Justin Minder

UAlbany Launches Environmental Studies Major, Climate Science Graduate Programs The University at Albany is offering new academic programs that will help shape future leaders to address the world’s evolving climate and environmental challenges.

Introducing our new Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies, and Master's and PhD in Climate Science, degree programs! Learn more at www.albany.edu/news-center/... and www.albany.edu/daes/programs.

Mesoscale convective system materialized overnight and moved through central NY, producing isolated severe wind gusts (62 mph gust at @nysmesonet.org Westmoreland station) and flash flooding (3-5" of rain). (1/)

Senior Researchers 60,400 --> 16,900 Other Professionals 14,400 --> 4,100 Postdoctoral Associates 5,500 --> 1,000 Graduate Students 41,500 --> 12,400 Undergraduate Students 37,300 --> 8,000 PreK-12 Teachers 42,900 --> 8,200 PreK-12 Students 128,100 --> 39,400 Total Number of People 330,100 --> 90,000

🚨🚨 Friday night news drop from National Science Foundation!! 🧪

NSF just released its detailed budget request for next year: nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/00-NSF...

We knew it was going to be bad...and it lives up. Guts direct NSF support for a **quarter million people**

🧵 on some highlights...

NSF, NASA and NIH budgets per year, inflation adjusted from 2000-2025 along with the proposed cuts. NSF includes research component only. Massive cuts across all sectors, well below support spanning 25 years.

How bad will it be? Catastrophic.

Proposed cuts to #NSF, #NIH, and #NASA will set the US R&D landscape back 25 yrs+, cause economic and job loss now, and undermine innovations to come.

But, this is the WH's *proposed* budget.

Speak up now before it is too late.

(inflation adjusted $-s below)

Assistant Professor Zheng Wu (left) works with a student in her class.

A class of #UAlbany undergrads spent the semester analyzing trends in environmental data & developing machine learning tools that support weather forecasting.

Through the AI Plus initiative, UAlbany is developing AI-related courses like this one: www.albany.edu/news-center/...

A fully-funded postdoctoral scientist position is available in the research group of Distinguished Prof. Mathias Vuille. The position is open to scientists with interest & experience in: (1) South American (paleo-)climate, (2) Andean glacier-climate interactions, or 3) regional climate modeling.

Unidata maintains a lot of key weather data infrastructure, including the netCDF data standard and libraries, metpy. data dissemination servers for accessing models and observations from NOAA, and educational resources for the university community. Now everyone is furloughed b/c of Trump and DOGE.

Today, students in my @ualbanydaes.bsky.social data viz class present their final projects, which wouldn't be possible without the folks at @unidata.bsky.social. The consequences of this administration's attacks on science and education just keep on hitting closer and closer to home.

One of the motivations for NOAA’s (a Department of Commerce agency) creation of this list was to quantify the economic importance of weather and climate information for the US. It is widely used to support further investments in weather and climate operations and science at the federal level. 🧐

2nd Call: @justinminder.bsky.social and I are seeking a postdoc to perform research on the characteristics and predictability of rainfall events over the Catskill mountains that impact the NYC water supply. Application deadline is this Friday 5/9. www.atmos.albany.edu/facstaff/tan...

Science news is particularly grim this week. For NSF funding, 2 key fronts:

1) freeze on ALL existing grants (portal is down - no $$ going out, including reimbursements) www.nature.com/articles/d41...

2) budget proposes 40% overall cut & 15% cap on indirects (lawsuits blocked same for NIH in Feb)

US weather forecasting is more crippled than previously thought as hurricane season nears | CNN Several current and former agency meteorologists and staff told CNN they are concerned warnings won’t be issued in time as hurricane season nears.

NEW: US weather forecasting is in worse shape than previously known, with 30 NWS forecast offices missing meteorologists-in-charge and about a dozen offices at risk of no longer serving their communities 24/7. www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/w...

Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.

I talked to Nature about the latest development at NSF, which is a five-alarm fire for American science. The scale of immediate impact is massive. We narrowly escaped this affecting @viralemergence.org for now, but will have to shut down in a few months if this stays.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Without a Strong Weather Enterprise America's Economic Leadership Is at Risk The AMS is a global community committed to advancing weather, water, and climate science and service.

New AMS Statement and Special Report: The Federal agencies in the public sector provide a foundational role in supporting the rest of the weather enterprise. A failure of these systems would be catastrophic.

Read the AMS Statement: bit.ly/4lLTdbk

I use it frequently. It is the foundation of a lab activity that I teach in one of my classes.

Stand Up for NOAA Research – The Time to Act is Now The AMS is a global community committed to advancing weather, water, and climate science and service.

The 2026 budget passback plan calls for eliminating NOAA Research, the scientific backbone that keeps weather forecasts, alerts, and warnings accurate and effective. This would have disastrous consequences.

Read the AMS statement, in partnership w/ @nwas.org: bit.ly/4cz2RtC

Funding for the Regional Climate Center program lapsed on April 17, 2025 due to a suspension of federal funding from NOAA through the Department of Commerce. It is unknown if or when funding will resume. All data and services offered under the HPRCC contract, including this website, are unavailable. If there are particular products and services you rely upon, please fill out this form so we can identify products to prioritize for continuance. Unfortunately, some products will be discontinued indefinitely because of their association with the Regional Climate Center program.

Support for all MRCC-hosted products and services is currently suspended as of April 17, 2025, due to a lapse in federal funding from the Department of Commerce through NOAA.

Federal funding for the Regional Climate Center program lapsed on April 17, 2025. It is unknown when or if funding will resume, pending decisions by NOAA and the Department of Commerce. If there are particular products and services that you rely upon, please contact us at sercc@sercc.com or reach out to your federal representatives and communicate their value and why you need them.

Oh no! Several of the Regional Climate Centers have had their funding lapse through DOC/NOAA. These institutes are critical for connecting weather and climate data and services to local communities across the United States.

Spread the word to drive attention and support!

Climate is the statistics of weather. And weather doesn't discriminate on the basis of politics.

Weather Service Prepares for ‘Degraded Operations’ Amid Trump Cuts An internal document describes how severe shortages of meteorologists and other staff members could affect forecasts and other operations.

More details on how vital NWS services will be affected as a consequence of federally induced staffing reductions...

Weather Service Prepares for ‘Degraded Operations’ Amid Trump Cuts www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/c...

Come work with @btangywx.bsky.social and me on hydrometeorology over the Catskill Mountains!

Trump seeks to end climate research at premier U.S. climate agency White House aims to end NOAA’s research office; NASA also targeted

Congress has a chance to have input on this, but slashing weather and climate research is incredibly irresponsible from the administration. www.science.org/content/arti...

White House Plan Calls for NOAA Research Programs to Be Dismantled A Trump administration budget proposal would essentially eliminate one of the world’s foremost Earth sciences research operations.

This NY Times article is probably the most thorough that I've read on the president's extremely shortsighted budget outline for NOAA. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/c...

Trump’s draft budget eviscerates weather and climate tracking and research | CNN The move would devastate weather and climate research even as weather is becoming more erratic and extreme, and would cripple the US industries — including agriculture — that depend on free, accurate ...

The Trump administration plans to eliminate the research arm of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, close all weather and climate labs and eviscerate its budget along with several other NOAA offices, according to internal documents obtained by CNN.

Here's how your area fared with snowfall this season, compared to a 14-year climatology.

Greens=Above Normal
Browns=Below Normal

#snOMG

ICF has supported the National Climate Assessment and the IPCC for nearly two decades with professionalism & integrity.

Yesterday, ICF's contract to support NCA was cancelled. All federal staff details for OSTP + USGCRP were already returned to their agencies.

There's no one left to work on NCA.

68,845,865.

That's how many individuals in the United States speak a language other than English at home.

Everyone deserves a chance to stay safe during disasters, and I will never stop advocating for that. Thinking of all the communities that are going to be affected by this change.

@ualbanydaes.bsky.social students sharing their passion for weather observations as part of a STEM Family Day on campus this past weekend.

Map of all black dots showing the location of NWS Upper Air Sites.

Map of black, red, and orange dots showing where soundings have been suspended or degraded because of staffing and helium shortages.

NOUS41 KWBC 202015 PNSWSH Public Information Statement 25-17 National Weather Service Headquarters Silver Spring MD 415 PM EDT Thu March 20, 2025 To: From: Subscribers: -NOAA Weather Wire Service -Emergency Manager Weather Information Network -NOAAPORT Other NWS Partners and Employees Mike Hopkins, Director Surface and Upper Air Division Office of Observations Subject: Suspension of Radiosonde Observations at Omaha, Nebraska, and Rapid City, South Dakota, Effective March 20, 2025. Effective immediately, and until further notice, the National Weather Service (NWS) is temporarily suspending weather balloon observations at Omaha, NE and Rapid City, SD, due to a lack of Weather Forecast Office (WFO) staffing. Offices will perform special observations as needed. The stations have the following NWS Upper Air site identifier and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Upper Air site number: UPPER AIR SITE Omaha, NE Rapid City, SD WMO ID 72558 72662 NWS ID KOAX KUNR The NWS launches weather balloons twice daily from 100 upper air sites throughout the United States, Caribbean, and the Pacific Basin. Radiosondes are instruments attached to weather balloons that send back a wide range of upper atmospheric data to support weather forecasts, including temperature, dew point, relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed, and wind direction. Radiosondes are one of many technologies that collect earth observation data for weather modeling and forecasting. Data is also collected from instruments aboard commercial aircraft, surface observing stations, satellites, radars, and buoys. If you or your organization have any questions about these changes, please contact: Susan Buchanan Director of Public Affairs National Weather Service Phone: 202-834-5235 E-mail: susan.buchanan@noaa.gov National Public Information Statements are online at: https://www.weather.gov/notification/

Two more NWS Upper Air Sites have suspended upper air launches - Omaha and Rapid City.

Here are two maps that show the degradation of our upper air network because of helium or staff shortages (or in the case of Chatham, because of coastal erosion).

www.weather.gov/media/notifi...

"... the NWS costs only $7 per citizen to operate each year, yet results in an estimated 10-100 times larger financial return ..."

"Every government organization ... must be subjected to careful oversight ... However, the instrument of wise oversight is the scalpel, not the chainsaw. "

Federal cuts cost key forecasting tool for Albany's National Weather Service After federal job cuts, the National Weather Service does not have enough staff for Albany's twice-daily weather balloon launches.

Federal cuts cost key forecasting tool for Albany's National Weather Service

www.timesunion.com/news/article...