By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Department of Meteorology is already being affected by the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) budget, warning that further reductions could hamper this country’s weather forecasting capabilities — especially during the hurricane season.

Jeffrey Simmons, the department’s acting director, said some services previously provided by the National Weather Service have been scaled back, including seasonal heat advisories.

He said the department recently received notification from the National Weather Service advising that it will no longer be issuing those advisories. Mr Simmons noted that this will not prevent the department from issuing its own without their support.

 “We can still be issuing some heat advisory, but we wouldn’t have them to guide us, to assist us on that anymore so that again is going to somewhat impact our forecast ability,” he added.

The NOAA — which oversees the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center — has lost hundreds of staff, most of them probationary workers, due to the Trump administration’s budget cuts.

Last week, the Associated Press reported that another 1,000 job cuts are underway, with former NOAA officials warning the move will likely degrade the quality of weather forecasts.

The US agency also reported that staffing shortages have affected some services. This comes amid growing concern over reports that the Trump administration is considering terminating leases for several NOAA centres deemed critical for global weather forecasts and hazard warnings.

“Our major thing is the National Hurricane Center,” Mr Simmons said. We rely on a lot of things from the National Hurricane Center. We are concerned if there would be any cuts in their staff or anything related to the reconnaissance aircraft and the work that they do for us during the hurricane season.”

The NHC, which serves as the lead forecaster for hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, provides essential data for storm predictions.

The data collected by reconnaissance aircraft, which fly directly into hurricanes to gather real-time information, plays a crucial role in the department’s forecasting process.

Without this resource, meteorologists would have to rely solely on satellite imagery and other tools, which could weaken the accuracy of forecasts. He noted that if funding for these aircraft is reduced or withdrawn, it could negatively affect the quality of hurricane predictions.

He said The Bahamas may not be as severely affected as other countries farther from the US since any weather threats near The Bahamas could also impact the US due to the country’s proximity.

“We have our other Caribbean islands further south, like the Windward islands and possibly even the Leeward Islands, that can be impacted,” he added. “And that is what we’re concerned about.”

Mr Simmons said he and other regional representatives intend to raise their concerns about the funding cuts at the upcoming Regional Association IV Hurricane Committee meeting in El Salvador later this month.

He described the meeting as a “post-mortem” of the previous hurricane season, where officials review storm activity, assess forecasting performance, and discuss strategies for improvement moving forward.

Still, Mr Simmons assured us that any potential changes would not affect the department’s broader hurricane preparedness efforts.

“Meteorology knows no boundary, so we depend on each other,” he added. “We do what we are able to do by information sharing, and everyone assists where they can. Countries like the United States and Canada in our region are really the leaders in terms of providing us with a lot of resources that we would need, so anything that affects them is definitely going to affect us.”