Stormy Weather Ahead: What Proposed NOAA Budget Cuts Mean for Hurricane Season

Hurricane season is officially here. Even as many communities are still awaiting aid for recovery after a busy 2024 storm season (check out our Surfrider recaps of the impacts of Hurricanes Beryl, Helene, and Milton), all eyes are on the tropics as warmer than average ocean temperatures have already arrived in some parts of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. From now through October 31, conditions are ripe for the next major storm, and the predictions for the 2025 season are, once again, ‘above average’. 

While climate change is heating up the Atlantic and increasing prospects for more devastating storms in the Atlantic and Gulf, proposed budget cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and proposed ‘phasing out’ of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) programs after the 2025 hurricane season are, at best, alarming, and at worst, potentially calamitous for the communities who rely on the data and programs that keep them safe and informed with the threats of climate change driven extreme weather events growing year after year. 

NOAA funding and programs are already on the chopping block in the FY2025 budget with the Senate passage of H.R. 1.  The budget cuts passed in the Senate bill rescind funding for common sense NOAA programs and initiatives in the Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”, Public Law 117-169) that provide tangible benefits to our coasts, including:

• Improving weather forecasting and modeling to more accurately predict extreme weather, natural disasters, and other coastal hazards, including disseminating critical public safety information.
• Streamlining permitting, planning, and review processes, cutting red tape and ensuring agency accountability and transparency.
• Protecting and restoring key coastal habitats that serve as natural buffers and defenses against extreme weather.
• Constructing facilities for the National Marine Sanctuaries System, promoting stewardship, tourism, and commerce in some of our most iconic underwater resources in our ocean and Great Lakes.

Despite claims from leadership that NOAA is ready for the 2025 hurricane season, more than 1,000 NOAA staff have been laid off or resigned so far in 2025, 600 of which worked at the National Weather Service. Many of the offices in the Gulf and Atlantic lack meteorologists, meaning that areas of the country that are known to be hardest hit by hurricane season do not have adequate staffing or expertise to provide emergency weather information this year. Further raising cause for serious concern are plans for the NOAA budget, which is targeted to be cut by nearly 27% under the President’s current proposal. A large portion of the cuts are directly aimed at defunding climate and ocean research with the ultimate goal of eliminating the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) Division. OAR provides vital weather information to the public, ensuring that local communities are armed with the best forecasts as soon as possible ahead of natural disasters. Defunding this program will directly endanger our coastlines and communities during hurricane season, all but ensuring these events will be more destructive, costly, and deadly in the future. 

Storms are already becoming more dangerous due to warming waters from climate change and their implications on rapid intensification. Marine waters in the Florida Everglades reached 98 degrees in late May, more than 10 degrees higher than average water temperatures ahead of the Atlantic hurricane season, providing high-octane fuel for the next storm. In the likely event that a future storm intensifies from a Category 1 to Category 4 or 5 in a very short period of time, the lack of staffing and lack of communication or data around that rapid change will be a matter of life and death for our coastal communities. Accurate, timely forecasting is urgently necessary ahead of storms so local and county disaster managers are able to track and communicate risks and emergency information in real time to their respective communities. In short, this funding saves lives. 

Threats to Key NOAA Resilience Programs that Naturally Buffer Storm Impacts

Beyond simply defunding the programs that provide critical weather information we need during hurricane season, there are potential funding cuts to NOAA programs aimed at bolstering coastal resilience and shoring up our natural defenses against hurricanes and tropical storms. For example, the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) Program protects nearly 1.4 million acres of vital coastal and estuarine habitat that provides a buffer or speed bump from storm surge and flooding during hurricanes, pathways for inland migration of wetland habitats due to sea level rise, and sequester atmospheric carbon, all while serving as classrooms for the latest in coastal science and research. Even as legislation has been introduced that would expand and more fully fund this program, proposed budget cuts would significantly decrease capacity to manage these important coastal places that help make our communities more resilient in the wake of stronger, more intense hurricanes. 

The budget cuts would also eliminate grants for the Coastal Zone Management Program, which provides funding for states to administer their own coastal programs. Over the years, states have utilized these funds to develop shoreline protection plans, address localized coastal hazards, protect and restore degraded coastal habitats, build resilient storm recovery policies, and provide guidance on sea level rise science. Cuts to CZMA grants gut the initiatives and resources that are crucial to help protect coastal states and communities most likely to be impacted by hurricanes and climate change driven storms. States will be left without the funding they need to shore up defenses along their shorelines ahead of the next storm. 

The National Marine Sanctuaries Program, which protects more than 629,000 square miles of some of the richest and most biodiverse habitats in our oceans, is also threatened. From the coral reefs of the Florida Keys to the Olympic Coast of Washington to the waters of the Great Lakes, these underwater parks protect ecosystems that are the backbone of local and regional economies and communities throughout the coastal U.S.. They also provide a host of climate resilience benefits, both mitigating the impacts of climate change and supporting long-term adaptation. Lush seagrass beds, abundant kelp forests, labyrinths of mangroves, and mosaics of salt marsh and wetlands all sequester carbon, providing real climate mitigation benefits, while also helping to protect nearby coastlines from the impacts of storms. Despite tangible climate and economic benefits of the National Marine Sanctuaries Program from coast to coast, there have been significant staff layoffs and office closures under the Trump administration. In tandem with potential funding cuts, the marine protected areas that play a vital role in mitigating the impacts of our next climate change-fueled disaster along our coasts will be severely diminished. 

These are just a few of the programs that may be on the chopping block in the FY2026 budget. Gutting these NOAA programs, and eliminating their staff and capacity to serve the American public all but ensure that this and future hurricane seasons will be more dangerous for our beaches and the people who live near them. 

Take Action to Protect NOAA Funding Today

NOAA staff and programs are under attack, and you can help ensure coastal communities are safe and informed this hurricane season. Sign Surfrider’s Action Alert urging your representatives to protect NOAA funding in the federal budget.