The European Meteorological Agency said US cuts to a key US science agency were hampering the sharing of important observations used around the world for climate monitoring and weather forecasting, AFP reported.
The Trump administration has fired hundreds of employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and deleted government websites with weather and climate data.
Last week, U.S. media reported that the White House planned to go much further, cutting funding for NOAA's climate-related research programs and firing even more scientists who study global warming.
Florence Rabier, director general of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), told reporters that the effects are being felt strongly across the Atlantic and beyond.
"We've been partnering with them since the beginning, 50 years ago, and they're making a huge contribution to the science of weather forecasting and also to climate science," Rabier said in embargoed comments on April 10.
"What we've seen since March is that there's been a decline in the number of observations provided by NOAA because of funding cuts," she said.
Data provided by weather balloons, which monitor temperature, wind speed, humidity and other atmospheric indicators, have declined by about 10 percent, she added.
These observations are "absolutely fundamental" to global forecasting, Rabie said, "because weather knows no boundaries."
"This is important for climate monitoring - every observation lost is a loss for climate monitoring, for satellite calibration, for forecast verification," she said.
"In terms of both the science and the observations of weather and climate, I think this will have an impact on the whole community."
NOAA is one of the world's primary climate monitors, making it a prime target as the Trump administration cuts government agencies and reduces environmental spending.
According to plans reported by US media, about 75% of funding for NOAA's research arm could be eliminated from the 2026 budget - drastic cuts that could be implemented as early as this year.
The administration also wants to cut the budget of the NASA branch that is charged with using satellites to study and monitor the effects of climate change, media reports said.
The European Climate Monitoring Centre (ECMWF) runs the Copernicus Climate Change Office, which uses billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations to support its climate calculations. | BGNES
