The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😜
Main Topic: Trump Administration Pushes Ahead with NOAA Climate and Weather Cuts
Dear Diary. There have been numerous reports that Trump and his fossil fuel loving cronies are in the process of cutting funds for climate programs to blind us so that we can’t see or better forecast the constant degradation of our environment. Also, using Project 2025 as a roadmap, funds for the weather service have been cut. Republicans would love to privatize that. As I keep saying, for shame!. I have no doubt that we can’t save our livable climate as long as Trump squats in the White House. The elections of 2026 and 2028 can’t come soon enough.
Climate scientist Zack Labe was an employee with the National Center for Environmental Information who did not survive Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts earlier this year, but he quickly found employment at Climate Central. He points into the direction of a new Science article, which gives us good dollars and cents details about how much weather and climate sciences are being cut from the new U.S. budget:
Trump administration pushes ahead with NOAA climate and weather cuts | Science | AAAS
Trump administration pushes ahead with NOAA climate and weather cuts
Despite congressional resistance, agency aims to cut research spending now
- 25 Aug 2025
- 4:30 PM ET
- By Paul Voosen
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research funds a host of climate instruments, including buoys that monitor ocean heat. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
President Donald Trump’s administration is set to spend nearly $100 million, or 14% less, on the research arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) than the level mandated by Congress for this year, according to a budget document seen by Science.
These cuts, which would hit basic science on the weather, oceans, and—especially—climate, represent a “down payment” on the White House’s proposal to eliminate NOAA’s research arm in the 2026 fiscal year that begins on 1 October, agency officials have told employees.
NOAA, which is part of the Department of Commerce, has also begun to make other down payments on the proposed 2026 cuts, including sweeping reductions to its next-generation geostationary weather satellites, according to documents seen by Science and first reported by CNN. The administration is pushing ahead with the cuts despite a wholesale rejection of the White House’s 2026 budget request for NOAA by key spending panels in Congress. “This shows not to underestimate the malice that this administration has toward NOAA,” a former agency official told Science.
The White House has been limited in cutting this year’s NOAA spending because the agency had already spent so much of its budget, says Rick Spinrad, who led NOAA under former President Joe Biden. But the spending plan, which details how NOAA is using money given to it by Congress for the current fiscal year, indicates the White House is now trying to maximize NOAA’s losses, Spinrad says. “It looks like they’re trying to do as much damage they can.” (NOAA did not respond to a request for comment.)
For months, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been personally reviewing contracts the agency signs that exceed $100,000, resulting in a backlog. Some $1 billion in spending for the current year may still be sitting on Lutnick’s desk. And the spending plan makes it clear the agency has no plans to spend all of that money by the fiscal year’s end on 30 September—if ever.
NOAA’s office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), for which Congress has approved $745 million this year, is not the only division to see a shortfall, according to the spending plan. The $916 million National Ocean Service spending falls by $90 million, while the $1.27 billion National Marine Fisheries Service drops by $80 million (though half of these losses reflect the loss of congressional earmarks directed to specific projects). NOAA’s satellite division, meanwhile, falls by $76 million, to $1.72 billion, while its mission support offices drop by $63 million to $407 million. Only two of its line offices—the National Weather Service and NOAA’s aircraft and marine operations—actually match or exceed the spending levels set by Congress.
The spending plan makes clear the particular animus the Trump administration has for climate research. In 2024, NOAA spent $219 million on climate research; this year, despite receiving the same appropriation from Congress, the agency will spend $165 million—a drop of $53 million, or 25%. The cuts include more than $20 million from its climate science research grants, $12 million from regional climate, and $18 million from its climate-focused labs and cooperative institutes.
The agency’s other research pillars would also not be spared. Its weather labs and institutes have seen spending drop by $12 million, to $78 million, while its ocean labs and institutes fell by $3 million to $36 million. (NOAA operates 10 research labs around the country, along with a number of cooperative institutes at nearby universities.)
The drop in spending comes as NOAA has already made sweeping changes to its next-generation program for geostationary weather satellites, set to launch next decade. Such satellites provide constant monitoring of North America from an elevated orbit. During the Biden administration, NOAA awarded contracts to BAE Systems to develop air pollution and ocean color instruments for this constellation.
But the White House’s proposed budget for 2026 seeks to kill these instruments. Congress has been skeptical of these changes. But Science can confirm that this month NOAA began to terminate contracts for both instruments.
It remains unclear what will happen to any congressionally appropriated funds that NOAA does not spend this year. Typically, the agency has 2 years to spend money appropriated for a specific year, and it can also request an allowance from Congress to “carry over” this money for imminent future spending. More likely, however, is that the White House will seek to avoid spending the money, and it will eventually be returned to the Department of the Treasury unless Congress intervenes.
About the author
Paul Voosen
Author
Paul Voosen is the earth, climate, and planetary science reporter at Science, covering everything from the fringes of the atmosphere to the innermost inner core, on Earth and elsewhere in the Solar System. He can be found on Signal at voosen.01.
Here are more “ET’s” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is More Climate News from Wednesday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)