CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (Iowa’s News Now) — “You can think of it like a puzzle and you’re losing pieces and if you lose a couple pieces, you know, it’s not too big of a deal. But you start losing more and more pieces over time that can be problematic.”
That’s the concern from Ray Wolf, who retired from the National Weather Service after nearly 40 years with the agency. Now, the NWS is working with less information after cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Those cuts included slashing weather balloon launches at 13 locations in the county. Those balloons are launched twice a day from around 100 sites around the U.S. to provide real-time weather observations. That information goes into the models and can be critical for severe and winter weather forecasts…