Staffing shortages at the National Weather Service’s Louisville office are reportedly impacting its tornado response.
The Kentucky meteorologists said this week that crews likely wouldn’t be able to survey damage and confirm tornadoes for several days as storms continue to hammer the region.
“Due to lack of available staffing and an active prolonged threat of severe weather and hydro concerns the next several days, NWS Louisville will likely not be able to send staff out to do damage surveys until after the weather … towards the end of the weekend,” Brian Neudorff told WAVE.
Later, National Weather Service-Louisville meteorologist Michael Kochasic told WHAS 11 that staff members were on spring break and that some had retired.
“We are asking for people to send up photos that we can use to catalog the damage and match up later in our surveys,” he said.
A request for comment from the Louisville office was not immediately returned to The Independent.
Concerns about staff shortages come amid widespread outrage following recent layoffs conducted by the Department of Government Efficiency. The cuts hit hundreds of weather forecasters and other federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees. Following the first round, scientists said the result could make America less safe and devastate the critical science that is necessary.
“The now-confirmed and rumored additional cuts to come at NOAA/NWS are spectacularly short-sighted, and ultimately will deal a major self-inflicted wound to the public safety of Americans and the resiliency of the American economy to weather and climate-related disasters,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain wrote.
Former administrator Dr. Richard Spinrad previously told The Independent that the agency was already understaffed before the cuts.
Staffing shortages have also resulted in the suspension of the service’s weather balloon observations. The forecasting practice helps scientists gather critical data on temperature, wind speed, humidity and other factors used to help predict severe storms.
“Weather balloon launches are vital for forecasting. They are like a detailed snapshot of what the atmosphere is doing and getting that data back in real-time. Taking away data means less accurate forecasts,” wrote Dakota News Now meteorologist Tyler Roney. “This is a mess.”
Tornado damage surveys are another important tool. Surveys help to reconstruct the life cycle of a tornado, including where it occurred, when and where it initially touched down, its path length, its width and its magnitude. Damage surveys are critically important to informing U.S. tornado climatology, Ohio State University tornado researcher Jana Houser told Scientific American on Friday.
She warned that without the surveys forecasters could get a false sense that there are fewer tornadoes or get inaccurate ratings for the damage that’s inflicted.
“If we stop having the ability to go out and actually do damage surveys consistently, that is going to throw off our whole understanding of what’s happening with tornadoes in time,” she said.
Even with immediate tornado damage shifting east this weekend, the threat in Kentucky continues.
Tornado season typically peaks in May and ends in June, and forecasters say most action will happen outside of Tornado Alley this year, which is a region where there is high potential for tornado development that stretches from Texas through Oklahoma, and into Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska.
“We will continue to work with local emergency management officials and others to review all of the damage reports received,” Kochasic said. “Thank you all for your patience as we work to evaluate all of the storm damage from last night’s storm.”
