You'll still get NOAA weather forecasts and warnings during the government shutdown
The government shutdown is likely to stifle scientific research in the U.S., particularly at health agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
However, people whose job includes performing activities deemed essential to protecting life and property, such as issuing warnings for severe weather conditions and providing weather information for boaters and airline pilots, will stay on the job regardless of a shutdown, government plans show.
When asked about its shutdown plans, staff at the Department of Commerce, which houses the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), referred Mashable to a 2017 contingency plan that was published by the Office of Management and Budget. It shows that 350 employees whose jobs have to do with controlling and downloading information from the country's fleet of weather satellites would keep working through a shutdown, as would 3,394 employees at the National Weather Service.
This would include all "operational staff" in national weather centers, such as the Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma, weather forecast offices spread throughout the country, tsunami warning centers, and other offices that provide forecasts and warnings of hazardous conditions.
Staff responsible for maintaining communications networks and radar equipment would also be exempted from being furloughed in a shutdown, including some employees involved with high performance computing.
Other tasks that NOAA performs, including climate research, won't continue during the shutdown, and grant-making will come to a halt as well. In addition, NWS staff who work at the agency's headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, may be furloughed, since they don't produce weather forecasts or issue warnings.
Andrew Freedman is Mashable's Senior Editor for Science and Special Projects. Prior to working at Mashable, Freedman was a Senior Science writer for Climate Central. He has also worked as a reporter for Congressional Quarterly and Greenwire/E&E Daily. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post, online at The Weather Channel, and washingtonpost.com, where he wrote a weekly climate science column for the "Capital Weather Gang" blog. He has provided commentary on climate science and policy for Sky News, CBC Radio, NPR, Al Jazeera, Sirius XM Radio, PBS NewsHour, and other national and international outlets. He holds a Masters in Climate and Society from Columbia University, and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
