Hundreds of federal employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were abruptly fired today in the latest round of cost-cutting layoffs by the Trump administration.
The firings were first reported earlier by outlets including the Colorado Sun and the Hill, which said staff cuts could affect up to 1,830 workers nationwide.
NOAA, situated under the Commerce Department, is instrumental in climate research and houses the National Weather Service, which provides detailed forecasts and weather modeling. In Colorado, NOAA maintains laboratories in Boulder, while the National Weather service has forecasting offices covering Boulder, Grand Junction and Pueblo.
It’s unclear how many of the cuts affected Colorado positions. On Thursday afternoon, however, people could be heard crying in NOAA’s David Skaggs Research Center in Boulder, a staff member told CPR News.
The NOAA office is home to the Space Weather Prediction Center, which monitors the sun to provide forecasts and warnings about incoming electromagnetic storms. Those events can cause widespread disruptions to the power grid, expose airline passengers to unsafe radiation levels and cause GPS systems to fail.
The center was affected by the layoffs, according to a NOAA employee with direct knowledge of the situation.
“We’ve heard deeply disturbing reports that dedicated civil servants at NOAA in Colorado have been impacted by the Trump Administration’s reckless mass terminations, which will harm not only our state, but our nation’s vital scientific programs,” House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse (CO-02) said in a statement.
“Congressional Democrats will not stand for it, and our office is working with Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper to respond to these damaging actions.”
Recent federal layoffs have targeted probationary employees in their initial years on the job. Other federal workers have greater recourse to appeal a firing. On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration may have broken the law in certain cases by firing thousands of probationary employees.
Probationary employees were notified of their termination via an email from NOAA Admiral Nancy Hahn, which stated that “the Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs.” The email said those employees were terminated at 5 p.m. EST.
Tom Di Liberto, a public affairs specialist and climate scientist at NOAA in D.C., was fired via email. He worked at NOAA as a contractor since 2010, and as a probationary employee since 2023. His probationary status was scheduled to end in just 15 days, he said.
“They’ve been hinting at this for quite a while,” Di Liberto said. “You see what’s happened in other agencies to science and scientists, where they are basically just trying to get rid of everybody.”
“And so it was not unexpected what happened today,” he said. “But it doesn’t make it any easier.”
Federal NOAA spokespeople said the agency would not discuss personnel matters and will continue to provide weather information.
“This will cost American lives,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, ranking member of the Science, Space and Technology House Committee, in a press release about the firings. “Protect lives and property; that is NOAA’s mission. Firing the employees that allow the agency to carry out that mission will bring about dire consequences.”
