You’re sitting at home and, for the most part, it’s a calm and peaceful May day. You just got back from school, and with finals right around the corner, school is all you can think about. Suddenly, within just minutes, you notice it got quite dark outside. It catches you off guard – there weren’t going to be any storms today, or, at least that’s what the forecast said. You start to hear the faint whistling of the wind slowly turn into a low rumble, now you really have a knot in your stomach. Living in Nebraska, you’re used to severe weather, but this feels different. Before you can even begin to gather your thoughts, you hear the distant blare of the tornado sirens. With little to almost no warning, you don’t have enough time to get to safety, and your life could be put in jeopardy.

The concept of being completely unaware of tornadoes until they’re right on your doorstep seems unrealistic based on our current technology and storm detection systems, right? Well, this could very well become our reality sooner rather than later. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been everywhere in the news lately, making cuts to government institutions such as the Department of Education, Medicaid, Medicare, etc, but one significant cut that seemed to slip under the radar, however, is the devastating cuts to the National Weather Service (NWS).

What most people fail to realize and/or understand is the importance of the NWS. I’m sure living in Nebraska, you’ve been put in some sort of watch or advisory like a tornado watch, severe thunderstorm watch or wind advisory, but without the brilliant minds at the NWS and Storm Prediction Center (SPC) in Norman, Oklahoma, we wouldn’t have this heads-up in advance. Some of you may still be asking yourself, “Well what about my local weather station? Or the weather app on my phone?” To many peoples’ surprise, however, they get all of their information and data from the very place experiencing these cuts – the NWS. Without the data that comes from the NWS and SPC, target areas in the United States such as the Dixie Valley in the southeast and Tornado Alley in the Midwest/Great Plains can’t prepare accordingly for upcoming weather situations that, without proper precautions, can become fatal.

In many instances, these tragic weather events have, in fact, become fatal (or close to) for those who have gone without warning. Just last June, the small town of Whitman, Nebraska, was devastated by the rare instance of a tornado, a particularly violent one in this case, going unwarned. Luckily, only one man was injured and there were no fatalities reported, but the most likely reason for this happening was the outages that occurred for the NWS office in North Platte. These outages rendered the NWS unable to issue warnings to the affected areas, so they weren’t able to prepare for the incoming twister.

These outages were a very unlikely scenario that just so happened to occur as a tornado was in progress. Now imagine this on a wide-scale outage. Due to the cuts in funding by DOGE, the NWS is unable to thoroughly complete their jobs to warn people well in advance about an approaching severe weather event.

The specifics of these cuts haven’t been completely set-in-stone, as there are changes nearly every week. Some of the recent cuts, however, have already had some pretty significant effects in terms of atmospheric data and laying off important employees. How scientists collect weather data about the atmosphere and how accurate forecasts are constructed are through the use of weather balloons. Every NWS station across the country will all launch their balloons at the same times every single day, essentially capturing a “picture” of the current condition of the atmosphere. With federal cuts, however, several stations have had to put a halt to their weather balloon operations or cut their launches to just once a day. Offices on a complete halt at the time of this reporting, however, include Rapid City, South Dakota, and our very own Omaha, Nebraska. This isn’t the first time in recent history that balloon launches have been suspended, but it is the first time they’ve been suspended due to understaffing/funding. In the past, offices such as Tallahassee, Florida, have put a halt to balloon launches due to helium shortages, which is completely out of the control of the government. In this instance, however, the complete stoppage of the launches lies in the hands of the federal government. In response to the loss of manpower and continuous cuts, 5 former leaders on both sides of the political spectrum at the National Weather Service published in a letter on May 7th that “our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life.” In the full letter, they outlined their fears concerning the entirety of NOAA operations, including the IT technicians that keep the operations running smoothly. They also touched on the proposed 2026 White House budget, which would slash 30% of funding that goes to NOAA, raising eyebrows about the future of our technological advancements and the resources that will be available. The Trump Administration has cut nearly 1,000 employees in just the first 4 months of his second tenure, as well as the reduced and complete halting of weather balloon launches. In response to this, local Senator Don Bacon, Republican from Nebraska’s Second Congressional District, sent out a letter in defense of the NWS and opposing the Trump Administration’s decisions in slashing such necessary funding right as tornado and hurricane season reaches its peak. “NOAA plays a significant role in the protection of Nebraskans from dangerous weather events – especially tornadoes, blizzards, and flooding,” Bacon’s letter read to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

All of this doesn’t just affect the United States, as it can have some global implications, as well. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is based in the United States, conveys data to scientists across the globe in order to conduct necessary research to better reach audiences in areas affected by potential catastrophic weather events. The NWS is a branch of NOAA, so if the government continues to take funding from the NWS and redistribute it to other resources that, perhaps, don’t have as large of an impact on human life, then this also withholds scientific data being shared amongst other scientists and offices in other parts of the world that also experience severe weather.

Tornadoes aren’t the only natural disasters that require warnings, however. Hurricanes, for example, are warned up to weeks in advance! Through years of trial and error and constant technological evolution, scientists and researchers have gotten significantly more accurate in predicting the paths of the storm. What about an instantaneous disaster that is near impossible to predict, such as earthquakes? While these terrifying events might not be possible to predict, advancements in technology have allowed us to sense earthquakes deep into the Earth’s mantle seconds before the rumbles are felt on the surface. While seconds might not seem like a lot, seconds are critical to survival. It’s the difference between life and death.

If the funding of these advancements are halted, so are the potential thousands of lives that could be saved from just a few seconds that can be taken to get to a safe-space. The risk of NOAA losing such a majority of its funding is in need of a dire call to activism. If these issues resonate with you, you can contact your local representatives by finding your specific elected officials through websites such as House.gov or Congress.gov, then calling, emailing, or sending a letter to their specified office.