Tom Fahy is the legislative director at the union that represents NWS employees. He says all four NWS offices in Michigan are short at least two meteorologists. But Marquette and Grand Rapids are the hardest hit.
Almost half the meteorologist positions in Marquette are vacant. And Grand Rapids is down by five. Fahy says, with remaining staff stretched thin, mistakes can happen.
“Someone gets tired. Someone gets exhausted.
Someone is like, ‘Oh, I just closed my eyes for a minute. I just need to refresh my eyes just for a second.’ And then that split instance of a second, that's when a what they call a hook signature echo could appear on the radar screen. And that's a tornado.”
Fahy says the Trump Administration’s decision to re-fill 126 of the nearly 600 critical positions lost is welcome news, but hardly enough.
