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| Tornado destruction in London, Kentucky over the weekend. Despite Trump administration staff shortages at the National Weather Service, the local NWS office was adequately staffed to provide warnings, but they did have to scramble schedules to make that happen, |
At least 17 of the reported 27 deaths in Friday's tornado occurred in Laurel County, especially in the towns of London and Somerset.
Warnings were issued ahead of the tornado, but the the tornado was a worst case scenario.
It was so strong that it was unsurvivable in some of the hardest hit homes. Plus the twister came through around midnight, when many people were sleeping and thus unaware of any warnings.
The bottom line is the deaths were probably virtually unavoidable whether or not warnings were issued or not.
However, tornado warnings do save lives and the fact that the Kentucky communities had a heads up that a twister was coming probably did save lives
The National Weather Service office in Jackson, Kentucky was responsible for monitoring Friday's storms and issuing warnings when danger arose.
That office is among the worst affected by NOAA's staff and resource cuts and shortages, thanks to the Trump administration's desire to cut services that actually help people and funnel the savings to billionaires. So they can buy more yachts or something.
Jackson is one of a growing number of National Weather Service offices that are unable to cover overnight shifts due to the cutbacks. Jackson's NWS office needs 13 meteorologists. It has nine. The Meteorologist in Charge position in Jackson is vacant.
That, understandably has led to speculation that those cutbacks hindered the Jackson office from issuing adequate warnings. In other words, the accusation goes, Trump's cutbacks literally killed people in Laurel County, Kentucky.
These National Weather Service cutbacks may well result in deaths because of a lack of good forecasting and late or inaccurate warnings,
But in this instance, it looks like that wasn't the case. Thanks mostly to scrambling, extra work and creative scheduling at the Jackson National Weather Service office.
"'We saw the risk many days ago. We were already planning how we would staff days in advance,' said Christian Cassell, one of the office's lead meteorologists. By Thursday, the staff had set up a schedule to stagger shifts Friday 'knowing we were looking at nearly a full day of a threat of severe weather,' he said,
'I'm goad to say we were very well staffed for the entirety of the event," Cassell said."
It also helped that the dangerous Kentucky weather was relatively short lived. In lasted from late Thursday night until early Saturday morning. Before and after that, the weather in Bluegrass State was relatively benign. So conditions didn't need close scrutiny.
That the Jackson, Kentucky NWS office was able to stay on top of the storms Friday and issue timely warnings, doesn't absolve the Trump administration from responsibility for future deaths caused by severe weather and an inadequate National Weather Service staff.
Severe storms and tornadoes have been ongoing in different parts of the nation since last Thursday, and are expected to continue today and tomorrow. When resources are stretched thin, a multi-day severe storm event can exhaust staff and lead to mistakes,
The recent tornado outbreak has been hopscotching between different regions of the nation, so any one National Weather Service office has not been exceptionally burdened, despite the difficulties with short staff nationwide.
The real trouble will hit when a bout of dangerous weather lasts in a particular spot for several days. What if the Jackson National Weather Service office had to deal with dangerous weather that lasted, say, five days in a row?
Scrambling to staff an office during one day of severe storms is one thing. But five in a row?
By the way, a new round of severe storms and tornadoes is forecast to hit Kentucky and surrounding areas tomorrow. The Jackson office, and that of several others, might have to scramble for staffing today.
In the Plains, the National Weather Service was kept busy with at least 30 tornadoes on Sunday. A possibly even worse Plains tornado outbreak is likely today, with Oklahoma City in the middle of the bullseye.
Back in Kentucky, that state seems prone to mega-weather disasters, underscoring the importance of a fully staffed National Weather Service.
In December, 2021 a violent tornado all but destroyed the city of Mayfield, Kentucky, killing 22 people in the community and 64 in Kentucky as a whole
In February, 2025, extensive flooding killed 22 Kentuckians. Less than two months later, in early April, another extreme flood hit Kentucky and surrounding states.
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