By Isabella Torregiani
3:28am PDT, Jun 5, 2025
_
NBC 6 South Florida's chief meteorologist
John Morales is sounding the alarm ahead of the 2025 hurricane season.
According to the longtime weather expert, he can no longer confidently predict major storms due to federal budget cuts to the National Weather Service (NWS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Keep reading to learn how these cuts could impact life-saving forecasts…MORE:
Follow Wonderwall on MSN for more top news
_
Looking back at Hurricane Dorian — the devastating Category 5 storm from 2019 — John Morales says he now questions whether he'd be able to make the same forecast today.
In a
YouTube clip posted on Tuesday, June 3, Morales revisits his previous Dorian coverage, where he accurately predicted the storm would turn and spare Florida a direct hit.
However today, with fewer resources, Morales says he no longer has that level of confidence.
"I am here to tell you that I'm not sure I can do that this year," he warned. "Because of the cuts, the gutting, the sledgehammer attack on science in general."
_
John Morales didn't hold back, calling the federal cuts to NWS and NOAA "a multigenerational impact on science in this country."
He revealed that NWS offices across Central and South Florida are currently 19% to 39% understaffed. Morales also claimed that in the United States, there has been a 17% drop in weather balloon launches — a tool used in storm prediction.
As a result, Morales says, weather forecasts are becoming less reliable. He claims forecasters are now "flying blind," lacking the data they need to accurately understand a hurricane's strength.
_
John Morales further explained his concerns in
an article for NBC 6, stressing that the country is now facing "a combustible mix of a lack of meteorological data and the less accurate forecasts that follow."
He ended his warning with a bleak message: According to Morales, if staffing and resources are not restored at the NWS, there could be a "needless loss of life" this hurricane season.
