National Weather Service to hire 450 workers following cuts

The National Weather Service (NWS) has received approval to hire 450 employees. The hiring and rehiring of meteorologists, hydrologists and radar technicians follows staffing cuts that occurred earlier this year.

According to CNN, the new hires were authorized directly by the Office of Personnel Management. The hiring numbers include 126 positions that were previously approved during a lifted hiring freeze.

Initial cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) amounted to 560 employees. In the same timeframe as the DOGE cuts the National Interagency Fire Center released fire maps that predicted above normal significant fire potential across the Northwest, with the National Weather Service predicting an above-normal hurricane season. The layoffs coincided with the predictions and led many to criticize the decisions of the administration.

“After months of applying pressure, speaking out, and calling on the Trump administration to investigate the impacts of National Weather Service staff cuts on America's weather readiness, I’m relieved to see that Trump has allowed the agency to begin hiring staff,” said Rhode Island Congressman Gabe Amo in a statement. “But this decision solves a problem of Trump’s creation — he shouldn’t have cut NWS staff in the first place. As we’ve seen across the country — from the deadly flooding in Texas to the water-filled New York subway — extreme weather is becoming more frequent and severe because of climate change.”

Critical positions to be filled

In a July 2025 press release, California Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff demanded that the administration reverse the initial DOGE cuts to the California NWS offices. They highlighted that two offices in California had been hit particularly hard by the staffing cuts. The Sacramento office had a 50% vacancy rate, and the Hanford office had a 61.5% vacancy rate. The two offices are responsible for providing extreme weather warnings to roughly 7 million Californians.

CNN reports that some of the new positions will apply to “front-line mission critical” personnel.

At this time, it is unclear which offices will have positions filled.