The National Weather Service is dramatically scaling back weather balloon launches across the country, cutting a critical source of data for extreme weather forecasting due to staffing shortages.
Balloons will no longer be launched in Omaha, Nebraska, and Rapid City, South Dakota, and twice-daily launches will be cut to once per day for other regional offices scattered throughout Nebraska, South Dakota, Colorado, Michigan and Wyoming, the NWS announced Thursday. Staffing issues have plagued regional weather offices since the Trump administration began layoffs and buyouts, and Thursday’s announcement cited personnel shortages as the reason for the indefinite suspension in balloon launches…