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Efforts to shrink the National Weather Service have left hundreds of meteorologists and other workers potentially out of jobs with a court battle pending. That could affect weather forecasts across the country, and weather experts say those cuts may be felt disproportionately in the country's largest state, Alaska. Alaska Public Media's Eric Stone reports.
ERIC STONE, BYLINE: The federal government would not confirm how many probationary workers were fired last month at the National Weather Service. But according to the union that represents the agency's workers, it's about a hundred. Many, if not all, may wind up getting their jobs back thanks to an ongoing legal challenge, but even more aren't coming back, according to the union. They say almost 200 employees, including senior staff with decades of experience, took the so-called fork-in-the-road offer and resigned.
BRANDON DUNSTAN: But when you start losing 275 employees, that's significant, being able to carry out our mission.
STONE: Brandon Dunstan is the executive vice president for the National Weather Service Employees Organization. He says at least 24 meteorologists and support staff were cut in Alaska, about 10% of the statewide total. And Alaska stands to be disproportionately affected by these cuts, in part because it's so much bigger than other states and already had a lower density of forecasters and weather stations. Take the forecast office in Fairbanks, which covers an area bigger than the entire state of Texas.
RICK THOMAN: In the Midwest, that same land area would have about 20 forecast offices in it.
STONE: That's Rick Thoman. He's a climatologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, but he worked for the National Weather Service for more than 30 years. The cuts have already had tangible impacts - and that's according to the National Weather Service - like stopping some weather balloon launches, which play a big role in generating the forecast. THoman says that's on top of the fact that it's already harder to forecast in the Arctic than at lower latitudes.
THOMAN: It's really one of these compounding factors. Everything is pointing in the same direction, making the job more difficult in Alaska with less people to do it.
STONE: This is a state known for deadly weather and a state with a lot of industries that rely on accurate weather reports - aviation, oil, tourism, fishing. Ed Page founded the maritime safety agency called the Marine Exchange of Alaska. They're basically air traffic control for boats.
ED PAGE: We could talk all day long about life jackets and emergency suits and life rafts, all of it important. But you don't need any of that. If it's really stormy weather, you don't go.
STONE: Reliable weather forecasts and observations are also critical to Alaska Native peoples' traditional subsistence hunting and fishing. Democratic State House Representative Robin Niayuq Burke represents numerous native communities in the Arctic.
ROBIN NIAYUQ BURKE: I think it's dangerous - dangerous because a lot of those communities rely heavily on subsistence, and there are a ton of small planes flying in each of those regions every day.
STONE: Alaska has many rural villages where people can only access the outside world by boat or plane, and planes crash here on a fairly regular basis. Weather is often a factor. Adam White with the Alaska Airmen's Association says it's a matter of public safety.
ADAM WHITE: Not to get too dramatic, but it literally is a life safety issue for us to have accurate, current weather information and weather data.
STONE: He says he understands the perspective of people who want to cut waste in the federal government, but he doesn't think this is the way to do it. For NPR News, I'm Eric Stone in Juneau.
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