from Hacker News

Tornado warnings delayed because of DOGE cuts

by aaronbrethorst on 5/18/25, 1:18 AM with 44 comments

• by Aeyxen on 5/18/25, 10:23 AM

  The thread keeps circling around the politics, but almost nobody has dug into what actually goes on in the NWS tornado warning pipeline.

  It's worth being specific: the National Weather Service operates some of the most robust automation and radar ingest pipelines on Earth, but the final go/no-go warning call is almost always human—often a single overnight forecaster on a console, monitoring a swath of counties. Automation (e.g., Warn-on-Forecast guidance) can surface threats, but the NWS intentionally doesn't have an 'auto-warn' button for tornadoes, because of the asymmetry of false positives (blow credibility, cost lives in the long run).

  Budget cuts reduce redundancy and experience in those overnight shifts. When you have only one person monitoring instead of a team of two or three, you get decision fatigue and coverage holes, especially during clustered, multi-cell outbreaks. We've seen near-misses in the past, and every pro-meteorologist I know says they're playing defense against process errors, not just technology failures.

  Before we point fingers or blame 'technology/automation' shortfalls, let's quantify the concrete bottleneck: skilled human decision-makers are the limiting reagent; machine learning warning aids are still years away from majority trust.

• by radnor on 5/18/25, 1:57 AM

  Fortunately the Kentucky NWS office in Jackson was fully staffed during the recent events. It's still not staffed 24/7, but at least they bring in people when things inclement weather is occuring.

  https://www.weku.org/the-commonwealth/2025-05-17/kentucky-nw...

• by sanderjd on 5/18/25, 1:44 AM

  This seems entirely plausible, but I'm not sure this article successfully makes this connection with direct evidence. Has anyone seen anything on this with better evidence?

• by jmclnx on 5/18/25, 1:46 AM

  Sadly anyone with a a half of a brain saw this coming. To add to this, FEMA cuts probably means these poor people will live through what Puerto Rico did when the island was wiped out years ago by that hurricane :(

  I wish they could sue Trump and Musk personally for making dumb decisions.

• by 0xEF on 5/18/25, 1:52 AM

  If you can and are willing, join Skywarn and help with weather spotting in your area.

  You do not need a radio license as things can be called in by phone, too.

  https://www.weather.gov/skywarn/

• by shepherdjerred on 5/18/25, 1:49 AM

  Part of me doesn’t feel too much sympathy. The majority of Americans voted for Trump. Even more so in the conservative states that are more likely to be impacted by there events.

  Trump campaigned on cutting government services.

  Everyone is okay with cutting a public service (at the expense of others) until they need that particular service

  ---

  To clarify, I'm not cheering on this disaster or hoping that those who voted for Trump "get what they deserve"

• by JKCalhoun on 5/18/25, 1:49 AM

  Welcome to 2025, where we gather the family around a glowing laptop watching Ryan Hall Y'all and his YouTube channel telling us when it's time to take shelter.

• by fixprix on 5/18/25, 1:50 AM

  "Tornado warnings were delayed because of reduced staff." Source? How long was the delay?

  Edit: Really? Downvote me for asking a super simple question? Sorry if I threaten the narrative.