Weather Forecasts Could Get a Lot Worse Under New Budget Cuts

Americans who check their weather apps every morning might want to enjoy those accurate forecasts while they can. The Trump administration wants to gut the budget for the agency that makes reliable weather prediction possible.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration faces a nearly 40% budget cut, dropping from $5.8 billion down to $3.5 billion. But here's the kicker – they want to completely zero out funding for the Office of Atmospheric Research, which basically runs all the weather and climate research in the country.

Retired weather scientists who spent their careers perfecting hurricane tracking aren't mincing words. They're saying this could throw American forecasting back decades.

The People Who Know Are Worried

James Franklin used to run the forecast team at the National Hurricane Center until he retired in 2017. His take? These cuts will basically freeze all progress in weather forecasting. Instead of getting better predictions over the next ten years, we'll just stay stuck where we are now.