A satellite program that has historically been a key source of weather forecasting data will be discontinued by July 31, as the United States enters peak hurricane season, according to the already resource-strapped National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The federal agency, which includes the National Weather Service, initially said last week that it was going to lose access to the satellite data by June 30. But in an update posted online on Monday, NOAA said the deadline to decommission the satellite system was pushed to July 31, at the request of a top official at NASA.
Operated by the U.S. Department of Defense, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program has since the 1960s collected environmental information each day from satellites orbiting Earth, in order to provide real-time details about conditions in the atmosphere and oceans to the military. The data was made available to weather scientists for traditional forecasting purposes, after being processed by a branch of the Navy that focuses on meteorology and oceanography.
Starting Aug. 1, that naval branch will no longer process or upload satellite data to the computing interface where meteorologists previously accessed it, according to NOAA.
In an email that the agency reposted online, the deputy director of its Office of Satellite and Product Operations said the Navy decided to implement that change in efforts “to mitigate a significant cybersecurity risk” but would continue to distribute the data through the end of next month.
NOAA spokesperson Kim Doster had called it a “routine process of data rotation and replacement,” The Associated Press reported last week. She also said that remaining data sources “are fully capable of providing a complete set of cutting-edge data and models that ensure the gold-standard weather forecasting the American people deserve.”
NOAA is facing this imminent data cutoff after losing a substantial chunk of its staff to layoffs and buyouts earlier this year, stemming from President Trump’s initiative to reduce government spending in part by shrinking the federal workforce.
Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30, and NOAA forecasters said in May that they expected this one to be more active than an average year. The season typically reaches its “peak,” its most active period, around August and September.
CBS News has reached out to NOAA and the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, which oversees the distribution of satellite weather data.
