Government shutdowns affect weather-related activities for the nation in so many ways that aren’t «great».
After the winter solstice, the number of daylight hours start to slowing increase. However, for federal employees, the days may seem long for another reason. I am a former federal employee. I worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for 12 years, and it was one of the best experiences of my career, except dealing with government shutdowns. They are petty, disruptive, and never really accomplish much. There have been 20 of them since 1976. Unfortunately as I type this, the nation is facing a holiday-season government shutdown. I find this one particularly disgusting because it is a time when many of us celebrate selflessness, charity, and love. With furloughs and loss of pay threatened, these actions are clearly acts of selfishness and smell of political tantrums. However, my focus herein is what a partial government shutdown means for weather operations, climate, and related sciences.
Snow outside the White House. The White House
While some agencies have been funded under previous actions, several weather-climate focused agencies would be impacted by the shutdown. They include NOAA, NASA, the NSF, NOAA, and the US Geological Survey (USGS). According to an article in Nature, «the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a notable exception: it plans to use unexpired multi-year and «no year» funding to keep most of its roughly 14,000 workers on the job — at least until that money runs out.»
For NOAA, about 50% of its workforce would be shuttered. However, National Weather Service personnel that provide critical weather forecasts for the nation will still work. By the way, pause for a moment and think about all of the ways daily activities are affected by weather. Pockets of federal personnel would also continue to monitor tsunami warning operations and some greenhouse gases monitoring activities. I still remember a government shutdown and the dedication of our federal workforce even as they are used as pawns in a political chess came. A message from the National Weather Service-Rapid City Office was received in 2013 by Climate Central. Journalist Andrew Freedman shared the message in his article about the dedication of National Weather Service employees during a blizzard:
Access to the office is still blocked.
