The weather has always been something of a hobby of mine. I’ve been fascinated by it since I was a kid — it was very common for me to spend hours a day not on Cartoon Network, but on The Weather Channel.

I might be something of a nerd.

I’d actually considered going into weather as a career a few times. I took a few college level meteorology courses, and ultimately decided that my love of the maps and models did not outweigh the rigorous and burdensome math that is a secret part of the job.

Believe it or not, there’s actual science behind the scenes — it’s not just pattern recognition.

These days, I do the weather forecasts and, usually, the storm articles for The Express as one of my many duties here, and it’s a good mix where I get to do mostly fun stuff without needing to do much of the math.

Like many, many aspects of our lives, however, the shake-up at the government level is turning weather forecasting on its head.

The last several days, it has been reported widely that Elon Musk and his Dept. of Government Efficiency have been accessing systems at NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — the National Weather Service is part of them). Wednesday night, a story broke that NOAA is now banned from communication with foreign nationals.

Allegedly, staff cuts and changes are also underway amid the greater restructuring efforts. While climate data has not been affected yet, it would be in line with many of the other mass deletions of information and studies that have already struck other departments.

This will have a direct impact on people in this area, politics aside.

Most of us — if not all — have never lived in a world where weather forecasts are restricted information, but that is precisely what Project 2025 called for. While it remains uncertain how much Trump and crew are necessarily going to follow that blueprint, it bears mentioning that Trump does appear to be at least drawing inspiration from it.

Imagine not being able to look up the forecast for the weekend in the summer to know if you should go camping, or farmers not being able to know if it will be dry in a week to cut chop.

Imagine not being able to dress appropriately for the day’s temperature or knowing what to pack for a vacation states or countries away.

Imagine schools not knowing whether to go on delay or do early dismissal to keep your kids safe, or PennDOT not having accurate info to make road safety assessments.

More likely: everyone will still be able to access forecasts, but you’ll have to pay a private business for the privilege, via yet another subscription service to something that used to be a basic part of our lives — essentially another tax.

As for the paper, I would like to remind you that our weather page relies on data from the National Weather Service: we use it for the forecast, for our climateological records section and typical rainfall totals, and I use weather models such as the GFS (Global Forecast System), which is run by NWS, for mid- and long-range predictions. Leveraging the experience of NWS meterologists in the forecast discussions is also important.

All of this is at risk, now.

Far be it from me to say that the government we had was perfect. Certainly, there is wasteful spending and seeking to excise that is valid and defensible.

But of all the various agencies amongst the alphabet soup, NOAA should be held in far higher regard by the average citizen and politician alike, and its loss or damage would be a grave blow to our quality of life in a myriad of ways that most would never even realize until it was too late.

Weather doesn’t care about your politics. It’s going to rain or snow on the left, the right and everyone in between all the same. Hurricanes and floods will strike where they will regardless of whether we know about them or not — the only difference is measured in lives, and the property damage that can be averted by knowing ahead of time to take precautions.

Keep an eye on NOAA as things progress and, if you can, express to your politicians that it is something that you would like to see protected and kept intact.

Maintaining accurate forecasting and climateological data is something that we should all be united by, not just your friendly local weather nerds.

Arianna McKee is the editorial page editor and design editor at The Express.