The Daily Populous Monday May 19th, 2025 evening edition
Authored by mesoscalenews.com and submitted by apple_kicks

Of all the disasters I’ve studied, tornadoes scare me the most.

They come with little warning and can erase entire communities in minutes — even seconds.

There’s no four-day lead-up to prepare like we often have with major hurricanes, and the winds of these storms can far exceed the most violent tropical cyclones.

In those few moments before one hits, especially if you’re sleeping, you’re at the mercy of your local weather station.

If someone is watching, they can issue a warning in those critical minutes before it’s too late.

Those few minutes after an emergency alert is issued are the difference between life and death.

That’s why experts were shocked and outraged by budget cuts made to the National Weather Service earlier this year.

Some offices were forced to no longer operate 24 hours a day back in April.

In the Jackson, Kentucky NWS office, one of the positions they were forced to cut was the full-time overnight forecaster.

The office's website even lists the "Meteorologist in Charge" position as vacant.

Overnight forecasters are responsible for monitoring severe weather outbreaks and issuing warnings while one of the most tornado-prone areas in the countries is sound asleep.

“It’s only a matter of time before these cuts lead to tragedy,” I said back in February.

Just before midnight last night, tragedy struck.

Photo by Austin Anthony for the New York Times. Link here.

At least 27 people are dead, with more still missing, across Missouri and Kentucky.

Tornado warnings were delayed because of reduced staff. Those critical moments — a midnight warning to your phone waking you up, giving you precious seconds to find shelter — came too late for some.

The risk of these cuts creating this exact problem was known before last night.

Just one day before the disaster, on May 15, the New York Times ran an investigative piece about how DOGE cuts were undermining weather forecasting improvements.

The piece specifically included the Jackson, Kentucky NWS office as one targeted by DOGE for layoffs.

Severe weather is expected to continue today and tomorrow, and NOAA’s new PR team, now run by Trump loyalists, is scrambling to deny and diffuse the situation.

We can’t ask those who died if they received the warning, so we might never know how many lives would have been saved by having minimal staffing standards in NWS offices.

As the MAGA-rampage against science continues unabated, how many more will pay for the ignorance of this administration?

With an above-normal hurricane season starting in two week, how far will Americans let these threats to public safety go?

ladyhaly on May 19th, 2025 at 10:52 UTC »

Key facts before the politics start flying:

What happened – A nocturnal tornado outbreak late 17 May killed at least 27 people across Kentucky and Missouri (18 of them in Laurel County, KY). Radar‐based debris signatures appeared before midnight, but the first official warnings for parts of the path weren’t pushed until minutes after circulation was already on the ground.

Why the gap matters – For night-time storms you’re asleep until a phone alert blares. Even a 5- to 10-minute lag can be the difference between getting to a basement and dying in bed.

Staffing reality – The Jackson, KY forecast office that covers Laurel County has been running 31 % below its authorised staffing since DOGE-mandated cuts early this year. The overnight forecaster position—whose only job is to watch radar while everyone else sleeps—was eliminated in April. Nearly half of NWS offices now have 20 %+ vacancy rates, according to an Associated Press analysis.

Warnings on the night – Because the office can’t staff 24/7 anymore, an on-call meteorologist had to remote-log-in when rotation ramped up. That start-up window accounts for the delay you see in the warning logs.

Experts warned this would happen – Meteorologists and the employees’ union flagged the risk in February; The NY Times, PBS, and WaPo all ran pieces in the past month on how the same budget axe was forcing eight forecast offices—including Jackson—to drop round-the-clock coverage.

TL;DR

The science isn’t broken; the funding pipeline is. Cut the people who keep eyes on radar at 11 p.m. and you buy tragedy at midnight.

peroxwhyLUSH on May 19th, 2025 at 04:20 UTC »

Watched a YouTuber stream these and he questioned at times why tornado warnings were not being issued…oof.

PaintedClownPenis on May 19th, 2025 at 04:16 UTC »

But think of the money nobody saved.