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After Trump administration job cuts, nearly half of National Weather Service forecast offices have 20% vacancy rates twice that of just a decade ago as severe weather chugs across the nation’s heartland, according to data obtained by The Associated Press. Detailed vacancy data for all 122 weather field offices show eight offices are missing more than 35% of their staff including those in Arkansas and Kentucky where tornadoes and torrential rain hit this week according to statistics crowd-sourced by more than a dozen National Weather Service employees. Experts said vacancy rates of 20% or higher amount to critical understaffing, and 55 of the 122 sites reach that level. The weather offices issue routine daily forecasts, but also urgent up-to-the-minute warnings during dangerous storm outbreaks such as the tornadoes that killed seven people this week and catastrophic flooding that’s continuing through the weekend. The weather service this week has logged at least 75 tornado and 1,277 severe weather preliminary reports. Because of staffing shortages and continued severe weather, meteorologists at the Louisville office were unable to survey tornado damage Thursday, which is traditionally done immediately to help improve future forecasts and warnings, the local weather office told local media in Kentucky. Meteorologists there had to chose between gathering information that will help in the future and warning about immediate danger. It’s a crisis situation, said Brad Coleman, a past president of the American Meteorological Society who used to be the meteorologist in charge of the weather service’s Seattle office and is now a private meteorologist. I am deeply concerned that we will inevitably lose lives as a result of the added risk due to this short-staffing. Former National Weather Service chief Louis Uccellini said if the numbers are right, it’s trouble. No one can predict when any office gets stretched so thin that it will break, but these numbers would indicate that several of them are there or getting close, especially when you factor that large segments of the country are facing oncoming threats of severe weather, flooding rains while others are facing ominous significant fire risks, Uccellini said in an email. The vacancy numbers were compiled in an informal but comprehensive effort by weather service workers after the cuts spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. They checked on individual office staffing levels and looked at how they compared to the past. Staffing levels, including vacancies, are detailed and cross-referenced by offices, regions, positions and past trends, with special notes on whether efforts are being made to fill them. The AP, after obtaining the list from a source outside the weather service, sought to verify the numbers by calling individual weather offices, checking online staff lists and interviewing other employees not involved in the data-gathering effort. The workers’ data sometimes varied slightly from data shown on weather service websites, though employees said those could be out of date. Rep. Eric Sorensen, an Illinois Democrat and the only meteorologist in Congress, said his office independently obtained the data and he verified parts of it with weather professionals he knows in Midwestern weather service offices, which are called WFOs. The Davenport-Quad Cities office near his home has a 37.5% vacancy rate. Theyre doing heroic effort. Just with what happened the other day with the tornado outbreak, the killer tornado outbreak, I saw incredible work being done by the WFOs down around Memphis and up to Louisville. Incredible work that saved peoples lives, Sorensen told the AP on Friday. Going forward with these types of cuts, we cant guarantee that people are going to be as safe as they were. I’m incredibly concerned because this affects everyone in every part of the country, Sorensen said, noting the potential for severe storms Friday in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s home district near Shreveport, Louisiana, where the data shows a 13% vacancy rate, well below the average for the south and the rest of the country. The employees’ data, which goes back to 2015, showed that in March 2015 the overall vacancy rate was 9.3%. Ten years later, as of March 21, it was 19%. The weather service did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Some northern and central stations such as Rapid City, South Dakota, with a 41.7% vacancy rate, Albany, New York, at 25%, Portland, Maine, at 26.1% and Omaha, Nebraska at 34.8% have been so short-staffed that they’ve curtailed weather balloon launches that said provide vital observations for accurate forecasts. The vacancies go beyond meteorologists who do forecasts. Twenty-three offices are without the meteorologist-in-charge who oversees the office. Sixteen have vacancies in the crucial warning coordination meteorologist job which makes sure emergency officials and the public prepare for oncoming weather disasters. The Houston office, with a 30% vacancy rate, is missing both those top positions, according to the data and the office’s own website. Houston has so much damage from flooding, hurricanes and even a derecho that their (damage) numbers are through the roof, said Bernadette Woods Placky, chief meteorologist for Climate Central and a former television meteorologist. The National Weather Service employees are still going to do everything they can to keep people safe and prepared. Its just that much harder and it puts lives at risk, Placky said. This time of the year and in this situation, this is when severe weather season peaks and were heading into the season of the biggest extremes with wildfires, with hurricanes, with extreme heat, which is our deadliest of all of extreme weathers. One weather service field office chief, who asked not to be identified because of fears of job loss, said the lack of technicians to fix radar and other needed equipment could be critically dangerous. People are bending over backwards to cope with the lack of staffing, the chief meteorologist said. The burden is going to kill us.” Northern Illinois atmospheric sciences professor Victor Gensini and others compared being stretched thin to cracks in aviation safety. “The question becomes, what falls through the cracks because theyre busy doing other things or theyre short-staffed,” Gensini said. Maybe they cant answer the phone to take a critical weather report thats coming in. Maybe theres so many storms in the counties that theyre responsible for that they cant physically issue warnings for every single storm because they dont have enough people working on the radar. These are all theoretical concerns, but its sort of like when you read about aircraft disasters and how they occur, Gensini said. Its the cascading of risk, right? Its the compounding, like the pilot was tired. The pilot missed the cue. Seth Borenstein, AP science writer The Associated Presss climate and nvironmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Category:
E-Commerce
March is kind of a wild month its got a little bit of everything. At first glance, Womens History Month and March Madness might feel like an odd pairing, but lately, they actually go hand in hand. Thanks to the Caitlin Clark effect (you know the one), womens college basketball has been booming. In fact, in 2024, the womens NCAA championship game drew more viewers than the mens for the first time ever. Will that momentum keep going this year? Were about to find out. The Final Four is here, and UCLA, South Carolina, Texas, and UConn are all ready to bring it. Heres what you need to know and how to catch every minute of the action. When and where is the Womens Final Four? The action is taking place at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. Friday, April 4 is game day. First, the South Carolina Gamecocks and Texas Longhorns will battle it out at 7 p.m. ET. Then the UCLA Bruin will face the UConn Huskies for the remaining spot in the championship game at 9:30 p.m. ET. Players and coaches to watch As the defending champion, South Carolina, wants back-to-back titles. Head coach Dawn Staleys roster is a mix of developmental talent and experienced players which may prove to be a deadly weapon. Joyce Edwards, Chloe Kitts and MiLaysia Fulwiley are eager to prove themselves on the national stage. Sometimes you dont need a household-name superstar to win it all.Madison Booker and the Texas Longhorns want to stop this crew. The team hasnt seen the Final Four since 2003. The organization only has a single championship under its belt.Lauren Betts started her college basketball career at Stanford but left to become a Bruin after freshman year. Shes an imposing figure to guard at six feet seven inches. Led by coach Cori Close, this is the first time UCLA has been in the Final Four since 1979 which was before the NCAA sponsored women’s basketball. The team is hopeful the party doesnt stop here but not if Paige Bueckers has anything to say about it.One could argue Bueckers has filled the void left by Clark at the collegiate level. If shes successful in the Final Four she will have the opportunity to surpass her predecessor by winning a national championship. This UConn Guard wants to help her team go all the way especially since the organization has not accomplished this feat since 2016. How to tune in Traditional cable subscribers can tune into ESPN to watch all the free throws and three-pointers. Those who cut the cord can turn to a live television streaming service that carries ESPN such as Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, Fubo, YouTube TV, or DirecTV Stream. Both Final Four games are evenly matched with no clear front-runners so the competition is sure to be fierce.
Category:
E-Commerce
An overlooked executive order, crowded out by the administrations new tariff schedule, could have big implications for relatively small imports. On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order that ended de minimis treatment for small or low-value Chinese imports. That’s as Trumps team is pushing ahead to close the trade loophole that has allowed certain goods from China to dodge tariffs. Trump had previously suspended the loophole in February and tasked the Commerce Department with putting together a more comprehensive plan. Now that the loophole is closed, there could be many implications for Chinese retailers that specialize in selling inexpensive goods to American consumerscompanies like Temu or Shein. Here’s what to know. What is de minimis? Under previous standards, imports with values of less than $800 were granted de minimis exemptions from tariffs. Effectively, that meant that companies specializing in selling cheap goods to American consumers could avoid existing tariffs and added duties. The phrase de minimis is Latin, and loosely translates to minimal things. As it relates to tariffs, it basically boils down to a translation of, tariffs dont apply to relatively small imports. The de minimis rule had existed under U.S. tax law, but small shipments and imports utilizing the loophole have increased significantly in recent years, which caught the attention of regulatorsand Trump. In fact, the number of shipments has more than doubled since 2018. Trumps executive order claims that the loopholes closure has to do with imports of drugs or drug-producing compounds. President Trump is targeting deceptive shipping practices by Chinese-based shippers, many of whom hide illicit substances, including synthetic opioids, in low-value packages to exploit the de minimis exemption, the White House said. What does it mean for consumers? Closing the loophole likely means higher prices for American consumers, and a potential knockout blow to Chinese retailers who have exploited the loophole in recent years. That could potentially make American retailers more competitive. Forever 21, which recently filed for bankruptcy protection and announced that it was closing all of its U.S. stores, blamed part of its faltering on Chinese rivals like Shein and Temu. So the trade-off appears to be that American retailers may be more competitive, but that consumers will likely pay higher prices.
Category:
E-Commerce
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