The development of Atlas 15, which the Trump administration paused, has resumed. The new database is expected to incorporate more specific data on flash flooding across the entire nation and will incorporate updated climate information.
Photo courtesy of NOAA
The Trump administration has reversed at least one of its actions to remove climate data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s websites with a recent decision to continue development of a database aimed at predicting flash flood risks.
The move is an about-face for the administration that earlier this summer paused work on the second phase of NOAA’s Atlas 15, a database partially funded by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that provides estimates of rain and flash flooding across the entire U.S. The administration’s reversal came amid growing criticism over staffing shortages at NOAA’s National Weather Service after the deadly flash floods in Texas earlier this month.
Atlas 15 is an evolution of NOAA’s Atlas 14, which does not factor in current climate change data. A recent CNN report said that infrastructure design nationwide has been based on the older database’s outdated information regarding the size and frequency of 100-year storm events.
There appears to be no other change in direction, however, concerning administration plans to shutter, transfer or remove public access to other NOAA weather and climate change websites and datasets.
The resurrection of Atlas 15 follows the release of the administration’s proposed budget cuts for fiscal year 2026, which seeks to slash NOAA’s budget by 27%, or about $1.67 billion. Programs on the chopping block include NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and other climate research facilities and programs nationwide. It also follows significant staff cuts at federal agencies, including at NOAA.
According to a recent Union of Concerned Scientists’ (UCS) report, the administration has carried out more than 400 “attacks on science” in its first six months, a number that Rachel Cleetus, UCS senior policy director, told ENR is alarming. “This is such important information,” Cleetus said. “This shouldn’t be political football. This is about safeguarding people’s lives.”
Many transportation agencies use weather information to forecast near-term risk and plan post-event logistics, and the increased availability of data and analytical techniques enable more resilient designs and proactive infrastructure management, according to an American Road & Transportation Builders Association report last year. It noted that NOAA has significantly invested in collecting and forecasting an array of environmental information and has provided public access to its open data on commercial cloud platforms through public-private partnerships.
Climate Science Websites Go Dark
In keeping with the administration’s pull back on climate change research products and services, some of NOAA’s websites and datasets have already gone dark.
These include the shuttering earlier this month of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) site, GlobalChange.gov, which hosts the National Climate Assessments, a congressionally mandated report published every four years to analyze the effects of climate change. In April, the administration disbanded the volunteer team of about 400 scientific experts who were working on the latest report.
Besides those reports, the GlobalChange.gov site hosted a trove of other information that was coordinated across federal agencies, said Cleetus, who was one of the dismissed scientific experts.
Meanwhile, NOAA said in a June 30 statement that it would relocate all current and future research products from Climate.gov to NOAA.gov/climate to consolidate resource.
“This is not initiated through NOAA deciding that this is a better way to store this data. This is moving data based on arbitrary political standards,” Cleetus said. “NOAA has a very strong scientific integrity policy.”
Last month, the agency’s National Environmental Satellite Data, and Information Service (NESDIS)—which provides environmental information products and services—suspended or retired a number of webpages and datasets and said it plans to discontinue others. NESDIS provides information to the National Hurricane Center among other entities.
Among the other NESDIS entities being affected is the Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters site, which provides datasets that are important to insurers and others engaged in understanding communities, Cleetus said.
The changes at NOAA have sparked harsh criticisms from environmental groups, some lawmakers and others.
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS), said in a statement last week following the full committee’s passage of the CJS spending bill, “We worked to maintain critical funding for a wide array of programs–including investments in … NOAA initiatives that protect our nation from severe weather and bolster the health of the Chesapeake Bay.”