Tue Jul 01 10:40:00 UTC 2025: ## U.S. Military Cuts Off Crucial Weather Data Access, Leaving Hurricane Forecasters and Climate Scientists Scrambling
**Washington D.C.** – In a move that has surprised and alarmed weather forecasters and climate scientists, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has abruptly cut off access to crucial satellite weather data, leaving them without a vital tool for tracking hurricanes and monitoring sea ice. The decision, announced this week, terminates a 40-year practice of sharing data collected by DoD satellites with organizations like the National Hurricane Center and the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
The data, processed by the Navy’s Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, provided real-time insights into the structure and intensity of hurricanes, allowing forecasters to issue more accurate warnings. As recently as June, forecasters used the DoD data to observe Hurricane Erick intensifying rapidly off the coast of Mexico, enabling them to issue timely warnings before it made landfall as a Category 3 storm.
“I was surprised, given how important it is for forecasting hurricanes,” said Brian Tang, a hurricane researcher at the University at Albany. “This is data that forecasters use regularly.”
The DoD has remained tight-lipped about the reasons behind the decision, with a spokesperson for the U.S. Space Force stating only that the satellites remain functional and will continue to be used internally. While funding cuts are not the issue, cybersecurity concerns are reportedly at the heart of the matter, although the Navy declined to elaborate.
The loss of DoD data also impacts the monitoring of sea ice, which is crucial for understanding climate change and informing decisions about Arctic shipping routes. The National Snow and Ice Data Center, which has relied on the DoD data since 1979, now faces a scramble to transition to an alternative data source from a Japanese satellite.
“This June 30 deadline has really caught us by surprise,” said Mark Serreze, the center’s director. “And so we have to kind of blitz here to get things in order.”
While NOAA has asserted that the loss of data will not impact hurricane forecasts this year, experts warn that the absence of this critical information could lead to gaps in real-time knowledge, potentially leaving forecasters unprepared for rapidly intensifying storms, a growing concern as climate change fuels more extreme weather events. The sudden cut-off and lack of clear explanation from the DoD has left the scientific community questioning the long-term implications for weather forecasting and climate monitoring.
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