The National Weather Service is the primary source of weather, hydrologic, and climate data and provider of forecasts and warnings for the US.
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A contract between the National Weather Service (NWS) and a translation company expired on Tuesday, leaving millions in the US without foreign language weather forecasts.
The NWS, the country’s primary source of weather, hydrologic, and climate data and provider of forecasts and warnings, has been relying on foreign-language translation service Lilt for forecast translations since 2023. The five-year contract, valued at $5.8 million and set to be renewed every spring, helped provide weather forecast translations into Spanish, Chinese, and three other languages to some 30 cities and metropolitan areas across the country, according to Bloomberg.
But a deadline to renew the contract passed on Tuesday, and people familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg said that there are currently no plans to substitute the service while the agency waits for approval to renew the agreement with Lilt. Neither companies responded to the news agency’s request for comment.
“Getting timely weather alerts ahead of a dangerous storm in multiple languages helps ensure that potentially lifesaving information is available to everyone,” Grace Meng, a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science, said in 2023 as NOAA secured the contract with Lilt.
“By helping to be more inclusive and further increase safety in our many diverse communities, we can protect more people from severe weather storms in the United States,” Meng said.
Embattled Agencies
The NSW is an agency under the embattled National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), one of the world’s premier research agencies.
More than 1,000 NOAA employees were fired or resigned since US President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, with an additional 1,000 staffers set to be laid off as of last month. Should this second round of cuts go through, NOAA could potentially see a combined loss of 20% of its staff.
The administration has also hinted that it is considering not renewing leases for two key NOAA centers.
The cuts are spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, a controversial initiative of the second Trump administration to reduce federal spending. They have affected dozens of federal agencies, including the US Agency for International Development, leading to tens of thousands of layoffs and hundreds of federal funding initiatives being paused both in the US and abroad.
The NSW “temporarily suspended” weather balloon observations across six locations last month”due to a lack of Weather Forecast Office (WFO) staffing,” Office of Observations Surface and Upper Air Division Director Mike Hopkins announced in an email. The practice helps gather critical data on temperature, wind speed, humidity and other factors that can influence the formation of powerful storms and tornadoes – data that meteorologists have described as “vital” for national forecasting.
Taking away data means less accurate forecasts,” Dakota News Now meteorologist Tyler Roney said in a post on social media X. “This is a mess.”
Agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which coordinates national response to disasters like wildfires and hurricanes, were also affected by Trump’s cuts, with disaster assistance, grant money, and hiring largely stalled, CNN reported. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has vowed to “eliminate” the agency.
Trump administration’s climate policy tracker (click to view)
- Withdrew US from Paris Agreement for the second time (Earth.Org)
- Temporarily halted offshore wind lease sales and paused the issuance of approvals, permits, and loans for both onshore and offshore wind projects (AP)
- Rescinded 78 executive orders issued by President Biden on a variety of topics, including climate and the environment, justice and equity, health (Sabin Center For Climate Change Law)
- Revoked a non-binding goal set by Biden that electric vehicles (EVs) make up half of new cars sold by 2030 (Reuters)
- Suspended a $5 billion government EV infrastructure program and revoked approval of state EV charging plans pending a new review (Reuters)
- Reversed a Biden administration policy to get single-use plastics, including straws, plastic cutlery and packaging, out of federal food service operations by 2035 (Earth.Org)
- Rescinded $4 billion-worth in US outstanding pledges to the UN’s Green Climate Fund, the world’s largest climate fund (E&E News)
- Appointed numerous chemical and oil industry alumni to the Environmental Protection Agency (The Hill)
- Rescinded a Biden order that established the Justice40 Initiative, which required agencies to direct 40% of the “benefits” of federal climate programs to “disadvantaged communities.”
- Banned US scientist from participating in the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Earth.Org)
- Ordered expansion in tree cutting across 280 million acres of national forests and other public lands for timber (The Guardian)
- Withdrew the US from the board of UN Loss and Damage Fund (Earth.Org)
- Voted against a UN resolution on creating an International Day of Peaceful Coexistence and reaffirming the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs (Earth.Org)
- Pulled US out of flagship $45 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) set up to help developing countries quit coal (Financial Times)
- EPA suspended $20 billion in climate and environmental justice grants under the Inflation Reduction Act (Earth.Org)
- Signed four executive orders aimed at revitalizing the US coal industry (Earth.Org)
- Ended funding for the US Global Change Research Program, the body that produces a report summarizing the impacts of rising global temperatures on the US (The Guardian)
Featured image: NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory/Flickr.
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