This week was a bitter pill to swallow as a large number of National Weather Service employees took (early) retirement as a part of continued downsizing of the federal government. Scores of these employees the IEM (read myself) has interacted with over these past 25 years as we collaborated on datasets and tools to further our collective goals of supporting science, industry, and the public. The featured picture is of just those retiring from the Des Moines office. Roger, second from the left, was one of my idols growing up in Eastern Iowa and a big reason I got into Meteorology. Craig was an extremely avid IEM advocate, passionate about creating quality climate products, and provided invaluable feedback on IEM website tools in this space. Shane and Brad were on the team, with myself, that created the instant messaging system the NWS used to collaborate with partners (named IEMChat then NWSChat). An incredible amount of knowledge and expertise forecasting Iowa's weather is now gone. With about 25% of the total NWS workforce now gone nationwide and perhaps more cuts coming, the organization, services, and datasets of the NWS are under going major changes. Goodbye NWS Friends.
- daryl

Voting:
Good = 53
Bad = 0
Abstain = 2

Tags:   nws