Trump administration's cuts to science threaten hurricane research, experts say

View from navigator's station aboard a NOAA hurricane hunter plane in the eye of Hurricane Milton on the morning of Oct. 9, 2024. .

Hurricane specialist James Franklin watches Tropical Storm Barbara in the Pacific Ocean on computer screens at the National Hurricane Center on May 31, 2007.

Monitors display the 2025 Atlantic Tropical Cyclone names at the National Hurricane Center during a news conference in Miami, Florida on May 30, 2025.

Flight Director Jonathan Zawislak at his station during a Hurricane Hunter flight into Hurricane Lee on Sept. 10, 2023.

Members of the Air Force Reserve 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron perform preflight equipment checks prior to departing for an atmospheric river mission on Feb. 18 at Mather Air Field, California. This data helps improve the accuracy of weather models and predicting the timing, intensity, and impact of these events.

During an event at Keesler Air Force Base, Biloxi, Miss., on May 6, 2025, Tech. Sgt. Vincent Boyd of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron explains a dropsonde, a tool that collects data from the surrounding atmosphere, then remotely sent back to the aircraft by radio transmission.

A drone under development by NOAA and Dragoon Technology that could be launched from land and spend an extended period of time collecting weather data for hurricane research, pictured in NOAA's Lakeland, Florida hangar in June 2023.

Joshua Wadler, an assistant professor of meteorology at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, is one of the researchers helping the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration develop new research technologies.

At the National Hurricane Center on Sept. 1, 2019, hurricane specialists Eric Blake, Lixion Avila and Michael Brennan discuss Hurricane Dorian with Warren Madden of the U.S. Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters and Peter Black, a research meteorologist with NOAA's Hurricane Research Division in the Office of Atmospheric Research.

The National Hurricane Research Project began in 1956 at warehouse at Morrison Air Force Base, now Palm Beach International Airport. Pictured, Bob Simpson, left, and. Cecil Gentry stand in front of the headquarters..

An assortment of dropsondes used in hurricane research on display in NOAA's aviation hangar in Lakeland, Florida. Dropsondes have been deployed since the 1970s, but have seen major improvements.