Sierra-adjacent NWS offices no longer staffed 24/7

[frozenintime]

via Daniel Swain (https://weatherwest.com/archives/43392):

"Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that a growing number of local NWS offices were so extremely understaffed that they are no longer operating 24 hours per day (i.e., they are completely shutting down at night). Additionally, far more offices are now understaffed to the point that most/all supervisory and coordinating science staff roles (including critical “Meteorologist In Charge” and “Warning Coordination Meteorologist” roles, as well as technical and repair staff roles (for weather radars and surface stations), are now vacant and cannot be filled (due to severe funding cuts as well as a total hiring freeze–even in emergencies).

In an extraordinary development, the list of NWS field locations no longer operating 24 hours per day includes two in California: the Sacramento and Hanford offices, which together serve not only the CA capital city but also the entire Central Valley and surrounding foothill/mountain regions, including the Sierra Nevada west of the crest.

For those wondering: yes, this is as bad as it sounds. While adjacent NWS offices are, undoubtedly, stepping in to help and gap fill wherever and whenever they can, it’s important to remember that most of those offices are now, too, understaffed. The NWS in California, and elsewhere, is now being stretched critically thin–and there is a growing risk of consequential mistakes being made during extreme weather events (including extreme fire weather events, like the historic Los Angeles event back in January amid which the NWS office in Oxnard played a pivotal and life-saving role). In California, the lack of 24/7 NWS field office operation across a vast region extending across much (or even most) of the California interior is, simply put, a ticking time bomb (and I don’t say that lightly). We’re now entering fire season, and the region above includes a large fraction of the most fire-prone regions of the state (outside of the SoCal coastal chaparral zone); it also includes nearly the entirety of the Sacramento and San Joaquin watersheds that drain into the Central Valley and ultimately into the Delta (which could become a major problem, beginning again in the fall and winter, should major flood risk arise), not to mention the vast majority of California’s most productive agricultural lands.

Together with the ongoing dismantling of disaster and emergency response capacity by the federal government–including FEMA and other relevant entities–my colleagues and I are alarmed that California, along with other states/regions, may be much more vulnerable to weather and wildfire-related hazards for the foreseeable future. My sincere hope is that, following increasing public outcry and dissension by Congress, there will be a rapid resolution to this developing crisis. But in the meantime, I’ll continue to keep folks updated as best I can as to developments at the federal level and what the weather, climate, wildfire, and general disaster-related implications may be for Californians."