On the afternoon of May 21, 2024, a tornado tore across Iowa. It formed in the state’s heartland, gray and wide above the cornfields. Then it began to barrel directly toward the National Weather Service office in Des Moines.
According to Iowa State University meteorology professor William Gallus, the station had a plan.
“If a local office has to take shelter,” Gallus said, “another office takes over the duties.”
That day, the service office in Omaha, Nebraska, assumed the responsibilities of the Des Moines office, tracking the storm while the local staff sheltered in place. After it passed, the Omaha station returned the duties to Des Moines. By then, the storm had changed. The stronger twister was racing through Iowa at 70 mph — faster than meteorologists had predicted.
“By the time the Des Moines employees could get back to their desks and look at what was happening,” Gallus said, “the tornado was almost out of the area. They had not issued one downstream. So here were people who only had two or three minutes of tornado warning.”
When the storm ended, the May 21 tornado had devastated the area southwest of Des Moines, including the city of Greenfield, which crumbled under EF4 winds reaching gusts of 185 mph, according to the National Weather Service. It was one of 125 tornadoes to hit Iowa in 2024 — an all-time record.
For Gallus, the Greenfield tornado highlights the precision and pressure facing today’s weather forecasting employees, especially amid increasing strain on the National Weather Service.
“It’s kind of like spinning a roulette wheel,” he said. “Even with the weather balloons, we know in theory that losing data is going to hurt forecasts. And having weather service offices be understaffed is increasing the chances of something going wrong.”
As winter ends in the Midwest, Iowans are about to be hit with another storm season. But as the National Weather Service grapples with widespread federal layoffs, meteorologists face mounting pressure to respond to severe weather with increasingly dwindling resources.
Since January, federal hiring freezes and layoffs under the Trump administration have deepened staffing shortages at NOAA, the National Weather Service’s parent agency.
In late February, about 10 percent of NOAA’s workforce faced layoffs — mostly probationary workers, including about 375 employees at the National Weather Service, according to the Associated Press. Another round of cuts, reported in March, aims to eliminate 1,000 more jobs, reducing NOAA’s workforce to just 75 percent of its original size.
NWS spokesperson Marissa Anderson declined to comment on staffing cuts, citing long-standing policy. But U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen of Illinois, a former meteorologist, confirmed in February that meteorologists at the Quad Cities station in Davenport were among those laid off.
Gallus called the Des Moines weather station “lucky” to avoid the recent layoffs, but warned that even relatively untouched weather stations may be feeling the squeeze from hiring freezes. He also noted a general decline in staffing at weather services over the past few years, which may further contribute to the strain.
“It’s almost as though you’ve been getting colds constantly,” Gallus said, “and you’re already weak, and then someone gives you influenza.”
The NWS employs meteorologists at 122 stations to monitor weather and issue alerts. However, some stations have rolled back duties to compensate for staffing issues.
One such change: weather balloon launches. According to the NWS, each of the agency’s offices typically launches two balloons per day, which collect atmospheric data to aid in forecasting. Some stations across the Midwest have been forced to limit launches to once per day or to stop balloon flights entirely. One of these stations in Omaha, Nebraska covers large areas of western Iowa, though no stations within Iowa have reported flight changes.
Stations are also scaling back public training and community outreach. According to Gallus, weather stations often rely on public reports of severe weather and host storm spotter training sessions to inform locals. With fewer staff, many offices have canceled these sessions to focus on forecasting.
Still, Gallus said the public may not notice every cut. He shared that during the Greenfield tornado, he and his students initially panicked when they realized Omaha hadn’t launched a balloon — but found their computer models remained accurate.
“That’s pretty good evidence that most of the time, missing balloon data isn’t the end of the world.”
Des Moines NWS meteorologist Andrew Ansorge didn’t speak to the staffing measures or layoffs. But he reiterated that the most important step Iowans can take to protect themselves remains the same: be alert and think ahead.
“It’s important to think about these things,” he said. “Where are you going to shelter?”
Ansorge also encouraged Iowans to receive weather warnings by multiple means. He suggested monitoring severe weather through both an app and a television or radio station. Gallus agreed with doubling up.
“The public may want to pay extra close attention to the weather,” he said. “Especially in situations where the weather service can’t get the warning out quite as often. If you know a tornado’s at the county to your west, pay attention. Because maybe for us, we’ll get three minutes of warning instead of 15.”
Gallus said the National Weather Service has time-tested systems in place to keep Iowans safe — even as additional strain befalls the employees there.
“There are a lot of unknowns,” he said. “But the weather service has hardworking people, and they do incredible things.”
This article was originally published in Little Village’s May 2025 issue.
