LAKELAND, Fla. — This hurricane season could be much different from years past due to federal job cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

The agency began laying off hundreds of probationary employees on Thursday, Feb. 27, including meteorologists. It marks the latest round of mass federal job cuts under the Trump administration.

Like many who have had the chance to fly into the heart of a storm, Kerri Englert says being a flight director for NOAA was a dream come true.

“It was 10 years in the making for me to get to that position,” she said. “I left the active-duty Navy to go back to school to get meteorology credentials so I could pair up what I did in the Navy as a mission commander in an aircraft and my meteorology passion as well.” 

The Navy veteran began working at Lakeland’s NOAA Aircraft Operations Center in 2023. Over the past few months, she heard rumors about the possibility of federal layoffs but didn’t believe it would happen. It wasn’t until she received a termination letter that reality began to set in.

“‘The agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge, and/or skills do not fit the agency’s current needs,’” Englert read. “That hurt. That really hurt. This was not merit-based. I was merely one-and-a-half years into a two-year probationary period. So, to hear that your abilities and knowledge are not needed is kind of gut-wrenching.”

However, Englert said it hurts even more because she believes the public will be impacted, too.

“NOAA — we collect data," she said. "We are the keepers of a lot of that data. However, it is open sourced. It’s available to the public. This is everything from fishery, ocean, everything from your atmospheric daily weather to severe storms.

“So, it’s really to the benefit of the public as far as really understanding the environment you’re in and how NOAA affects you on a day-to-day basis, really.” 

Now, with more than 800 job cuts at NOAA nationwide, including in Lakeland, Englert said she’s concerned about the upcoming hurricane season. The Aircraft Operations Center houses NOAA’s planes, which provide live data during storms.

“Ultimately, because of the layoffs and the cuts, you’re potentially looking at not being able to complete all of the mission objectives — or even the missions themselves — as far as the required flights that we’ve had in order to incorporate this data into the models,” Englert said.

This, she said, could lead to inaccurate information.

“It’s going to result in more uncertainty as well as downstream effects such as greater areas of evacuations, greater areas of emergency response and planning, as well as greater rebuild,” she said. 

Englert said probationary employees played a crucial role in NOAA’s work, not only because it’s what they love to do, but also because their work serves the public.