In Reply to: Giant ‘heat storms’ are scorching the Earth. This is the story of posted by mh on October 20, 2026 at 10:26:29
The Trump administration’s cuts to weather satellites will set the country back nearly a decade, experts say. The loss of data used to observe, forecast and research extreme weather could prevent the country from making major advances in weather prediction in the coming years.
This finding comes from a new report released Friday from the Government Accountability Office, and a letter sent to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Monday from Democratic lawmakers.
The GAO report details ramifications from budget cuts made to the program for developing new geostationary weather satellites. These large satellites orbit the Earth at a fixed distance, centered over specific spots on the planet. They take the imagery of swirling clouds and storm systems that people see on the evening news or on their weather app each day. The data gathered by these satellites are crucial to issuing accurate weather forecasts.
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The budget reductions are aimed at taking the program from $19.6 billion in lifecycle costs to $13 billion. But they introduce the risk of a gap in satellite coverage between when the first of the current geostationary satellites, known as the GOES-R series, reaches the end of its service life, and when the first new satellite comes online in 2032, the GAO found.
Any gap in satellite coverage, which the GAO warned could last for several months, would deprive weather forecasters of vital weather observations and could reduce forecast accuracy.