The National Weather Service ended 24/7 operations at its Cheyenne forecasting office due to a staffing shortage and cuts by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The office, which forecasts weather conditions for the southeast corner of Wyoming, does not have enough meteorologists to staff the overnight shift. As with other DOGE-related cuts to services, federal officials aren’t providing many details.
In response to several written questions — including what the reduced services will mean for forecasting for two interstates that move freight for many industries in the Cheyenne office’s coverage area, or if Wyoming’s only other national forecasting office will absorb the overnight duties — the National Weather Service’s parent agency provided a statement.
“The National Weather Service continues to meet its core mission of providing life-saving forecasts, warning, and decision support services to the public, our partners and stakeholders,” Kim Doster with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wrote in the statement.
“In the near term, NWS has updated the service level standards for its weather forecast offices to manage impacts due to shifting personnel resources. These revised standards reflect the transformation and prioritization of mission-essential operations, while supporting the balance of the operational workload for its workforce. NWS continues to ensure a continuity of service for mission-critical functions.”
The Cheyenne office’s coverage area includes Wyoming’s Albany, Carbon, Converse, Goshen, Laramie, Niobrara and Platte counties, as well as the western Nebraska panhandle.
‘Rarely quiet’
The area produces “an extremely diverse and rarely quiet set of forecast challenges,” which range from blizzards and snow squalls to very low humidity and high, erratic winds ideal for wildfire combustion, according to a NWS Cheyenne website.
The area where Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming meet is also a hotspot for hail — some have even dubbed it “Hail Alley.”
“Storms can produce anything from giant destructive hail to plowable amounts of small to medium sized hail,” the NWS website states.
This time of year, between May and June, the area sees a short river flood season thanks to spring runoff. Flash flooding from thunderstorms and burn scars are responsible for most hydrological challenges in the area. Following the 2020 Mullen Fire, which burned over 175,000 acres west of Laramie, “there are ongoing issues with flash flooding and mudslides in the sensitive ecology left behind,” according to the website.
“Constant situational awareness and quick thinking are essential to successful hydrological forecasts and warnings here!”
While the Cheyenne office’s coverage area includes a sparse population compared to its geographical footprint, it also includes two high-traffic corridors — Interstate 80 and Interstate 25.
The Wyoming Department of Transportation “relies on quick, accurate and localized weather forecasting, and the National Weather Service is one of our partners in providing that information to your employees and the general public,” the agency wrote in a statement to WyoFile.
“We are working with our partners, including our contracted meteorologist team at Day Weather, to determine the potential impacts of an overnight closure to the Cheyenne NWS office.”
Help from neighbors
As for weather advisories, will people in the Cheyenne office’s area still receive notice in the event of hazardous or extreme weather?
“The answer is yes,” Tom Fahy, legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, told WyoFile.
“Because while there’ll be no staff working overnight in Cheyenne, the [NWS] offices adjacent and around you will be monitoring the conditions,” he said.
That includes offices in Riverton — the only other NWS forecasting station in Wyoming — as well as Rapid City, North Platte and Boulder.
Staffing challenges
About 600 employees left the National Weather Service between 2010 and 2025, Fahy said. Roughly 600 more have left the agency in the first 90 days of the Trump administration.
About 100 probationary NWS employees were fired just after inauguration, Fahy said, which includes meteorologists, hydrologists and technical specialists. Two hundred more lost their jobs on Valentine’s Day, alongside an uncounted throng of other federal employees. Another 300 cashed out on early retirement.
Altogether, that’s meant several other NWS offices across the country do not have enough meteorologists to staff an overnight shift, as the Washington Post reported last week.
There is an upside, Fahy said, to having surrounding NWS offices monitoring the Cheyenne area during the overnight shift — it amounts to more eyes. But ultimately, the better solution, Fahy said, is for Congress to fully fund the National Weather Service and for the Trump administration to make an exception to the federal hiring freeze.
“For the price of a cup of coffee, and times that by the population of the United States. That’s the budget for the entire National Weather Service for one year,” Fahy said, which comes out to approximately $1.25 billion.
“If we all pass the hat and get $3.50 a piece, you’ve got solid weather operations for weather service,” he said.
Wyoming’s delegation has largely backed the Trump administration’s undertaking to shrink the federal government. Meanwhile, some of their Republican neighbors in Congress have successfully pushed back on DOGE cuts to NWS operations.
After Nebraska’s all-GOP delegation pressed the White House to restore the agency’s ability to deploy weather balloons in their home state, the Trump administration decided to fund more staff, according to the Nebraska Examiner.
Neither Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis nor Rep. Harriet Hageman responded to WyoFile’s request for comment.
This sure saved a lot of money to pay for that 3.8 trillion dollar Big Beautiful, Bill that’s coming. It’s almost as if letting Elon ransack the government and secure more lucrative contracts for himself actually had nothing to do with saving money, as it was advertised.
Generations past did not have the flow of traffic and transport of goods that is now the norm. You really need to wake up and get in touch with reality instead assuming their is a bed of roses for you from the ridiculous cuts made by a group of incompetent uneducated kids at the discretion of a self serving unelected hack.
Larry… you defend everything this lunatic administration does. Can you name one cut that was bad?
And when someone dies because of untimely weather notifications will you still say everything will be fine?
We will be fine. We lived for generations without round the clock weather “monitoring”.