As the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season approaches—with predictions remaining above average—meteorologists are raising red flags not about storms, but about a worsening data crisis.
Crucial forecasting tools are being dismantled. Saildrones, unmanned vehicles that once penetrated hurricanes to provide real-time storm data, have been grounded. And last week, news broke that NOAA and Defense Department satellites will soon stop transmitting microwave sensor data—scans that account for roughly half of all critical microwave data used to monitor storms, especially at night.
Public outcry delayed the shutdown, but not for long: the heart of hurricane season begins August 1, and the data will not be available.
Making matters worse, the Trump administration’s proposed 2026 budget slashes funding to NOAA, gutting its research divisions and threatening to eliminate its Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research entirely—a 75% budget reduction. Key labs like the National Severe Storms Laboratory and the Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory (home to the Hurricane Research Division) are in jeopardy.
These institutions have made groundbreaking advances, such as improving rapid-intensification forecasting and developing accurate wind-measurement models. Without them, forecasters will struggle to provide timely, accurate warnings—just as climate change accelerates storm severity.
We may one day look back at 2024’s record-setting forecast accuracy as a golden age of hurricane preparedness. Unless changes are reversed, we’re heading into the storm blind.
