Mass firings of hundreds of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration workers, including many in Boulder, began Thursday afternoon.
Probationary employees received emails and were given an hour to empty their desks, despite a U.S. District Court judge in San Francisco ruling ordering the Office of Personnel Management to stop indiscriminate firings because they are likely illegal.
Craig McLean, a former NOAA chief scientist who said he got information from a person with first-hand knowledge, told The Associated Press that as many as 1,300 people will be fired in two rounds, 500 Thursday and 800 on Friday. That’s about 10% of NOAA’s workforce.
Theo Stein, a NOAA spokesperson based in Boulder, declined to confirm the layoffs in Colorado. “We continue to provide weather information, forecasts and warnings pursuant to our public safety mission,” he said in an email.
Probationary employees aren’t necessarily new employees. Workers who move into new jobs, including senior executive positions, or those switching departments, are also subject to a probationary period, which can be as long as three years.
NOAA’s work includes the National Weather Service, and in Boulder researchers are focused on topics including atmospheric processes that influence air quality, weather and the availability of water. A lab there provides “the framework for all positioning activities in the nation. These include the foundational elements of latitude, longitude, elevation and shoreline information, which impact a wide range of important activities.”
The city is also home to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, which issues forecasts, warnings and alerts that help mitigate space weather impacts. It works with NASA to develop, launch, test and operate all satellites, according to NASA.
“We need to understand who at NOAA is being fired and why. Gutting NOAA without any plan weakens Colorado’s ability to respond to wildfires or track the West’s worsening drought. Science and weather services for Americans is not government waste. Firing the hardworking Coloradans who do this work with no strategy or communication is wrong,” U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colorado, said on X.
“We’ve heard deeply disturbing reports that dedicated civil servants at NOAA in Colorado have been impacted by the Trump Administration’s reckless mass terminations, which will harm not only our state, but our nation’s vital scientific programs,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Lafayette. “Congressional Democrats will not stand for it, and our office is working with Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper to respond to these damaging actions.”
About 800 people work at the labs in Colorado. This is a blended workforce including federal, civil service, contractors and Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences researchers.
CIRES, created in 1967 at the University of Colorado, employs about 900 people, about 45% of whom work in NOAA labs. According to CIRES’ 2024 annual report, the research organization had received $122 million in funding from NOAA, CU and other contracts and grants.
“There are no impacts to CIRES at this moment,” said Nicole Mueksch, a CU spokesperson.
Scientists at CIRES are involved in almost any research that touches on environmental science, including forest fires, smoke impacts, air quality, arctic weather and snowmelt.
In December, they released a report on how 2021’s Marshall fire in Boulder County had lingering impacts on the air quality of homes in the burned area for weeks and created potential health risks.
The termination emails, sent by Vice Admiral Nancy Hann, the acting undersecretary of commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA administrator, cited each worker’s date of hire to their current job and noted the appointment was “subject to the completion of a probationary/trial period.”
The message calls probationary periods “an essential tool for agencies to assess employee performance and manage staffing levels.”
“In light of that guidance, the Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs. For these reasons, I am terminating you from the position of NOAA Federal Employee with the agency and the federal civil service effective February 27, 2025 at 5 p.m. EST,” she wrote.
Those let go because of their performance or conduct may appeal only if they allege their termination was based on partisan political reasons or marital status, according to the American Federation of Government Employees.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the full impact yet,” said an employee of one of 13 River Forecast Centers, which are part of the National Weather Service and NOAA. The worker spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.
The river forecast centers in the United States provide key data to government agencies about water supply, flood risk, dam safety, endangered species recovery program management and recreational safety.
In the Colorado River Basin, these forecast centers play a daily role in deciding how key reservoirs — like lakes Mead and Powell — store and release the water supply for millions of people.
The employee still had a job as of Thursday and was not a probationary employee. The staff will likely know more, including what happens to one probationary employee in the office, by Friday.
Already, about half of the people who hold the person’s same position in forecast centers around the country have retired or taken resignation offers, like the recent “fork in the road” offer.
It’s been a morale killer, the employee said. No one feels secure in their jobs, even if they’ve worked for the federal government for decades. They’re frustrated in what feels like a “hostile work environment.”
“We could all work private consulting type of jobs … and probably make a lot more money, but we do this because there’s a service and a mission aspect to this that I don’t think can be understated,” the River Forecast Center employee said. “I like that I’m doing something that I think benefits the greater good.”
Sun journalists Dana Coffield, Tamara Chuang, Larry Ryckman, Parker Yamasaki, Shannon Mullane, John Ingold and Lance Benzel contributed reporting to this story.