The National Weather Service is facing staffing shortages and reduced weather balloon launches due to federal funding cuts, potentially impacting severe weather forecasting accuracy as storm season approaches.
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Weather experts warn that these cuts could affect the ability to predict dangerous weather events, putting lives and property at risk.
"The atmosphere is fully interconnected. So any missing data anywhere really impacts everybody on the planet," said Chris Vagasky, meteorologist and research project manager at UW-Madison.
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Wisconsin meteorologists work closely with weather experts across the nation and globe to produce accurate forecasts, relying heavily on data from weather balloon releases.
"A weather balloon is just a giant party balloon, if you want to think of it that way. It is about 5 to 6 feet in diameter when it's inflated— full of either helium or hydrogen —and attached to every weather balloon is a radiosonde [which is] basically an all in one weather station," Vagasky said.
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These weather balloons provide critical atmospheric data that helps meteorologists determine the severity of incoming storms, even from states away.
"It's a very subtle thing that is usually the difference between having a tornado outbreak and having no tornadoes, or even no thunderstorms. So, having all of the available information the day of severe weather events is critical for us to know how bad are the storms going to be later that day," Vagasky said.
As of this week, the National Weather Service is looking to fill 155 positions nationwide, highlighting how depleted the agency has become heading into severe weather season.
"If we're taking away funding, if we're taking away personnel, we're going to be risking lives and property," Vagasky said.
Despite these challenges, the weather community continues to collaborate to maintain forecast accuracy.
"Everybody around the world is really trying to address just how significant these cuts can be to the accuracy of forecasts," Vagasky said.
