In the midst of a deep freeze, local weather forecasts are more important than ever. A cold weather advisory was issued for a 3rd straight day Wednesday, with some areas experiencing wind chills as low as -20 degrees.
Many rely on the NBC 5 Storm Team to receive important advisories and warnings, whether it's for extreme cold temperatures, tornadoes, hail or beach hazards.
"Anytime your phone goes off, you hear that alert, you hear the warning, that's done by your local weather service office," said Storm Team meteorologist Kevin Jeanes.
"We’re communicators. We don't issue the warnings or weather alerts you get to your phone," said Jeanes. "The NWS really simplifies the data collection process for us."
The National Weather Service (NWS) is a branch of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
NWS operates 122 weather forecast offices across the United States, Puerto Rico and Guam, staffed 24/7 with meteorologists dedicated to providing weather expertise at a more-localized level to the public.
The Chicago-area office is located in southwest suburban Romeoville.
Local
In addition to weather monitoring, the agency creates detailed forecasts for airports to support aviation safety and efficiency.
NWS hydrologists monitor water levels and track precipitation to warn the community of impending floods.
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter.
Emergency managers and school superintendents use NWS forecasts to determine school cancellations and initiate response plans, including opening cooling or warming centers.
All of the forecast information provided is free and accessible to the public, paid for through federal tax dollars.
The average American pays about $4 in taxes each year to fund NWS, according to the agency.
"The official records for the climate, and that is how many tornadoes we're getting, temperatures, extremes, rainfall, flooding, most of that data is kept at federal level by NOAA," said Trent Ford, the Illinois State Climatologist.
Ford collaborates with NWS to study climate events and communicate that data with stakeholders, like farmers and city managers, to better mitigate the affects of climate variability.
"Understanding we're in a La Nina winter, what does a La Nina winter mean? We're trying to communicate with farmers that this is probably going to be a wetter spring," said Ford.
"This isn't just a scientific exercise to demonstrate climate change. This is something that's actually informing infrastructure plans. If we're developing subdivisions or redeveloping parts of the city and county, and we need to know how big of a culvert to put in, how big of a retention pond to put in, so new homes put in are not flooded by next rain event, we need to know how rainfall is changing. People want to know that because they want to build the best infrastructure we can."
However, concern is growing and many employees are bracing for potential staffing cuts at the agency. Last week, as part of his promise to shrink the size of the federal workforce, President Donald Trump ordered agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees.
President Trump said the cuts would lead to tremendous savings for the government.
NOAA would not confirm to NBC 5 how many workers in Illinois, if any, had been fired.
"The morale in all of the agencies is terrible," said Andrew Rosenberg, a retired NOAA scientist.
Prior to retiring, Rosenberg served as the deputy director of the national marine fisheries service.
"Like anything else, the information depends upon having the people in place and the continuity to make sure that not only the instrumentation is proper but the interpretation of the data, all of that takes very experienced people who are really dedicated to the work," said Rosenberg.
"This is not something happening in Washington. All those people just laid off, they were not in Washington, they were all around the country," said Rosenberg. "It's your neighbors."
