted.
While the new hires are "good news," it doesn't mean clear sailing for the beleaguered agency in the months ahead, given the complicated federal hiring process and the need to train new employees, said Brian LaMarre, who retired earlier this year as meteorologist-in-charge of the weather service office in Ruskin/Tampa, Florida, after more than 30 years with the agency.
