AUSTIN (KXAN) — As Texas heads into its second rainy season of the year, regional vacancies at the National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio office are only increasing two months after deadly flooding killed at least 135 people, a KXAN investigation found.
“This isn’t the last natural disaster we will have,” said Congressman Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin. “We want to be better prepared for the next one.”
A week after the July 4 flooding in Kerr County, Doggett wrote a letter urging the NWS to fill 126 job openings he said were described as “permanent, mission-critical field positions.” However, more than two months later, the agency’s Austin/San Antonio office, located in New Braunfels, is operating with even fewer resources. About 26% of the positions it once had are currently vacant, according to online staffing disclosures.
Doggett’s district covers Travis County, where July flooding killed nine people.
Since May, he has sent a half dozen letters to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the parent organization of the NWS, and its umbrella agency, the U.S. Department of Commerce. Doggett said he spoke directly with NWS Director Ken Graham a week after the flooding to discuss the agency’s “reduced capabilities.”
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NWS statement to KXAN (KXAN Graphic/Wendy Gonzalez) -
NWS statement to KXAN (KXAN Graphic/Wendy Gonzalez)
In July, KXAN first reported the Austin/San Antonio office had six vacancies. Those positions still haven’t been filled. Since then, an electronic systems analyst is no longer publicly listed as being part of that office, according to an internet archive comparison of public staffing records from July and September. KXAN reached out to the analyst to ask if he is still with the NWS but did not immediately hear back. This article will be updated with any response we receive.
That analyst has more than 18 years of experience with radar and IT systems, according to his LinkedIn profile. Online, he described his role as overseeing “the management, maintenance, and technical support for critical weather surveillance systems, including the WSR-88D Doppler radar and Automated Surface Observing Systems.”
“My role involves supervising a team of technicians, managing IT networks, and ensuring the reliability of equipment essential for meteorological analysis and public safety,” the analyst said in his biography.
‘Evaluating the need for additional personnel’
The Austin/San Antonio office now lists seven “vacant” positions in the following sectors: management and administrative, lead meteorologist, meteorologist, hydrology and observations and electronic technician.
Those openings are an increase from the three vacancies listed in March and four in July 2024, according to an internet archive search.
“The National Weather Service is carefully evaluating the need for additional personnel and posting jobs to fill positions deemed necessary for operational continuity,” said National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration NWS spokesperson and meteorologist Erica Grow Cei. “These jobs are being offered as needed to ensure both the safety of Americans and the responsible use of tax dollars.”
The NWS Austin/San Antonio office’s public staffing records only lists “vacant” next to the open positions. The agency would not confirm the job titles for the positions yet to be filled.
“We don’t have any additional information at this time,” Grow Cei said.
‘Why hide these documents?’
For Doggett, the ongoing lack of answers is a problem.
“There’s no excuse for not at least identifying the positions that are vacant,” he said in response to the NWS’ statement.
While the NWS wouldn’t confirm job titles, a KXAN Investigates review of archived staff records found the following Austin/San Antonio office staff positions that were previously listed but aren’t currently: Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM), Lead Meteorologist, Meteorologist, Science & Operations Officer (SOO), Electronic Systems Analyst (ESA), Observing Program Leader (OPL) and Electronic Technician.
In his letters, Doggett asked for records related to these vacancies, including all chat, call and shift logs and radar archives from July 2-July 5 at the NWS Austin/San Antonio office.
“Texans still do not have a complete and accurate understanding of the NWS’s actions before, during, and after the disaster,” Doggett wrote in a Aug. 27 letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who oversees NOAA and the NWS.
Doggett says his request to see records is being “stonewalled.” He accused the administration of having “something to hide concerning its handling of this tragedy.”
“If there is nothing to hide,” Doggett wrote this week in a letter dated Sept. 15, “why hide these documents?”
That same day, the U.S. Department of Commerce responded to Doggett’s repeated inquiries dating back to May 20. The agency reiterated forecast offices in Austin/San Antonio and San Angelo had “extra personnel on duty to support operations and timely delivery of alerts.”
“Typically, NWS offices in the area would be staffed with one to two forecasters on duty overnight; however, NWS took proactive steps to significantly surge staffing to five personnel,” U.S. Department of Commerce Acting Assistant Secretary for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs, Will Turner, said in a letter to Doggett dated Sept. 15.
The regional weather forecast offices in Austin/San Antonio and San Angelo “were able to successfully provide decision support services to local partners, including those in the emergency management community, during the disaster,” Turner added.
“Outreach can hardly be called successful if the intended recipient, like the Kerr County emergency manager, was not reached,” Doggett countered in a response letter sent the same day. “I have reason to question this claim unless it is backed by NWS Chat and call logs that show successful attempts at contacting emergency managers and other local leaders, including camp directors.”
‘Contributing factor to at least some loss of life’
“As time passes,” former NOAA Administrator, Dr. Richard Spinrad, told KXAN in July, “I’m more and more convinced that we’re going to have to look carefully at, specifically, the impacts of the vacancy of the Warning Coordination Meteorologist.”
That WCM is a key position responsible for communicating directly with local officials, especially during severe weather, Spinrad said.
The role is described as the “primary interface” between weather forecast offices and local emergency management and public safety officials, according to a NWS presentation.
The position has been vacant since April 30 and is not listed under current staffing. The Austin/San Antonio office’s previous WCM, Paul Yura, held that position for more than 32 years. He took an early retirement as part of federal budget cuts.
In April, Yura said he was “sad” to leave the agency “a few years earlier” than he had planned.
“I would be surprised if that vacancy is not a contributing factor to at least some loss of life,” Spinrad said.
In July, following the Kerr County flood, KXAN reached out to Yura – who referenced a hiring freeze in his retirement message to the media – but he referred questions back to the NWS.
A full-time WCM position is currently being advertised to fill an opening at the Austin/San Antonio office in New Braunfels. The WCM will “serve as the principal interface” between the offices and the public, conduct “area-wide preparedness planning,” serve as supervisor when designated and, not more than a quarter of the time, act as senior forecaster, according to a job description posted on USAJobs.gov.
The job posting was listed on Sept. 10 — just over a week after KXAN asked NOAA why the position had not been filled — and is advertised to close on Sept. 23. The position pays between $124,531 and $186,700 per year, according to the listing.
‘Not doing the job’
Critics, like Doggett, have placed some blame for the death toll and flood response on the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency federal cuts. At the time, DOGE was led by Elon Musk.
“I believe that we’re seeing in the loss of life here some of the real cost of the slash-and-burn approach [of] just trying to build up a body count there of people removed from the National Weather Service,” Doggett said. “Vacancies never filled.”
The White House and NWS both have previously pushed back on that, saying the agency did its job, timely warnings were sent out and it had enough people to support to local emergency officials.
“These offices were well-staffed,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on July 7. “In fact, one of the offices was actually overstaffed. They had more people than they needed. So any claim to the contrary is completely false.”
As the NWS looks to re-hire essential positions, Spinrad expects immediate staffing needs to be filled first — like the southeast for hurricanes and the northwest for wildfires, he said in a recent phone conversation, reaffirming his belief that budget cuts played in a role in the flood response.
“They’re not doing the job of filling these positions,” said Doggett, referring to the NWS. “And, I just hope we don’t have another disaster in the area — because they’re really not fully prepared to handle it.”
KXAN reached out to the White House for comment. An administration official reiterated what the NWS told us, saying the agency is carefully evaluating the need for additional personnel.
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