The National Weather Service (NWS) is on a hiring spree for 126 positions, including meteorologists, following significant staff reductions that left many offices short-handed.
Tom Fahy, legislative director at a union that represents NWS employees, told The Hill that the weather service would conduct the hiring.
The vacant roles span various categories such as meteorologists, hydrologists, physical scientists, and electronics technicians. According to Fahy from the National Weather Service Employees Organization, the category of physical scientists does include some meteorologists, while electronics technicians are responsible for maintaining essential equipment like radars.
The move to hire more staff was first reported by CNN.
A spokesperson for the National Weather Service confirmed via email that the agency was taking some steps to fill vacancies at the agency.
“NOAA leadership is actively addressing the vacancies created by those opting for voluntary early retirement. NWS is deploying short-term Temporary Duty assignments (TDYs) and is in the middle of executing a series of Reassignment Opportunity Notices (RONs) to prioritize hiring at field locations facing the highest operational demands,” spokesperson Erica Grow Cei stated.
“Additionally, a targeted number of permanent, mission-critical field positions will soon be advertised under an exception to the Department-wide hiring freeze to further stabilize frontline operations,” she added.
The move comes after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) fired hundreds of workers, including some at the weather service, as part of an effort to shrink the size of the government.
It also comes after an internal document stated that the department was seeking to reassign staffers to fill vacancies in “critically understaffed” offices and was leaked last month.
The document said that the weather service was looking to fill positions including meteorologists in disaster-prone areas such as Houston and Miami.
It also comes alongside the arrival of hurricane season, which began Sunday.
